Murakami Haruki

Liam

Liam

Administrator
tiganeasca said:
The cat was optional, however.
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The cat is NEVER optional!!! ???

Glad he mentioned The Magus, one of my favorite novels, very few [younger] people know/read Fowles these days, and he was one of the greatest British writers of the last century.

The Magus (his first book, though published AFTER The Collector) is a little sensational, it's true, but that doesn't make it bad (Crime & Punishment is a bit sensational, too)--
 
tiganeasca

tiganeasca

Moderator
Ahem. Lest it not be clear to successive readers, "The cat was optional, however" was NOT something I wrote. Notwithstanding the language of the clip above, it is an internal quotation from Murakami himself, the petter of the cat in question.
 
B

Ben Jackson

Well-known member
tiganeasca said:
The New York Times has a feature every Sunday called "By the Book." It poses a series of questions (many of which are the same from week to week) to well-known personalities. Originally, the feature only interviewed well-known writers, but in the past few years it has expanded to all kinds of, uh, personalities. This week (11/20/22) it features Murakami.

What books are on your night stand?​

Michael Connelly’s “The Brass Verdict.” It’s a hard-bound copy I bought for a dollar in a used bookstore in Honolulu. It’s hard to put down once I start reading. Price isn’t everything, of course, but is there any other form of entertainment that provides so much enjoyment for a dollar?

What’s the last great book you read?​

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Last Tycoon.” My translation of it into Japanese was published earlier this year. Translation is the ultimate close reading. As I read this novel, line by line, I was impressed all over again by how amazing the writing is. The dignity never wavers, and it says everything that needs to be said. Fitzgerald grew and evolved as a writer all the way up to his death. I know it’s pointless to say this, but I only wish he could have finished the novel.

Are there any classic novels that you only recently read for the first time?​

Dostoyevsky’s “A Raw Youth.” I carry a paperback in my bag and have been making my way through it. There are several other Dostoyevsky works I’ve yet to read. The same goes for Balzac.

Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how).​

I suppose it was back when I lived in Greece and was reading John Fowles’s “The Magus” on a sunny terrace, all the while petting a neighborhood cat. Since the island I lived on happened to be the setting of the novel. The cat was optional, however.

Which writers — novelists, playwrights, critics, journalists, poets — working today do you admire most?​

Kazuo Ishiguro. He’s a novelist I’m very fond of, his new books are always worth waiting for, and he’s very personable.

You’ve said that as a young writer you found your voice by translating Chandler and maybe Hemingway and other writers from the Western canon. What did you get out of their work, and do you still read them today?​

I’ve translated all of Chandler’s novels but haven’t tried my hand at any of Hemingway’s. I’ve also translated all of Raymond Carver’s work — the short stories, poems and essays. I’ve learned a lot through this process, of course, but the greatest thing I’ve understood is that outstanding writing has to have a definite sense of drive. A power to propel the reader onward.
While I’m writing a novel, I often translate fiction. It’s a nice change of pace, an excellent way to make a mental switch. Translating uses a different part of the brain from composing a novel, so it keeps one side of my brain from wearing out.

What books would you recommend to somebody who wants to understand present-day Japan?​

The same trend is found almost everywhere, I think, but in Japan, too, women writers — especially those of the younger generation — are quite active in publishing novels and are gaining a large, receptive readership. Personally, I like Mieko Kawakami’s novel “Natsu Monogatari” (“Summer Tales”). She has such sensitivity as a writer and is a deeply committed storyteller. This novel was translated and published in English in 2020 under the title “Breasts and Eggs.”

What do you read when you’re working on a book? And what kind of reading do you avoid while writing?​

It’s an interesting question, but I’ve never really thought about it. Writing a lengthy novel is a job that takes time and patience over the long haul, and it’d be kind of disruptive if I had to give up reading the books I want to read while I’m writing. I can’t really think of any genre or variety of book I feel I should avoid reading. I read all sorts of genres while I’m writing a novel, the same as always, and though they might occasionally provide some small hint for my own writing, I’m not directly influenced by them. (At least I don’t think so.)

Do you prefer books that reach you emotionally, or intellectually?​

What I look for is the flow of the story. (The same is true when I’m writing.) So sometimes I find it hard to read novels — intellectual novels, you might call most of them — where that narrative flow is missing. But if the novel flows along too smoothly, too easily, that makes me uneasy as well. In that sense perhaps Gabriel García Márquez and Raymond Chandler — or a mix of the two — would be my idea of the ideal novelist.

Which genres do you especially enjoy reading? And which do you avoid?​

Since I enjoy music I like reading biographies of musicians, or their autobiographies. One I read recently that I particularly enjoyed was Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run.”

How do you organize your books?​

My record collection is carefully, painstakingly, organized, but with books things are more haphazard. They often elude me, and I can’t locate what I’m looking for. I’m not so interested in collecting books, so once I’ve read one, I generally don’t keep it around.

What book might people be surprised to find on your shelves?​

Tom Lord’s 34-volume “The Jazz Discography.” It takes up a lot of space and I imagine most people would find it unnecessary to own, but for jazz collectors it’s a real treasure, the painstaking result of years of work. Nowadays you can search things online, but in the past the only choice was to get hold of this entire set. I don’t just look things up in it, but often enjoy randomly flipping through the pages.

What kind of reader were you as a child? Which childhood books and authors stick with you most?​

I was a voracious reader of any book I could lay my hands on. I loved reading more than anything (to the point where schoolwork didn’t interest me anymore). Thankfully, our home was full of books, and I worked my way through them all. The one I remember best is Ueda Akinari’s “Ugetsu Monogatari” (“Tales of Moonlight and Rain”), a version adapted for children. It’s a collection of ghost stories published in 1776, and I remember how much it terrified me. I think that dark world impacted me quite a bit.
Read more “By the Book” interviews.

How have your reading tastes changed over time?​

With newly published books I tend now to prefer reading nonfiction more than fiction.

You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?​

My apologies, but I’m not big on dinner parties.

Disappointing, overrated, just not good: What book did you feel as if you were supposed to like, and didn’t? Do you remember the last book you put down without finishing?　​

The books I try not to pick up, and don’t want to read, are ones I wrote myself and published in the past. When I reread them, there’s always something that leaves me feeling disappointed, and dissatisfied. Though it does make me want to do better with my next work. One problem with not rereading my own work, though, is I steadily forget what I’ve written. Interviewers ask me specific questions about specific parts in my books that leave me puzzled. “Did I really write that?” I wonder.
Books other than my own I give up on? There are a lot (though I don’t want to give any actual titles). When I was younger, I’d forge on to the end, but as I’ve gotten older I give up on them, since I don’t want to waste my time.

What do you plan to read next?​

Once I finish the book I’m reading now, I’m going to take my time and think about the next one. I’d like to hold on to that anticipation, the pleasure of choosing what comes next.
Translated by Philip Gabriel
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Thanks, my friend. I have read so many interviews in the "By the Book" series. I remember enjoying Tokarczuk, Banville and Knausgaard interviews. Loved the series.
 
B

Ben Jackson

Well-known member
Liam said:
The cat is NEVER optional!!! ???

Glad he mentioned The Magus, one of my favorite novels, very few [younger] people know/read Fowles these days, and he was one of the greatest British writers of the last century.

The Magus (his first book, though published AFTER The Collector) is a little sensational, it's true, but that doesn't make it bad (Crime & Punishment is a bit sensational, too)--
Click to expand...

I have The Magus, Mantissa and French Lieutenant's Woman, hopefully will tackle them next year.
 
Liam

Liam

Administrator
^The French Lieutenant's Woman is his masterpiece (also check out the movie with Meryl Streep) but I have a soft spot for The Magus, it was the first book by Fowles I had ever read.

I think you will enjoy it, it's impossible not to :)
 
tiganeasca

tiganeasca

Moderator
And now, for all you die-hard Murakami fans, another (somewhat) interesting article from a website that is new to me but that seems to have a fair amount of interesting content: "Public Books, a magazine of ideas, arts, and scholarship."
 
The Common Reader

The Common Reader

Well-known member
tiganeasca said:
The New York Times has a feature every Sunday called "By the Book." It poses a series of questions (many of which are the same from week to week) to well-known personalities. Originally, the feature only interviewed well-known writers, but in the past few years it has expanded to all kinds of, uh, personalities. This week (11/20/22) it features Murakami.

​

Are there any classic novels that you only recently read for the first time?​

Dostoyevsky’s “A Raw Youth.” I carry a paperback in my bag and have been making my way through it. There are several other Dostoyevsky works I’ve yet to read. The same goes for Balzac.

​

​

Translated by Philip Gabriel
Click to expand...
A Raw Youth, also known in English as The Adolescent (the latter is more literally accurate, but the former does a better job of conveying the tonality of the work) has been vastly overshadowed by the other four great novels Doestoevski wrote in his final decade and a half. A reviewer of one of the recent translations summed up the case against it:
Less kind readers might conclude that The Adolescent was randomly generated from the original source code for Dostoevskian narrative. Redundant plot lines, melodramatic scandal scenes and duplicate characters abound; there are seedy St Petersburg settings, multiple illegitimate children, two rapacious villains, two Versilov sons and two Versilov daughters, each targeting a different Prince Sokolsky as her husband. There are (narrowly) no murders, but a minor character’s suicide implausibly involves most of the novel’s key personae.
https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/accidental-family/

But what really sets the novel apart from the other four is the fact that it is narrated in the first person, and that is what makes it a bravura performance, one that makes all of the objections raised here seem totally beside the point. I'm glad that Murakami is making his way through it, and if any of you haven't already I heartily recommend it.
 
Leseratte

Leseratte

Well-known member
The Common Reader said:
A Raw Youth, also known in English as The Adolescent (the latter is more literally accurate, but the former does a better job of conveying the tonality of the work) has been vastly overshadowed by the other four great novels Doestoevski wrote in his final decade and a half. A reviewer of one of the recent translations summed up the case against it:
Less kind readers might conclude that The Adolescent was randomly generated from the original source code for Dostoevskian narrative. Redundant plot lines, melodramatic scandal scenes and duplicate characters abound; there are seedy St Petersburg settings, multiple illegitimate children, two rapacious villains, two Versilov sons and two Versilov daughters, each targeting a different Prince Sokolsky as her husband. There are (narrowly) no murders, but a minor character’s suicide implausibly involves most of the novel’s key personae.
https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/accidental-family/

But what really sets the novel apart from the other four is the fact that it is narrated in the first person, and that is what makes it a bravura performance, one that makes all of the objections raised here seem totally beside the point. I'm glad that Murakami is making his way through it, and if any of you haven't already I heartily recommend it.
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I think this is the most dickensian of Dostoevsky's novels. The girl protagonist is very similar to Little Nell.
 
redhead

redhead

Blahblahblah
From Bartleby’s link:

The title will be 1,200 Japanese manuscript pages long, but the exact number of book pages that will amount to was also not yet confirmed, the publisher added.
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I thought 1Q84 could’ve easily been edited down to a shorter length and heard similar things about Killing Commendatore, so this doesn’t fill me with confidence…
 
Morbid Swither

Morbid Swither

Well-known member
redhead said:
From Bartleby’s link:



I thought 1Q84 could’ve easily been edited down to a shorter length and heard similar things about Killing Commendatore, so this doesn’t fill me with confidence…
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I’m intrigued because OVERALL, I do enjoy the majority of his work, but the views that 1Q84 is some kind of masterpiece baffle me, and I thought Killing Commendatore downright sucked (but not without a (very) few instances that surprised and fascinated me).
 
B

Ben Jackson

Well-known member
Morbid Swither said:
I’m intrigued because OVERALL, I do enjoy the majority of his work, but the views that 1Q84 is some kind of masterpiece baffle me, and I thought Killing Commendatore downright sucked (but not without a (very) few instances that surprised and fascinated me).
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Which of his works did you enjoy? I have only read Norweigan Wood and I enjoyed it.
 
The Common Reader

The Common Reader

Well-known member
Leseratte said:
I think this is the most dickensian of Dostoevsky's novels. The girl protagonist is very similar to Little Nell.
Click to expand...
Yes! But also in the running for "most Dickensian" work would also be Humiliated and Insulted also known as The Insulted and Injured also known as The Insulted and Humiliated [Униженные и оскорблённые, 1861]. It is also, along with A Raw Youth, vastly underrated and compulsively readable, another example of the richness of B-side Dostoevsky.
redhead said:
I thought 1Q84 could’ve easily been edited down to a shorter length and heard similar things about Killing Commendatore, so this doesn’t fill me with confidence…
Click to expand...
I was fascinated by the weird places that IQ84 went, and I can barely contain my excitement at the thought of another Murakami doorstopper. Though who knows how long it will take to be translated into English...
 
Leseratte

Leseratte

Well-known member
The Common Reader said:
Yes! But also in the running for "most Dickensian" work would also be Humiliated and Insulted also known as The Insulted and Injured also known as The Insulted and Humiliated [Униженные и оскорблённые, 1861]. It is also, along with A Raw Youth, vastly underrated and compulsively readable, another example of the richness of B-side Dostoevsky.

I was fascinated by the weird places that IQ84 went, and I can barely contain my excitement at the thought of another Murakami doorstopper. Though who knows how long it will take to be translated into English...
Click to expand...
Sorry, @The Common Reader. I just saw that I confused both early novels. I meant, in fact, The Insulted and Injured .
 
Bartleby

Bartleby

Moderator
Title — 街とその不確かな壁 ('The City and Its Uncertain Walls') — and page count revealed (in the Japanese edition) — 672 pages.

apnews.com

Murakami's 1st novel in 6 years to hit stores in April

TOKYO (AP) — A new Haruki Murakami novel will be published in April and the publisher is saying little about it except that the Japanese manuscript is around 1,200 pages and the plot involves “a story that had long been sealed.”
apnews.com apnews.com
 
wordeater

wordeater

Well-known member
Murakami has become one of my favorite living authors. His novels can roughly be divided into two groups: realist and magic realist. In his realist novels he explores psychological and relational themes. In his magic realist novels characters end up in a dreamlike environment with symbolical meanings, influenced by Freud, Jung, fables or myths. His longer novels often jump between two or three protagonists from chapter to chapter, relating simultaneous events or telling the same thing twice from a contrasting perspective. Short stories are another important part of his work.

His writing is spontaneous and unconventional. Although Japanese he's heavily influenced by Western culture. Think of his many references to pop, jazz and classical music. It's often about an ordinary, middle-aged man who has to deal with a painful past or social isolation. A recurring element are animals, often cats. They disappear, talk, or announce a mysterious event.

My top 7 of Murakami novels:
  1. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
  2. 1Q84
  3. Norwegian Wood
  4. Killing Commendatore
  5. Kafka on the Shore
  6. South of the Border, West of the Sun
  7. A Wild Sheep Chase
My top 7 of Murakami short stories:
  1. Barn Burning
  2. Drive My Car
  3. Tony Takitani
  4. The Second Bakery Attack
  5. Super-Frog Saves Tokyo
  6. Samsa in Love
  7. Charlie Parker Plays Bossa Nova
Now I'm looking forward to his new novel, but it will probably take time to translate those 1200 pages.
 
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