Tokyo Doesn't Love Us Anymore - Softcover

Loriga, Ray

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802141471 ISBN 13: 9780802141477

Publisher: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press, 2004

Synopsis

This is a disturbing and exhilarating novel in which the anonymous protagonist, a dealer offering a range of the latest chemicals designed to make consumers forget everything, finds his past and present, along with his own identity, disintegrate under the effects of these 'drugs of oblivion'. Set in the very near future, this novel is very much in the style of dystopias like Orwell's 1984, while also evoking the bewildering visual universe of Blade Runner. The protagonist moves through a world of cynical consumerism, whether in Arizona, South East Asia or Europe, under the constant scrutiny of the Company in whose products he deals. The alienating urban environment that surrounds him intensifies the feeling that he does not belong to any one country or place. His life is spent in transit on deserted motorways or in crowded airports and anonymous hotel rooms, punctuated by business contacts with similarly nameless customers and random, meaningless sexual encounters. There is no place for guilt or personal responsibility in a society in which one's acts are easily forgotten thanks to drugs designed to erase all memories from the mind. The protagonist speaks with a disarming humor born of his detachment from life, personal relationships and the very consequences of his actions. What makes this vision so alarming is the fact that both its observations and its conclusions are entirely believable.

About this title

Review:

"Loriga is set to join that select band of writers--like Michael Houellebecq and Haruki Murakami--who are busy retooling fiction for the twenty-first century."

From the Back Cover:

"Loriga is set to join that select band of writers - like Michael Houellebecq and Hruki Murakami - who are busy retooling fiction for the 21st century" Big Issue

A salesman for "The Comany" searches hazily for his wife, grasping at memories just out of reach. When they ask about her, he tells them she's dead. People say she may be in Tokyo.

While evoking the bewildering visual universe of Blade Runner, Loriga, one of Spain's most successful authors, has produced a dizzying picaresque novel of drug-fuelled nights and wild sexual encounters taht deals with themes as diverse as loss, chemical dependency and globalisation.

"Provides a blend of Kerouac's wild wandering and Burroughs' use of narcotics as a metaphor for just about every level of human existence" Guardian

"A brilliant novel from an emerging cult writer" Scotland on Sunday

"Both disturbing and funny...uses elements of contemporary life to offer a dark warning about where we might be heading" New Statesman

Translated from the Spanish by John King

Cover design & montage by James Hutcheson
Photographs (c) Photonica

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0802141471
• ISBN 13: 9780802141477
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272