Haruki Murakami appreciation thread
In honour of the fact he's apparently got a new book coming out in April:
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201302160062
Let's take bets on how long it'll take to translate.
It's gonna feature cats / tennis shoes / odd relationships with younger girls, right?
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and have a kick ass soundtrack
and someone eating green peppers and onions while listening to their phone ring and not answering it and drinking half a beer
beef.
:)
someone will have a simple dinner at somepoint
and change gears smoothly whilst driving
and appreciate a piece of classic music
What did we all think of 1Q84?
Obvs it was way too long but I liked it for the most part.
diminishing returns pretty much
liked book one a lot, book three was dumbbbbb
I enjoyed it.
Kept me entertained pretty much throughout, though not up there with his best.
whattt
hope it's better than 1Q84
dont forget ears
he loves talking a bit about ears.
<3 murakami
oh yeah
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lydqj85NZm1qzog3xo1_500.png
brilliant
reading sputnick sweetheart at the moment
one of the few i have left....kind of burnt out on his style thesedays but for some reason i do enjoy briefly heading back into the routine of his characters. Pop to the library, grab a beer in a jazz club, head home and make a simple dinner, drink a beer and listen to the phone ring.
Great news.
Whilst you're all here, this interview's a great read: http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2/the-art-of-fiction-no-182-haruki-murakami
Whoops, that was meant to be to the OP.
is this recent?
I find him really comforting and I'm even a fan of his half-arsed efforts.
(see After Dark).
I think I only have one of his short story collections and Hard Boiled Wonderland left to read.
Hard Boiled Wonderland is my absolute favourite.
You're in for a treat.
realllly need to get on it
dunno why I haven't. too much to read.
true this
Intelligent and just so damn fun to read. Both of the two 'halves' are so well-realised, too.
only read the one with unicorns
was good.
i also like Takashi Murakami
don't forget Ryu
the protagonist will have an extended period of unemployment, funded by their savings
I hope
if a woman doesn't quietly disappear in the night
I'm gonna demand a refund
:D
There's something HUGELY comforting about his writing and recurring themes / metaphors though, don't you think?
it's like slipping into a warm bath
with a beer
and miles davis' kind of blue playing
this is true
there are just enough differences between his novels, I think, to make reading them not totally futile... and the many similarities just help to create a hella addictive unique atmosphere. He's good to read when you're feeling lonely or mildly existential.
Only read Norwegian Wood
Don't care to read any others.
Rookie error.
Problem is
I'm slightly racist.
I'm in the same boat, minus the racism.
*faux racism
Granted, Norweigan Wood is far from his best.
wisdom's list down there is pretty accurate in terms of what you should have read instead.
don't wanna turn it into a rank things thread
but wind up bird >>>>>> pretty much all of the others. hard boiled... was pretty great though. would like to read the early ones that haven't been translated/are long out of print.
I love Kafka on the Shore and Dance Dance Dance.
Prolly up there with Wind Up Bird for me.
I've got an English PDF of Pinball, 1973 if you're interested?
For me it goes
Hard Boiled Wonderland > Kafka on the Shore > Dance Dance Dance > Wind Up Bird > Wild Sheep Chase > Norwegian Wood > 1Q84 > Pinball, 1973 > South of the Border, West of the Sun > After Dark > Sputnik Sweetheart
yeah that'd be good
will pm
Brilliant.
I just sent my friend back to Japan with the Windup Bird Chronicle, probably my favourite of his. Dance Dance Dance is great and so is Kafka on the Shore. 1Q84 was very good, I thought, up until book two. Book three was a bit shit. I also didn't like how it was translated by a different writer; really didn't help things.
i've only read after dark
are the others like that which should i read next?
The Wind Up Bird Chronicle
Kafka On The Shore
^either of those
Actually go with Kafka, cos a library features loads.
^yeah kafka is great, and also the wild sheep chase is what i started on
so i always have a first love feeling with that one.
Wind up Bird Chronicle
is like that for the most part, but about 10000 times long and with 10000 more cooking and eating.
Think Norwegian Wood was his best.
Everyone raves about Wind-up Bird, never got on with it. Think About Running is brilliant.
What I Think About When I Think About Running *almost* made me go out an buy trainers and shit to start running.
Almost.
Only read Wind Up Bird Chronicle
not overly impressed
not sure why he's so highly rated
Because it's totally cool and bohemian
to be into foreign stuff.
Duh.
this is definitely the reason
He's no Boris Vian
and you're no CG
Weren't there
bits in that book where someone kept wandering off to sit in a well? And lots of egg cooking. Maybe they were sitting in a cave, I can't remember it very clearly.
I found it unbearably tedious and have wondered why people rave about it ever since, unless it's some Brecht type thing of actually making you feel the tedium the characters feel, it's probably just not my thing.
it was an abandoned well
a metaphorical well of the soul if you like
the monotony was rather gruelling - especially paired up with the horror-porn of the WWII atrocities descriptions
I dunno, it was alright
just felt I was maybe missing something given all the praise showered upon him/the novel
maybe I missed something?
Yeah
That's how I felt - I wanted to like it because so many people had recommended it, but I felt it was ultimately quite shallow and pseudo profound.
Just something about it didn't quite connect for me, I think.
I actually was unemployed for a bit last year
I wandered about and ate fried eggs and listened to *some* jazz. I hung out with a teenage girl a bit.
BUT NOTHING INTERESTING HAPPENED
I don't know where I went wrong.
:)
Sometimes when reading Murakami I think FUCK YEAH it's be ace to go a bit introvert for a while and just have lonesome beers in jazz bars and that.
i did it once
i had a lot of sex, so his books are partly fact.
there's a book in there
norwegian wood was total shite
this fact is worth repeating over and over until everyone realises its worth.
Was pretty disappointed by 1Q84
Enjoyed the bit with Tengo and his father, and Ushikawa's entertaining, but it was so turgid compared to his previous stuff. Hoping this new one is shorter and more to-the-point. Would love to see him return to the lightheartedness of A Wild Sheep Chase or Hard Boiled Wonderland (tied with the Wind Up Bird Chronicle as my favourite Murakami novel) but doubt that will happen.
Jedward Woodward!
haha
I've only read Norwegian Wood and Kafka On The Shore so far
Kafka was brilliant, it's so inventive and eclectic. Norwegian Wood was decent but I found it pretty wearing at times (but then I read it years and years ago).
OKAY so this has now been confirmed.
Though, English translation date TBC.
Tentative title according to Wikipedia = "Making colorless Tasaki, the year of his pilgrimage" :')
catchy!