Haruki Murakami

[coinlockerbaby]

Im a big fan of author Haruki Murakami, perhaps the best known Japanese writer in the West (although I also like Ryu Murakami - another big star in Japan and not related - who wrote the book "Coin Locker Babies" -hence my handle... )

Anyway, I just picked up Haruki's latest, "After Dark", about strange goings on in Tokyo between the hours of midnight and dawn. Its really cool, and kinda chilling.

Any other fans?

What is your favorite Murakami book?

[prufrock]

always wanted to make the dive into japense novels. what a good murakami book to start with?

[Leonard Leroy]

start with Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. It's a fast read, with a fast pace

He's my favorite author and Wind Up Bird Chronicle is my favorite book. That book was such a journey and it was so perfect to me.

[coinlockerbaby]

I started with wild Sheep Chase and got hooked from there...

Love that book.

Also love "hardboiled" but if youre not used to his style it might be a litte too much Im thinkin...

[GiZMO]

I read Kafka on the Shore as a choose your own reading assignment my senior year and it was awesome. I'm having trouble getting my hands on Norwegian Wood, anyone know if it's good? Hardboiled on my list!

[cyberPUNK]

murakami haruki is the reason i'm majoring in japanese. my goal is to read his novels in their original language some day.

[beast]

What about Natsuo Kirino? Read Grotesque. Wasnt your typical thriller but got my attention and made me finished the whole thing in 3 days. Readnig her ealier book Out now.

[sybaritical]

I pick one up every now and then and so far I've read about about six. They're all good ... "The Wind up bird chronicles" is a worthwhile epic, or maybe 'Norweigian wood" just for the details ... The ending of "Kafka" was infuriating as I recall.

I always set them to soundtracks when I read them.

Anybody else watch the screen version of Tony Takatami? What did you think?

[mrip]

I love Murakami, I read Wild Sheep Chase as pick your own book thing for HS and acted out a scene with my group and fell in love with his writing style. The class enjoyed our performace of the scene also. It was when the main character accepts the assignment of finding the sheep. I've read about 5 of his books. I read After Dark in one sitting because it was so short. I'm working on Wind Up Bird Chronicle right now.

[Gem_art]

I read Kafka on the Shore as a choose your own reading assignment my senior year and it was awesome. I'm having trouble getting my hands on Norwegian Wood, anyone know if it's good? Hardboiled on my list!

Norweigian Wood was his breakthrough novel and led to him leaving Japan for a period of self imposed exile as he struggled to come to terms with his celebrity. It's a wonderful book, even more melancholy than his other work.

I'm reading Underground at the moment, his account of the Tokyo subway gassing. It's a fantastic book which has provided me with a unique insight into Japanese society. Victims of the gassing he interviewed went back to work two days after, if that was the U.K. they'd still be on long term sick leave now...

From Murakami I found my way onto some Raymond Chandler novels which are also amazing. If anyone's got any other suggestions of similar authors let them fly...

[coinlockerbaby]

Norwegian Wood is quite different from his other books I would say - more of a straightforward weepie. Less weird stuff going on. It is actually taught in schools in Japan now, and was the biggest selling japanese novel for almost ten years. I like it, but I dont think its really representative of his style...

Is "Grotesque" the novel about the women who work in the bento factory who kill the dude..?

As far as recommendations go, I really, really like the other Murakami (Ryu's) "Coin Locker babies". Not particularly similar in style - but just awesomely written, and another interesting insight into Japan. Its about two boys who are abandoned at birth in a train station coin locker (a true event) and imagines them growing up. Both are filled with rage at the mother and the society that dumped them - one turns that rage inwards and becomes a self-destructive rock star, and the other one directs his anger outwards and plots violent revenge on society at large....

An angry, but in the end redemptive and quite beautiful, passionate book.

[beast]

Is "Grotesque" the novel about the women who work in the bento factory who kill the dude..?.

Thats Out which I am reading halfway.

Grotesque is a story about 2 Japanese hookers who were strangled, one monstrously beautiful in her youth and the other monstrously ugly at her death. This is narrated by the former's sister who is grotesquely hideous in her heart and judgmental in her own right and her high school classmate who became a monster in joining a cult and indirectly causing the death of school kids.

Oh, and there are incest angles and themes throughout.

And its written in 4 different narratives, a bit Rashomon. Not exactly Pullitzer prize stuff but somethin you can analyse in a book club.

[grapz]

norwegian wood is a great book, fast read.

[ang_kangkong]

I actually might read the Wind Up Bird Chronicles. The cover for the hardbound book was so intriguing, later I found out it was by Chip Kidd. The dense design kinda boded well for a dense novel. Is it? No spoilers, please.

[cromulated]

What is your favorite Murakami book?

i'd say a tie between "kafka on the shore" and "dance dance dance"...caveat: have yet to read "the wind-up bird chronicle"...

[sushijerk]

My favorite was probably Sputnik Sweetheart and Dance Dance Dance. Actually reading Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman right now.

Norwegian Wood is probably in the top 3 for me but it's the least "murakami" out of all his books so I'm never sure if I should recommend it or not to someone who started reading his more recent stuff.

[snickersnicker]

I've read all of his books aside from the two very early ones (Pinball 1973 and Hear the Wind Sing) and Underground. I'm working my way through the new one right now. My list goes like this:

Wild Sheep Chase

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Dance Dance Dance

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles

After the Quake

Norweigan Wood

Kafka On the Shore

(everything else is pretty samey and mediocre)

Definitely my favourite author still writing books. Did anyone get a chance to see the movie they made of his short story? Ken something-or-other.

[darkanimal]

One day I will be able to talk to cats like Mr. Nakata

[Gem_art]

Anybody else watch the screen version of Tony Takatami? What did you think?

I've not seen it, any good?

[mellowfellow]

The movie was good.

For music, check out Piana. The album is called Ephemeral, it was influenced by Murakami''s novels.

http://www.dotshop.se/ds/release.php?code=HAP003

[GiZMO]

It was strange reading through Kafka on the Shore without music even tho music was a heavy theme throughout. Just curious, aside from the classical music that they mentioned (Archduke Trio, they are real are they not?), if anyone had listened to music while reading through this particular book what suggested music do you have?

I had seen the movie not knowing it was Murakami work (A book, yes?) I guess now I know why it was depressing and ended no where. I enjoyed it though.

[coinlockerbaby]

What about his short stories? Although Ive loved all of his novels, I find his short stories hit and miss. Some of them, especially from "The Elephant Vanishes" are brrrrilliant. Im thinking the "dancing Dwarf" , that one about the green moster in the woman's garden.Other are....mmmeeeehhhhh.

Whereas the stories in "After the Quake" were mostly pretty weak, I thought.

[Gem_art]

The Birthday Stories compliation is good as well.

[GiZMO]

Where can I cop?

[FUCK]

i've enjoyed everything i've read by him. haven't gotten around to after dark simply because my reading list is too large, but i've heard both both praise and criticism, either way i'll decide for myself. Nowegian wood and sputnik sweet hearts are both short and i feel get overlooked, both are great. Although i have to say hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world is probably his best. The way he's able to blur the lines between reality and this dream world is really quite masterful. Really reminded me of turning points in my life that have happend or yet to be. I'd say any of those three would be his most accessible for the begining murakami. As for his short stories, I've only read some from literary magazines and Blind Willow Sleeping Womam collection (which i though was excellent!), some of the stories are sections form his larger works, which could be a good way to get started, either way i'd recommend it.

[lenn]

i've only read Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.. will cop more books as i love his style

too bad my japanese isn't good enough yet to read the books in their original language:(

[american_hearts]

jay rubin FTW

"I hope this turns your stomach a little: "His men held Yamamoto down with their hands and knees while he began skinning Yamamoto with the utmost care. It truly was like skinning a peach. I couldn't bear to watch. I closed my eyes. When I did this, one of the soldiers hit me with his rifle butt. He went on hitting me until I opened my eyes. But it hardly mattered: eyes open or closed, I could still hear Yamamoto's voice. He bore the pain without a whimper - at first. But soon he began to scream."

This is just the beginning of the passage in Haruki Murakami's The Wind-up Bird Chronicle in which a Japanese espionage agent is skinned alive by a Mongolian army officer. It gets much worse. I remember living with this chapter day after day as I translated it from Murakami's gruesome Japanese into (I hope) equally gruesome English. Unlike the narrator, Lieutenant Mamiya, I did not have the luxury of closing my eyes - even for an instant - as I worked on it. I am occasionally reminded of the experience when I see people hiding their eyes at a violent film. I once tried to talk to Murakami himself about this passage, but he refused: it was just too sickening, he said.

Of course, he had it easy: he just had to write it. I, on the other hand, had to translate it, which is much slower. I'm not saying that translating a text is more intense than writing it to begin with - after all, the author had to imagine every detail he put into the scene - but it's safe to say that translating is the most intense form of reading you can do. Take the flaying scene. If it really grosses you out as a reader, you can make it go away. You can squint. You can skim. If you're translating, though, and you close your eyes, that soldier starts hitting you with his rifle butt until you open them again.

When you translate, you do not just passively absorb what's on the original page, you get actively involved in imagining every detail the author put in there - every sight, sound, smell, touch and taste - and in finding the right words for them in your own language."

[fallen angels]

haruki murakami is for sure my favorite author. my favorites are Norwegian Wood and Hardboiled Wonderland. i've read all of his novels except After Dark, which i've been trying to get started on for a while...

if anyone wants Pinball 1973, pm me, i can email it to you.

[snickersnicker]

I've always found The One AM Radio - The Hum of the Electric Air! and earlier works to be a great soundtrack to Muramaki's work. His new record, This Too Will Pass, works quite well, too.

And, of course, the Wind-Up Bird (the band) works as well.

[iamstarwars]

I really liked reading Haruki Murakami's books. I spent a summer a few years ago reading all I could find from him. On the other hand, I really hate Ryu Murakami's writings. The first book he wrote (can't remember the title) is probably the only thing I liked from him. I remember watching Tokyo Decadence too, one of the worst movies I ever saw.