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Disappearing Act: The working life of Haruki Murakami
- tycho-newman 4y agoNow I just want to reread Bird Chronicle. May Kasahara was hilarious.
- sparkie 4y agoI have an INKling to reread HBW+EOW.
- version_five 4y agoI think that's my favorite of his. It's got all the elements of a good Murakami story - all the usual human relations stuff in the main story and all the weird stuff in the "end of the world" part, and the constant feeling that there's lots more to understand. It's hard to put into words, but I'd say it's a much tighter story with the same effect as some of the ones that go on a lot longer.
- kanbara 4y agoi read kafka and 1q74, colourless tsukuru tazaki, and wind up bird chronicle but put hbw/eow down halfway thru and got too busy to finish it. maybe this is a sign to do so
- robotresearcher 4y agoDon't overlook the earlier books like Norwegian Wood, Wild Sheep Chase, and The Elephant Vanishes. Easier reading than the thick books and fun and beautiful.
- sparkie 4y agoA wild sheep chase is probably my second favorite after HBW+EOW. I've not read Norwegian Wood but have watched the film adaptation of it, which I found a bit disappointing. I'm sure the read is much better.
- ryanschneider 4y agoDance, Dance, Dance which is a “sequel” to Wild Sheep Chase is my favorite, followed by WUNC and then HBW/EOW. Total aside but has anyone found good Murakami-esque movies or TV Shows? Parts of The Leftovers actually gave me the same feeling, especially “International Assassin” and the surrounding episodes but am happy to hear others.
- sparkie 4y agoThere's quite a few directors who credit Murakami as an influence on their works. Rian Johnson credits HBW+EOW as an influence on Looper. Wong Kar-wai says he took inspiration from Murakami in Chunking Express. David Mitchell is clearly influenced by his works (worth reading if you're a Murakami fan). His novel Cloud Atlas got a film adaptation with Tom Hanks and some other big names. In anime, Satoshi Kon and Makoto Shinkai have said Murakami was a big influence on them. There's also Haibane Renmei which was influenced by HBW+EOW (IMO not worth watching). Probably plenty more anime with similar styles because it's a more suitable medium for the kind of surrealism in Murakami's novels. You might like Psycho-Pass, GITS, Lain which share some of the same elements of Murakami's works.
- stephencanon 4y agoA Wild Sheep Chase was the first present I bought my wife when we were dating. Great book.
- tsimionescu 4y agoA fun bit of trivia about Norwegian Wood: for some unfathomable reason, the French translator decided to translate it as "La Ballade de l'Impossible" (The Ballad of the Impossible). The one Murakami novel named after a universally famous song was translated to... That.
- Scotch3297 4y agoIn Spain it became "Tokyo Blues". I think probably the reason was that Norwegian Wood was not a so so so popular song over here for the mainstream public (excluding Beatles fans). It was not "Yellow Submarine" or "Hey Jude" level. I am pretty sure if the song from the novel was "Hey Jude" or even "Eleanor Rigby" they would have kept it.
- tsimionescu 4y agoSure, it's not their biggest song. But from what I've seen, most of his novels have been translated with a relatively faithful title (say, "Kafka sur le rivage" for Kafka on the shore). It's only this one which gets a completely new title. And I don't think it's even some bizarre copyright issue, as it could easily be translated in Spanish as "Bosque noruego", while the original song title, if translated, would be closer to "Madera de Noruga". It's not like he titled directly after the song in Japanese either...
- gnulinux 4y agoMay Kasahara was entertaining but that Manchukuo story is absolutely something else. Probably one of the most striking stories I ever read in the world literature. "Wind Up Bird Chronicles" is such an excellent book.
- ycombinete 4y agoIf I ever read the book again I’m skipping that part entirely. Far too vivid and horrific for me.
- JKCalhoun 4y agoI recently saw "Woman in the Dunes" ("Suna no Onna", 1964) and it felt like a close cousin of "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle". Weird movie. You can find the whole thing on YouTube (U.S. region anyway). Trailer: https://youtu.be/7kX4h_sEBiI https://youtu.be/7kX4h_sEBiI
- SamPatt 4y agoI mostly agree with this review. I absolutely loved "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running," which is basically a memoir as well. But this book wasn't nearly as engaging. If you're more interested in a memoir than the craft of writing, skip this one and read Running. I found King's book on writing more useful too.
- dumpsterlid 4y agoSomehow I doubt one of the essays in this book is about how to write female characters in a way that isn’t creepy, and reductively sexual. Murakami’s writing is undeniably creative and interesting, but the way he writes women undermines the whole thing and I find it weird he gets a pass for that so much.
- ggm 4y agoI believe Michael Moorcock has an enduring discussion with women writers on this problem space, perhaps from a different perspective but I believe it forms part of their mutual discourse around the nature of feminism and pornography in new-age writing.
- sparkie 4y ago[flagged]
- FranzFerdiNaN 4y agoThat’s simple. It’s like comedy where punching down isn’t funny. Men have thousands of years of history proving they are a danger to women, so men writing about creepy men is just another reinforcement of that same old situation. 50 shades is more like punching up and thus acceptable. It’s nothing to do with “woke”, and there is still room for works about men being creepy fucks, the bar to cross is just much higher.
- sparkie 4y ago[flagged]
- chongli 4y agoIt’s not really about how people are treated by the characters. It’s about perspective taking and relatability. 50 Shades is written by a woman, from the perspective of a woman, and it’s about her fantasies. Why wouldn’t women respond to that? What turns women off, in fiction, is seeing other women through the eyes of a male character. You can’t identify with a character from the outside like that.
- karaokeyoga 4y agoI've read many of his books and short stories over the years, and would recommend "Underground", about the 1995 Aum Shinrikyo sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. The English translation is, I believe, much shorter than the original Japanese, but I found its intimate descriptions of everyday Tokyo life contrasting with the terror of that morning powerful reading.
- graderjs 4y agoGreat! I also agree. One phrase always stuck with me, when talking about the leader of the cult, Murakami said, paraphrasing, "imagine the bloodbath of internal conflicts that must need to happen to give rise to someone like that". For some reason, I've always remembered it. "Bloodbath of internal conflicts" was a line that always stuck with me. :P ;) xx ;p Also, I recommend getting hands on the very early (and short) English translations of, "Hear the Wind Sing", and "Pinball 1973" -- just really strange, bizarre and cool. Like a distilled pure essence of all his works to come, but these were (I think) his first two. You can sort of see all his themes, style and everything in those first two. Really great! :) ;p xx ;p
- minikomi 4y agoSeconding pinball 1973
- karaokeyoga 4y agoJust read the Wikipedia entry for this book and can recommend it as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_(Murakami_book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_(Murakami_book)
- phlakaton 4y agoI have read and remembered exactly one of Murikami's stories, and it hit me like a giant earthquake: the short story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo." I cannot recommend it enough.
- ZseeBrz 4y ago
- abhaynayar 4y agoThis has got to be a simulation. Too many coincidences.
- Lyngbakr 4y agoI've read a few Murakami books, but always find myself underwhelmed. Every few years I try again — everyone else loves his books, so clearly I'm missing something — but I'm yet to find one that I really enjoy. (I have the same problem with Rushdie, so perhaps I just don't get critically acclaimed literature?) Besides Kafka on the Shore, The Wind Up Bird Chronicles, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, which of his books would be the best way to get into Haruki Murakami?
- jakubmazanec 4y agoI really liked South of the Border, West of the Sun - it's a rather short novel and IMO pretty focused thematically. And then, of course, Norwegian Wood is a must-read.
- ducharmdev 4y agoI finished Norwegian Wood a couple weeks ago, it reminded me a lot of South of the Border. SOTB only gets a touch of surreal towards the end; beyond that, they're similar in their relatively down-to-earth view of the protagonist's struggle with interpersonal interactions.
- version_five 4y agoI think Kafka and Wind Up Bird are pretty representative. If you've given them a shot, it's probable you just don't like his writing. I agree that Norwegian Wood is different enough that you could try it, or Wild Sheep Chase, but I don't see particularly why you'd like them if you don't like the others. I'm a big Murakami fan, but I think he's a little like Rush, either you really like him or you dont understand why people like him. You're not the first person I've heard say this.
- zikzak 4y agoFurthermore, it's OK to not like things. :) It's why we have so many things to choose from.
- teh_klev 4y ago
- IvelinaPIN 4y agoI enjoyed one or two of his books, but some of them I just couldn't get into.