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I own pretty much everything Murakami has ever written, including his non-fiction, and while I enjoy them all, Dance Dance Dance might be my favorite. I also ne

I own pretty much everything Murakami has ever written, including his non-fiction, and while I enjoy them all, Dance Dance Dance might be my favorite. I also never see anyone recommend it, which seems odd to me. An old hotel elevator that opens to a void where the Sheep Man waits for you. It's utterly bizarre. I love it. Norwegian Wood is also very good, but it doesn't have my favorite trait of Murakami's other writing: the easy surreality of it. An unseen world pushes into the world of his characters, and they underreact. In terms of overall concerns, the Sheep Man is as pressing as a date with an attractive woman. In a similar vein, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders is both lightly funny and surreal. Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami reminded me a bit of the meloncholy of Norwegian Wood. The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster is also very reminiscent of Murakami.

atombender 8y ago
It's worth warning that Dance Dance Dance is a sequel to his Rat trilogy (which ends with A Wild Sheep Chase, which for many years was the only in the trilogy available in English). It makes references to characters and events in those books. Personally, I read it after The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which is his masterpiece. Compared to WUBC, Dance feels like a unfinished dress rehearsal by a middle-schooler. Dance is full of ideas, but never builds a cohesive universe. There are killers and shared dreams and/alternate universes and so on, but none of it adds up to a very satisfying whole. WUBC, on the other hand, actually constructs, in quite masterly fashion, a mythology. Murakami is able to hold himself back and keep things mysterious, but the mysteries don't seem random, and the drama around to unravel them unfolds organically. It feels like a very carefully planned novel, unlike some of his other ramshackle plots. And the dream magic isn't there for weirdness; it actually serves a very important narrative point, one that leads to plot resolution and real catharsis, and the magical aspects don't seem so magical as David Lynchian, like something out of Twin Peaks (especially the revival series!). Some of his books, including Dance, seem full of intentional weirdness where Murakami is throwing everything at the wall to see if it would stick, but everything in WUBC just works.
- mratzloff 8y ago
  Thanks for the reply. I agree with your assessment but not your characterization. You seem very plot-focused. One of the things I like about Murakami's writing is the somewhat random, unfinished quality. It's like life in that respect. The plot is generally incidental; his novels seem like they're meant to evoke an atmosphere and a feeling. In other words, we are frequently dropped into the middle of an otherwise unremarkable character's life where they experience a turning point in their view of the world and (in many cases) reality. And then life goes on. In other words, the plot is only there to support the character's internal journey.
  - atombender 8y ago
    It's not that I'm plot-focused — some of my favourite novels don't have much of a plot at all — but I expect a novel to provide a certain structure that has a point to it. To me, Dance comes across as an immature sketch, an example where Murakami had lots of things he wanted to include, but he didn't know to create the architecture around which themes could come together. Some of the plot points seem like Murakami wanting to burrow into a kind of Lynchian Hollywood reality, with serial killers and weird hotels. I didn't find those as being interesting ways to explore the character's "internal journey". Dance doesn't "click", whereas the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is extremely satisfying in the way it does.

atombender 8y ago

It's worth warning that Dance Dance Dance is a sequel to his Rat trilogy (which ends with A Wild Sheep Chase, which for many years was the only in the trilogy available in English). It makes references to characters and events in those books. Personally, I read it after The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which is his masterpiece. Compared to WUBC, Dance feels like a unfinished dress rehearsal by a middle-schooler. Dance is full of ideas, but never builds a cohesive universe. There are killers and shared dreams and/alternate universes and so on, but none of it adds up to a very satisfying whole. WUBC, on the other hand, actually constructs, in quite masterly fashion, a mythology. Murakami is able to hold himself back and keep things mysterious, but the mysteries don't seem random, and the drama around to unravel them unfolds organically. It feels like a very carefully planned novel, unlike some of his other ramshackle plots. And the dream magic isn't there for weirdness; it actually serves a very important narrative point, one that leads to plot resolution and real catharsis, and the magical aspects don't seem so magical as David Lynchian, like something out of Twin Peaks (especially the revival series!). Some of his books, including Dance, seem full of intentional weirdness where Murakami is throwing everything at the wall to see if it would stick, but everything in WUBC just works.

mratzloff 8y ago
Thanks for the reply. I agree with your assessment but not your characterization. You seem very plot-focused. One of the things I like about Murakami's writing is the somewhat random, unfinished quality. It's like life in that respect. The plot is generally incidental; his novels seem like they're meant to evoke an atmosphere and a feeling. In other words, we are frequently dropped into the middle of an otherwise unremarkable character's life where they experience a turning point in their view of the world and (in many cases) reality. And then life goes on. In other words, the plot is only there to support the character's internal journey.
- atombender 8y ago
  It's not that I'm plot-focused — some of my favourite novels don't have much of a plot at all — but I expect a novel to provide a certain structure that has a point to it. To me, Dance comes across as an immature sketch, an example where Murakami had lots of things he wanted to include, but he didn't know to create the architecture around which themes could come together. Some of the plot points seem like Murakami wanting to burrow into a kind of Lynchian Hollywood reality, with serial killers and weird hotels. I didn't find those as being interesting ways to explore the character's "internal journey". Dance doesn't "click", whereas the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is extremely satisfying in the way it does.