Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche Contributor(s): Murakami, Haruki (Author) |
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ISBN: 0375725806 ISBN-13: 9780375725807 Publisher: Vintage
WE WILL NOT BE UNDERSOLD! Click here for our low price guarantee Binding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions Published: April 2001 Annotation: It was a clear spring day, Monday, March 20, 1995, when five members of the religious cult Aum Shinrikyo conducted chemical warfare on the Tokyo subway system using sarin, a poison gas twenty-six times as deadly as cyanide. The unthinkable had happened, a major urban transit system had become the target of a terrorist attack. In an attempt to discover why, Haruki Murakami, internationally acclaimed author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and arguably Japan's most important contemporary novelist, talked to the people who lived through the catastrophe -- from a Subway Authority employee with survivor guilt, to a fashion salesman with more venom for the media than for the perpetrators, to a young cult member who vehemently condemns the attack though he has not quit Aum. Through these and many other voices, Murakami exposes intriguing aspects of the Japanese psyche. And as he discerns the fundamental issues leading to the attack, we achieve a clear vision of an event that could occur anytime, anywhere. Hauntingly compelling and inescapably important, Underground is a powerful work of journalistic literature from one of the world's most perceptive writers. |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Political Science | Security (national & International) - Religion | Cults - Political Science | Terrorism |
Dewey: 364.152 |
LCCN: 00069310 |
Series: Vintage International |
Physical Information: 0.86" H x 5.24" W x 8.02" L (0.70 lbs) 384 pages |
Themes: - Chronological Period - 1990's - Cultural Region - Japanese |
Features: Illustrated, Maps, Price on Product, Table of Contents |
Awards: Firecracker Alternative Book Award, Nominee, Nonfiction, 2002 |
Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 02/15/2001 pg. 241 Booklist 02/15/2001 pg. 1082 Publishers Weekly 04/09/2001 pg. 58 Newsweek 04/30/2001 pg. 78 Library Journal 04/01/2001 pg. 117 Entertainment Weekly 05/04/2001 pg. 62 Books & Culture 03/01/2002 pg. 16 Newsweek 07/13/2009 pg. 46 |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: In this haunting work of journalistic investigation, Haruki Murakami tells the story of the horrific terrorist attack on Japanese soil that shook the entire world. On a clear spring day in 1995, five members of a religious cult unleashed poison gas on the Tokyo subway system. In attempt to discover why, Haruki Murakmi talks to the people who lived through the catastrophe, and in so doing lays bare the Japanese psyche. As he discerns the fundamental issues that led to the attack, Murakami paints a clear vision of an event that could occur anytime, anywhere. |
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