Murakami Haruki

[miobrien]

Everyone complains about the omissions. I really wonder what the editors at Knopf were thinking...

[Diotima]

"I wake up, but where? I don't just think this, I actually voice the question to myself: "Where am I?" As if I didn't know: I'm here. In my life. A feature of the world that is my existence." (from Dance, Dance, Dance, 1988)

[Daniel del Real]

What I'd like to know for sure is if those cuts are only for the English translations or also for other languages. Spanish editions are translated directly from Japanese, but I don't know if the applied the same technique than Rubin did.

[SlowRain]

What's a good place to start with Murakami? For reference, I like John le Carré, Graham Greene, Alan Furst, Philip Roth, Gabriel García Márquez, Peter Carey, Martin Cruz Smith.

[sirena]

Start with Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World or The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

[Stiffelio]

You may want to start with Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. It's a fine collection of short stories dating from the last twenty yeas or so, that will surely give you an idea of what Murakami is like, style- and content-wise

[SlowRain]

Thanks for the replies. I'll probably try either Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World or The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Sorry, Stiffelio. While I agree short stories can be a great place to sample a writer's style, I just don't enjoy them.

[Daniel del Real]

It depends on what side of Murakami you want to face. If you prefer more of a fantastic-side story then the right choice is Hard-Boiled Wonderland . If you want to explore a more realistic side of his literature try South of the Border, West of the Sun. Another good entrance that combines both characteristics is Sputnik Sweetheart.

[Liam]

BlogSpy has recently referred us to a longish recent piece on Murakami in The NY Times:

The Fierce Imagination of Haruki Murakami

[Liam]

Murakami's Norwegian Wood is getting a make-over by Vintage prior to the release of the film:

Having watched it recently on DVD (already out in Asia), I was smitten with the beautiful visuals of the Vietnamese director Anh Hung Tran's cinematic palette; and it also made me want to read the book.

[Liam]

Coming up on 5/15/12:

[altai]

Has anybody read 1Q84? I've seen all kinds of reviews, from very negative (NY Times) to positive (again NY Times).
"The fierce imagination of HM" was a good read. I don't remember whether it was there that Murakami said about his daily regime something like "I get up early the morning, 4 o'clock, and I sit at my desk and what I do is just dream. After three or four hours, that's enough. In the afternoon, I run". I don't know but it impressed me a lot.

I wonder how popular Murakami is in the US or Europe. In Russia I recall the explosion of Murakamimania somewhere in 1999 when Kovalenin translated his Wild Sheep Chase. I remember one of my friends giving me this book with solemn silence. He just said. "Read it, it's like jazzy dzen, or dzen jazz". I got immediately intrigued and swallowed the book in a matter of days. Was so refreshing, like the first great books you read as a child, books that open a world for you, the ones that you forget to sleep, or do anything else but nibbling on biscuits and tea and just read and read.

Then the other parts of Rat trilogy followed and in a matter of one, two years Murakami became a cult figure in Russia. I kept reading his novels and short stories, Wind-up Bird Chronicles was good, with the historical part blending into phantasmagoric, so was Dance, Dance, although lacking somewhere in the plot. But the novel that worked the best for me was South of the Border, West of the Sun. It was a long time ago that I had read it and I don't remember much of the plot, but I still hold this warm feeling when you close the book and wish you could forget it and read it again anew to dive into this enticing bizarre world, so much better than the real one out the window.

But then again, as many critics have said, he repeats himself lately and honestly as much as I am tempted to place a reservation in our library (the queue is humongous) for 1q84, I don't feel like it's gonna do it for me anymore. He does repeat himself, and his novels become wordier and wordier, the story lines less defined, and it's harder and harder to recreate the magic feeling of intimacy of his early works. It's like a drug, you remember how good the first few times were and though you know that now you're chasing shadows of past excitement, you still wanna give it a try.

[Daniel del Real]

Some members here including myself got to read 1Q84.

Here's a take about the book in the words of some of us:

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/...highlight=1q84

I found it very entertaining, specially book 1 & 2 with a very fluid prose that keeps the reader avid for what is going to happen. The atmosphere he recreates is very vivid and the duality of the book (intertwining chapters for the two main characters of the book, following the order of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier) keeps it fascinating for a long part of the trip.
Then comes book 3 with dozens of pages recapturing what happened in books 1 & 2, making it tedious and unnecessary. And the worst part for me came at the end, where it seems that Murakami either didn't know what else to do to make closure to the book or simply got tired of so many pages he still would have needed to finish the book, and he came out with the easy exit to finish the book.
At the end I liked it as a whole reading experience and as a Murakami fan I am, but can't say it lived my expectations and the promise to be his master work.

[Hamlet]

May -- 2012.....

just to resurrect this thread and give a date, as this may be quite old?

I found, in addition to general Murakami perusal discussed elsewhere, a book in the library [ -----TITLE??----] about the author's ongoing interest in and pursuit of running marathons; seems he a fitness-fanatic, or running-writer and has written about it in a quirky bio. It's interesting because I see writing and marathon running as both "driven-activities".

Full on !

[Stiffelio]

It seems that Haruki Murakami has taken a stance against the Japanese nationalistic attitude related to the dispute over the East China sea islands.

http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2...ritorial-rows/

I hope this essays gets translated soon.

[Daniel del Real]

Very interesting article by the New Yorker on how high were the expectations for the Japanese people to Murakami winning the Nobel this year. It also provides a personal approach as the writer of the article has been more less close to Haruki for the past two decades.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blog...appointed.html

[OverTheMountains]

I must be honest in my analysis of Murakami. It is based on two books I have read this year - both with very different literary approaches. Norwegian Wood and Kafka on the Shore. Norwegian Wood was a good novel - I enjoyed it, to my surprise. I read it several months after completing Kafka on the Shore, which was an interesting adventure that was ultimately soiled by a poor translation and, as a result, couldn't become anything more than the words on the page. Indeed, Kafka on the Shore made me worry about the potential for good magical realism in the future.

I also felt as though Norwegian Wood had a great deal more potential than was developed. There are great moments in the work when a strong social commentary is at play - ideas of madness and civility are central to one of the many sub plots. But they just aren't developed to the point where they communicate anything that is actually worthwhile. Instead, Murakami seems to be distracted by a boy who can't figure out what love is supposed to be like - which is compelling in and of itself, but isn't quite as convincing as a point of tension. I enjoyed the book, though. The translation was acceptable, and his use of popular music really helped set the mood. And based on this work I would be willing to say that he is quite a capable author who, at times, might allow himself a distraction or two in his own writing, but who is quite good at constructing moods and environments.

Kafka on the Shore is another beast entirely. I was hoping for so much more than I got out of it - and perhaps the problem with Murakami is that he is presented as one of the great author's without necessarily being great. This book had moments that were fascinating, but I couldn't resolve what it was actually about in my head. And if I can't figure out why a book was written then I don't know why I am going to read it - books are tools that I use to learn about the world and change my person. This book taught me only confusion. And perhaps that was its goal. It was hampered by a really embarassing translation (to English) that was jagged and ultimately unenjoyable - when reading a novel you shouldn't get the sense that a sentence is poorly translated or that an editor was wanting to fix it before publication but, because of time restraints, wasn't able to do so.

So, where do I stand with Murakami. First, so far, I find other author's are far more deserving of the Nobel at the moment. Second, I will give a few of his other books a read. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles is supposed to be fantastic, though I don't know if I am willing to trust this man's sense of magical realism again. And I own IQ84, so I should read that. And the comments in this thread about some of his other work - like his work on the Underground gas attack - make those compelling too. And so it would seem that I haven't given up on him just yet. I just have more pressing reads to get to.

[Liam]

What's Haruki Murakami's new novel going to be about?

[Stiffelio]

I love this speculation. We'll see. But we won't have access to an English or Spanish translation for at least one more year.