Kevin's Watch

Can it be true - there's no Murakami thread yet? Okay, then I'll make a start.

Haruki Murakami has been my favourite author for the last couple of years. He writes something that could best be described as phantastic realism I think. His plots are strange, twisted, surreal. His language is very minimalistic. His protagonists are everybodies without any outstanding features except that they are usually very passive and disillusioned. No emotional reading, no underlying messages, no katharsis - but if you like movies like "Mulholland Drive" you might like his books. I also like his subtle sense of humour.

For a start I recommend either "A Wild Sheep Chase" (part of a series but can be read as a stand-alone novel) or "Hard-boiled Wonderland Or The End Of The World" or "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle".

You probably won't be able to enjoy his short stories until you've become a fan, but they're also great.

I just bought the German translation of "Kafka On The Shore" which I'm going to read once I've finished Runes of the Earth.

Go to your local library and give it a try. It's great stuff - although very different from anything that SRD has written.

His name is on my list. (Seriously. I printed it out and stuck it on my wall. I cross books off as I read them.) There seems to have been a recent upsurge in the number of really good, highly recommended books displayed prominently in the local Borders, and I know they have a number of copies of Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore there, so once I'm done with the stuff I already have his work will be among the first I get.

I have A Wild Sheep Chase, but it's been such a long time since I read it I can barely remember it. Didn't even know it was part of a series.

Remember enjoying it though...very unusual...didn't think of it as fantasy though.

--A

Okay, great. Hurry up then, Murrin.

Murakami is quite popular in Germany at the moment, too, but I discovered him by accident (I always wanted to read something from contemporary Japan and I'm glad I found him).


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haruki_Murakami

www.murakami.ch/main_4.html

Avatar wrote:I have A Wild Sheep Chase, but it's been such a long time since I read it I can barely remember it. Didn't even know it was part of a series.

Remember enjoying it though...very unusual...didn't think of it as fantasy though.

--A

No, not really fantasy, but where do you draw the line? It's surreal and phantastic, and I'm just not into Orcs.

Good question really. I think I'll have to reread it.

--A