Rip It Up Kou Machida

The first-ever English translation of Japanese punk singer and author Kou Machida's Akutagawa Prize winning novel; a story of repulsion and jealousy on the fringes of the Tokyo art world.  Set in a kaleidoscopic hyperreal Japan circa Y2K, Rip It Up catalogues the misdeeds and misgivings of a down-and-out wannabe debonair who ekes out a meager living at the fringes of the art world, wracked by jealousy at his friend's success and despondency of his own creative (and moral) bankruptcy. In turn hilarious and also horrifying, Machida's pyrotechnic prose plumbs the discursive depths of the creative spirit, a head-spinning survey of degeneration and self-sabotage. "An artistic achievement, both as a novel and as a work of translation" -- Asian Review of Books    Very good condition