Coin Locker Babies
Coin Locker Babies ( Japanese コ イ ン ロ ッ カ ー ・ ベ イ ビ ー ズ Koin rokkā beibīzu ) is a novel by Ryū Murakami from 1980. The German translation was published in 2015 by Septime-Verlag.
content
It is relatively common in Japan for mothers to get rid of unwanted babies by putting them in a coin locker. Most of the time, these babies then die a painful death. The boys Kiku and Hashi, born in 1972, can be saved from such a death by fortunate circumstances and grow up in a foster family . However, it becomes apparent early on that they are traumatized and cannot cope with a normal, middle-class life. Kiku became a successful pole vaulter in the late 1980s and Hashi began a career as a singer . Both live for some time in the notorious Tokyo "poison ghetto", an anarchically organized non-place, which is characterized by organized crime and prostitution .
In the "poison ghetto", Kiku also meets his girlfriend Anemone, who has fled there from her rich family. She brings the crocodile Gulliver with her, which she was given as a pet as a child and to which she is particularly attached. He soon learns of the enigmatic poison "Datura", which he initially believed that just saying the word was enough to kill someone. He learns that it can be found on an abandoned Japanese island that was a military exclusion zone until 1985 .
Meanwhile, Hashi begins a career as a singer and meets Niva, who frees him from his fear of being gay . Despite his success, Hashi's urge to see his birth mother grows stronger. He soon learns that she had a relationship with a veterinarian and that he accidentally got pregnant.
When Kiku shoots his mother, he is arrested for manslaughter. In his detention, however, he makes use of rehabilitation measures, which include, among other things, a trip on a training ship, with the team also heading for the said island with the "Datura". Meanwhile, Anemone has a car accident in which Gulliver is killed.
Hashi's career comes to an abrupt end when he starts a band and tries to change his image as a singer. Although he has always been praised by the critics, he now receives negative reviews and ends up in a psychiatry . At the end of the story, Anemone and Kiku buy a motorcycle and use it to distribute the poison "Datura" throughout the city on a trip through Tokyo.
criticism
“For Murakami, Japan's society represents a kind of coercive collective, a totalitarian system with the center of power Tôkyô, which undermines the identity and self-esteem of the individual and brings out the lowest instincts. The Japanese myth of the caring mother is dismantled, but also the patriarchal order in which the submission of the individual and his or her functioning are required. The rebellion is followed by resignation, personal development falls victim to equalization. The only thing that helps is total annihilation: Murakami lets his protagonists stay true to their no-future mission. "
literature
- Ryū Murakami: Coin Locker Babies , from Jap. v. Ursula Graefe. Septime, Vienna 2015. ISBN 978-3-902711-35-9
