A worm through my books

I'm currently procrastinating about the past few JOUR1111 lecture reviews so I thought that it'd be nice to do a book review as well, I love books. 

The book I'm going to review is Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami.

Ryu Murakami - Coin Locker Babies

I finished reading this novel a few months back. Like Murakami's other novels, this one did not disappoint me one bit. 

Coin Locker Babies is a novel about 2 orphaned boys - Kikuyuki (or Kiku for short) and Hashio (or Hashi for short). Kiku and Hashi were abandoned by their mothers in coin lockers at a Tokyo train station when they were born. They grew up in the same orphanage, where Kiku, who was the tougher one, would come to defense of Hashi every time he was bullied. They were both adopted by the same couple - the Kuwayamas, later in life. While they were growing up in their new home, they often ran around exploring their surroundings. On one such adventure, they came across an abandoned area and a vagrant - Gazelle. This was where they learnt about a secret military weapon, DATURA, which was abandoned long ago.

Through growing up, Kiku aspired to be a pole vaulter whilst Hashi began being obsessed and experimenting with sounds, especially so after their visits to the psychiatrists. Upon turning 16, Hashi had already ran away from home to Tokyo. Kiku and their adopted mother attempted going there to look for him. While there, their mother, unfortunately, suffered a mishap and passed away. Kiku continued living there to look for Hashi. This was where we find out that they were both drawn to an urban wasteland - Toxitown. Here, Hashi has become a bisexual rock star under the employment of a man known as D. Kiku by now is a pole vaulter, though he left his aspirations behind when he came to Tokyo and has found a girlfriend - Anemone, who is a model. 

While Hashi's popularity is rising, with him eventually getting married to his manager, Kiku starts living with Anemone, who has turned her condo into a tropical wonderland for her pet crocodile. We learn that Hashi's voice has a mesmerizing effect on whoever who listens to it, as he searches for the perfect sound to emulate what sounds like his mother's heartbeat. Kiku, on the other hand, continues searching for DATURA in hopes of destroying the very women who abandoned him and Hashi. On their search, many events occur, which would be pointless to express here as it would spoil the very essence of the story.

Do they find their respective mothers? Does Hashi achieve his dreams? Does Kiku find DATURA and destroy everything to start over? Well, all these questions are answered in the book. Obviously, I know how it all ends but telling it here would just take the fun out of reading the book. 

The story told by Ryu Murakami is dark, dirty and surreal. It makes your inside churn and yet, leaves you with a yearning to just keep reading. If you are a fan of these kinda stories, or a fan of Japanese novelists, or just curious, I say, take a shot at reading this book. I absolutely love but well, I could just be biased as I simply adore Ryu Murakami's works. 

READ IT.

PS: I'm about to embark on my next book by Ryu Murakami - 69. Will post a review when I'm done!