Popular Hits of the Showa Era
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Six aimless young men and six tough-as-nails middle-aged women share a Tokyo neighborhood in uneasy proximity. The men are louche but seemingly harmless, their days consumed by drinking, singing karaoke, and avoiding responsibility. The women are formidable, organized, and increasingly annoyed. When an incident of escalating stupidity sparks an intergenerational war, the battle for control of the neighborhood spirals into violence that is both horrifying and laugh-out-loud funny. Ryū Murakami's most irreverent novel uses the rivalry as a vehicle for savage social satire — skewering Japanese generational politics, gender dynamics, and the particular absurdity of men who have confused uselessness with freedom. A wickedly funny novel about what happens when the people who run the neighborhood get tired of the people who just live there — and decide to do something about it.
