Andrew Lee reviews the Murakami novel in The Japan Times
Ryu Murakami is known for the sex-drugs-and-violence style of his fiction and “Coin Locker Babies” has it all.
Published in 1980 Murakami’s dystopian novel has been described as a cyberpunk coming-of-age tale, and it’s easy to see why.
Murakami was projecting several years into the future when he envisioned Tokyo in the late 80s as a violent town with a toxic heart, where criminals and social outcasts congregate. But there is little here that is actually “cyber”: technology is never part of the story. Instead, it’s a punk’s-eye view of the near future where anarchy is on the agenda — a tale of abandonment and revenge, and how when opposites attract the results can be catastrophic.
