Sixty-Nine
By Ryu Murakami
A side-splittingly funny coming-of-age novel set in the Japan of the sixties
In a small, inconsequential city in Japan, all that matters to 17-year-old Kensuke Yazaki and his friends is girls, rock music and, to a much lesser extent, school. Told at high speed and with irresistible humour by Kensuke himself, this is the story of their 1969, as they engage in heated conversations about Marxism, Rimbaud, Godard, the Beatles and the Stones, set up a barricade in their school, organise a rock festival and map out a highly successful strategy in girl-winning. This is a young Japan entirely turned towards the West, pervaded by Western music, where the girls have nicknames pulled from famous British films, but still locked in a fight with the rigid post-war conservatism of the older generation.
Translated by Ralph McCarthy
Cover illustration by David Pearson
192 pp
Published 41403
ISBN 9781908968463
B-Format Paperback
