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Sayonara, Gangsters
If you've ever despaired of expressing yourself, you'll read Sayonara, Gangsters and understand. Set in a facetious near-future that is both mind-bendingly bizarre and achingly familiar. Sayonara, Gangsters is an inventive novel about language, expression and the creative process that unfolds through hilarious sketches. The peaceful if bizarre life of a poetry teacher is f...more
Hardcover, 224 pages
Published
April 1st 2004
by Vertical
(first published 1982)
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Sometimes writers like to experiment with form or style or storytelling, which is fine by me as long as the story itself isn't sacrificed in the process. Takahashi goes one step further; it's almost as if he is not only experimenting with the writing style, but also with how a person will read his novel. I wish I could give a better description of what I mean.
Within the pages of this novel you will find heartache, murder, hilarity, the absurd, Virgil the refridgerator, a cat who likes Thomas Ma...more
Within the pages of this novel you will find heartache, murder, hilarity, the absurd, Virgil the refridgerator, a cat who likes Thomas Ma...more
This is unlike anything I've ever read, and it was influential and amazing because of it. To put it in perspective, when writing this novel, Takahasi was struggling to regain his understanding of language after a traumatic experience in prison. This resonates throughout the novel, which feels chaotic and eccentric, all because it is from the perspective of an intelligent and learned individual who is just learning the meaning of "truth," perspective, and the complexities of reality. I by no mean...more
This has been sitting on my nightstand for eons. I finally read it, and I did so in one sitting. But, I think this would require several rereadings with a highlighter in hand to really get the gist.
Takahashi sets the scene for a dystopian novel centering around politics, specifically gangster warfare. The narrator is a young man who teaches at The Poetry School, and the novel is presented in three books. My favorite was the first book where the narrator describes the notion of discarding old nam...more
Takahashi sets the scene for a dystopian novel centering around politics, specifically gangster warfare. The narrator is a young man who teaches at The Poetry School, and the novel is presented in three books. My favorite was the first book where the narrator describes the notion of discarding old nam...more
In uno strano futuro dove i gangster sono quasi degli eroi, le persone possono decidere di cambiare il nome che i genitori hanno assegnato loro andando in comune; i vecchi nomi vengono scaricati in un fiume mentre i nuovi vengono spesso alle mani con i proprietari in risse che finiscono nel sangue…di nomi e persone.
Solo grazie a due amanti che decidono di donarsi un nome la situazione migliora ed è così che il protagonista prende il nome di Sayonara, Gangster.
Il nostro insegna poesia in una pi...more
Solo grazie a due amanti che decidono di donarsi un nome la situazione migliora ed è così che il protagonista prende il nome di Sayonara, Gangster.
Il nostro insegna poesia in una pi...more
Who doesn't like novels about people who work in poetry schools, give each other new names after passionate sex, feed cats milk and vodka, and then face down a group of unbelievably murderous gangsters? Occasionally precious but usually charming and hilarious: Sayonara, Gangsters.
"Sayonara Gangsters is one of those rare books that actually defies description. I’ve wanted many times, to encourage friends to read it, but when they inevitably ask what it’s about, and what it’s ‘like’, all I can say is ‘read it’. It’s funny, sure. And beautiful. And slightly insane. And haunting. And heart-breaking. But all those words miss the point. The point is you have to read it. So read it."
Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is illuminated
This recommendation is the only reason...more
Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is illuminated
This recommendation is the only reason...more
Sayonara, Gangsters is strangely enough, about a poet named Sayonara, Gangsters which is set in a futuristic and dsytopic society. It’s a bizarre and tragic journey into his life as a poetry teacher and his life with his lover Song Book.
They inevitably run into the Gangsters. The Gangsters are a group of homegrown terrorists that are more like heroes. They’ve been put on pedestals and legends surround them.
The book itself is unceasingly bizarre, vague, and unfocused. More often then not it’s non...more
They inevitably run into the Gangsters. The Gangsters are a group of homegrown terrorists that are more like heroes. They’ve been put on pedestals and legends surround them.
The book itself is unceasingly bizarre, vague, and unfocused. More often then not it’s non...more
This book is perfectly insane. However, it makes sense in a weird, dizzying way. To call the story full of metaphors would be an understatement, it goes beyond that. If anything, real life is the metaphor for the reality that is in the book. I read it with absolutely no preparation to what would come, bought an used copy with nothing but random letters on the cover. I don't know if it was a smart thing to do, but it sure was...different. I'm sure I'm not making any sense but you go ahead and rea...more
In Sayonara Gangsters, characters include former philosophers that are now talking refrigerators, manic depressive kangaroos, schizophrenic storks, and five gangsters. I enjoyed reading the book, but it was not my favorite. I would rate it a 3 out of 5 because I appreciate the originality, but I would prefer if the book was written as short stories that had more detail about the more interesting characters.
To see more details of my review please click this link: http://japanesefiction.hubpages.c...more
To see more details of my review please click this link: http://japanesefiction.hubpages.c...more
Recensire un libro come "Sayonara, gangsters" potrebbe essere un compito veramente arduo per un lettore occasionale di letteratura giapponese come lo sono io. Potrei scegliere la via più facile e buttare là una manciata di definizioni come "post-modernismo" o "avant-pop", ripresi dalla post-fazione, che danno sempre un tocco "intellettuale" alla recensione (e al recensore). Non sapendo però che cosa intendano indicare precisamente i due termini sopra indicati, mi limiterò ad esporre quelle che s...more
E' un libro strano. A momenti di una poesia struggente, a momenti lirico, a momenti assurdo. Devi lasciarti andare, e basta. Non bisogna aspettarsi di "leggere un romanzo" ma solo di passeggiare tra i pensieri di una persona, a volte incoerente. E non si deve trovare una spiegazione a tutto quello che si legge, anche perch� invece � proprio bello lasciarsi trasportare nella fantasia che modifica la realt�.
It is weird and breaks just about every rule for novels that one can think of, which is pretty cool. It avoids descending into stupidity, but is still weird enough to surprise you as you wander through it. It is also open to a range of interpretations. This is a different book and sometimes hard to relate to, but it is a very cool one with some deep parts to it.
I felt sooo in love with this book. The powerful and innovative style of Gen'ichiro Takahashi is really refreshing, and it blows the reader's mind like a nuclear bomb. Both the style and the plot actually reminded me of "Froth on the Daydream" by Boris Vian, which I warmly suggest to everyone wanting to read something similar.
This was a really fast read. I was able to finish this book in an evening. It seems impossible to describe this book. It is truly like abstract art. It is open to interpretation. It is very experimental and reads like no other story I have ever read. It is just a jumble of all different genres. Its full of passion, comedy, violence, and absurd confusion. I really liked it! Its perfect for the day that you want to experience something totally different. I absolutely adored the characters Caraway...more
Wish I had time to review this more thoughtfully. This is avant-garde fiction that is thought-provoking, playful, and (all-importantly, in my view) maintains enough of a narrative thread to be enjoyably read rather than trudged through dutifully.
Sono shockato, come aver passato tutta la vita ad ascoltare Gianni Morandi e poi spararsi "Joe's Garage" di Frank Zappa. Non ero preparato. Illuminante.
Sayonara, Gangsters is a Richard Brautigan book if Richard Brautigan was still alive and Japanese.
I loved this book. It is written in a way that brings language an eventful poetic anti narrative.
essentially froth, with a couple of cool deadpan lines.
Written very interestingly, but not sure I got it.
One of my absolute favorites of all time.
Apr 05, 2013
Clark
added it
Really neat!
Murakami stole a lot of stuff from this book and took all the credit too. The chapters are very short, sometimes only half a page, so it doesn't take long to read. Makes you scratch your head at the end when you try to work out what it all means. Interesting though.
Apr 04, 2013
Nick
added it
Not sure how to rate this.
I think I have an allergy to "edgy postmodern" fiction. Because I started this book, like so many other books in the genre, mildly amused. But come about halfway through the book I felt like the CIA was waterboarding me. Not really funny, not critical, not "hip", just some lousy, ADHD-riddled pastiche and empty calories. And I love Pynchon, don't get me wrong, but this is just bad, formulaic imitation.
I can't really explain how much I enjoyed this book. I want to teach it in every class, & buy it for every single person in the world. This, as they say, blew my shit right up.
I have a feeling the reason this isn't better known is because its publisher is a general interest Japanese publisher--manga, erotica, sci-fi, & lit--& so the design is a bit flashy, and the font a bit gimmicky.
I have a feeling the reason this isn't better known is because its publisher is a general interest Japanese publisher--manga, erotica, sci-fi, & lit--& so the design is a bit flashy, and the font a bit gimmicky.
A sort of japanese richard brautigan - it was ok, but I think that it loses something in translation, and wasn't really all that enlightening or interesting to begin with.
But if you go in for that sort of thing...
But if you go in for that sort of thing...
Occasionally entertaining, mostly frustrating postmodern novel about art and archetypes. Good enough to be affecting, which means depressing in postmodern lit. Stay away if you're feeling fragile.
A paradigm of modern experimental fiction. Impossible to account for the fluidity of the book, and it's weird charm.
Compared to Brautigan's Trout Fishing, it's definitely as canonical for Japanese PoMo.
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