Haruki Murakami

[jack napier]

South of the Border, West of the Border is also a good one. It's pretty short, and doesn't have the depth of Wind Up Bird, but definitely worth looking in to. Fantastic ending.

Big ups to the guy who recommended Gibson's Neuromancer a couple pages ago. One of my favourites.

[stfuken]

as good as his novels are, i think i read somewhere that he sees himself primarily as a short story writer. my last murakami read was After the Quake, a collection of 6 unrelated stories set around the '95 Kobe earthquake. sooooo good.

[salaryman]

my last murakami read was After the Quake, a collection of 6 unrelated stories set around the '95 Kobe earthquake. sooooo good.

Agreed, I actually like his short stories a lot. It seems like he is better at detaching himself from the plot/characters if it is a short story and not a novel. It seems like the longer the book, etc. is, the more likely the main character starts to sound like him...

There were some pretty rad stories in that collection.

[christianjustin]

i've only read the elephant vanishes, its the book with all the short stories...it was excellent and i couldn't stop reading it.

[landho]

as good as his novels are, i think i read somewhere that he sees himself primarily as a short story writer. my last murakami read was After the Quake, a collection of 6 unrelated stories set around the '95 Kobe earthquake. sooooo good.

The stories are thematically related! It's HM's only short-story collection that was written as a collection proper; The Elephant Vanishes and Blind Woman, Sleeping Willow (two of my favorite HM books, by the way) were just compilations of previously published material.

Agreed, I actually like his short stories a lot. It seems like he is better at detaching himself from the plot/characters if it is a short story and not a novel. It seems like the longer the book, etc. is, the more likely the main character starts to sound like him...

There were some pretty rad stories in that collection.

after the quake contains some of Murakami's strongest short stories, including "Super Frog Saves Tokyo" and "Sugar Pie." It also marked an important turning in HM's writing career, as it contained (I think) his first forays into third-person narration. "Honey Pie" also was an important work (although some people may find it a little sentimental) simply because it was a straightforward, simple story that was not detached at all and was very emotionally honest--a move that HM had to eventually make in order to further his writing.

[salaryman]

Has anyone ever read his work in Japanese?

I've read almost all of the short stories in Japanese but only read one novel, Hear the Wind Sing, because I couldn't find it in English (apparently it is out there, just not widely available.) and because it takes me a while longer to get through the kanji. Even Murakami considers Hear the Wind Sing one of his weaker works so I don't think its the best piece to use for comparison, but its interesting to see the differences in the English and Japanese.

I find that English translations tend to make his work sound more "normal" or familiar than they feel in their original text. In the Japanese literary world his work is often criticized for being "too Western" or not Japanese enough. The critics--as well as admirers--say he sounds distinctly "foreign" even when he writes in Japanese. Sentence structure, diction, etc. are not traditional or classical in almost any way. Some of this I think is lost in most translations.

[landho]

Has anyone ever read his work in Japanese?

I've read almost all of the short stories in Japanese but only read one novel, Hear the Wind Sing, because I couldn't find it in English (apparently it is out there, just not widely available.) and because it takes me a while longer to get through the kanji. Even Murakami considers Hear the Wind Sing one of his weaker works so I don't think its the best piece to use for comparison, but its interesting to see the differences in the English and Japanese.

I find that English translations tend to make his work sound more "normal" or familiar than they feel in their original text. In the Japanese literary world his work is often criticized for being "too Western" or not Japanese enough. The critics--as well as admirers--say he sounds distinctly "foreign" even when he writes in Japanese. Sentence structure, diction, etc. are not traditional or classical in almost any way. Some of this I think is lost in most translations.

I managed to get an English copy of Hear the Wind Sing a while ago. Very short; able to be read in an hour or so. Of all of Murakami's novels, only that and Pinball, 1973 are not widely available in English. (Hear the Wind Sing can be found for a semi-reasonable price online; the Alfred Birnbaum translation of Norwegian Wood can, also; Pinball, 1973 costs a shit ton--I found a copy in Word and simply printed that out and had it bound at Kinko's.)

Hear the Wind Sing; Pinball, 1973; and the Birnbaum translation of Norwegian Wood were all published by Kodansha as English books for Japanese students. If you can track any of these down, they include kanji and a glossary in the back. You may find these helpful.

Have you read Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words? Jay Rubin, one of Murakami's primary translators, wrote it. Toward the end there is a chapter on translating Murakami, and he says that while Murakami sounds much more like English than other Japanese writers, his writing is still (obviously) Japanese. He gives some examples of the difficulty of translating Murakami and Japanese in general not only into English but into literary English.

Also interesting is comparing the Birnbaum translation of Norwegian Wood with the Rubin translation. I prefer the latter, but a lot of Murakami readers seem to prefer the former. Rubin's translation is more saturated in pop culture, though; I wonder how much of it was Murakami's intention. (At the beginning, for example, when the flight attendant asks the narrator how he is feeling, in the Rubin translation he says, "Kind of blue," which is a nod to the Miles Davis album. He says something more mundane in the Birnbaum translation.) Hard to say; Birnbaum has lived in Asia most of his life (the last I heard, he was teaching at a Malaysian university), whereas Rubin has lived in America most of his (currently teaching Japanese literature at Harvard). Murakami himself is Japanese but grew up immersed in American pop culture and literature and has spent a good amount of time in America. So it's hard to say what is intended.

[fallen angels]

hey lan, what did you think of Hear the Wind Sing? i also have the kodansha english edition but i haven't read it in like 3 years. i dont really remember there being a strong plot, just random passages about the protagonist. but i do remember noticing a few similarities and themes in it that are also found in his later work. i thought that was pretty cool, that at his earliest stage he already knew his style and characterization that he would later build upon.

[landho]

hey lan, what did you think of Hear the Wind Sing? i also have the kodansha english edition but i haven't read it in like 3 years. i dont really remember there being a strong plot, just random passages about the protagonist. but i do remember noticing a few similarities and themes in it that are also found in his later work. i thought that was pretty cool, that at his earliest stage he already knew his style and characterization that he would later build upon.

I liked Hear the Wind Sing, but like you, I liked it because I could see the seeds of Murakami's later work in it. It's short and if I remember correctly the plot is really thin; the book was basically conversations dealing with alienation and the process of art, peppered with pop-cultural allusions. Not nearly as in-depth as his later work.

The one thing I really liked about Hear the Wind Sing is the fragmented narrative style, in which Murakami writes the story in brief vignettes that revealed an overarching thread, kind of like a mosaic. I found out later (through reading interviews, etc.) that this was a matter of pragmatism rather than artistic intention; he could write only after he had gotten home from the bar (that he owned) and before he went to bed, so he could write only brief pieces here and there. Just like the French New Wave directors who began using jump cuts in editing because they didn't have enough money to shoot additional footage. Funny how that happens, sometimes.

[BostonWardrobe]

South of the Border, West of the Border is also a good one. It's pretty short, and doesn't have the depth of Wind Up Bird, but definitely worth looking in to. Fantastic ending.

Big ups to the guy who recommended Gibson's Neuromancer a couple pages ago. One of my favourites.

+ rep for South of the Border, West of the Sun. Possibly my favorite of his novels. Short, but oh so sweet.

[Appleseed]

I've always found Rubin's translations to be very much in character of Murakami's Japanese writing, no easy task.

And I agree, the short stories are his strength. The Second Bakery Attack is one of my favorite pieces of literature.

[alterion]

I loved after dark actually I think its kind of unfair to compare it to kafka on the shore or win up bird, those are novels wheras after-dark is really more of a novellete or novella at best. Itlack the complexity of those other works, but the imagery and story has stayed with me more than anything else he has written except maybe the character and ideas of nakata from kafka. Its small, beautifully formed and really brings across the dreamlike structures i his work for me.

[masuerte]

I heard my sister who goes to berkeley is going to see him talk or sign books in person or something.... wtf berkeley (shakes fist)

[landho]

I heard my sister who goes to berkeley is going to see him talk or sign books in person or something.... wtf berkeley (shakes fist)

I think there was a course at Berkeley that had Pinball, 1973 as part of the required reading. I surmise this because there were a flood of Pinball, 1973 repros (spiral-bound copies of the Kodansha printing) that flooded eBay out of Berkeley a few years ago. They were going for around $30 to $40, which I thought was absurd.

Of course, I'd (probably) gladly pay that now....

[fallen angels]

anyone from the Bay Area going to his lecture in October?

ps. this thread has motivated me to re-read my murakami novels. read South of the Border again over the weekend, such a beautiful story...

[landho]

anyone from the Bay Area going to his lecture in October?

ps. this thread has motivated me to re-read my murakami novels. read South of the Border again over the weekend, such a beautiful story...

Wish I was going to the lecture. Maybe I should make it out there, anyway--my sister lives in San Francisco but may be spending the next year and a half in D.C.

I love South of the Border. It's a minor work, but to me it and Hard-Boiled Wonderland are the best places to be introduced to Murakami.

Murakami wrote South of the Border at the same time as Wind-Up Bird. He said that they started as one story in his mind, but then during the process of writing, they bifurcated, like a cell dividing in two. You can definitely see a lot of themes from one in the other: both are stories of middle-class ennui and also the frightening and creepy mysteries that lie beyond everyday life.

[sircheesecake]

Im half-way through Norwegian Wood and I can see some parallel ideas in these stories. Although many years apart in age, Watanabesan and Okadasan (who happen to share the same first name) are having similar problems. Naoko and Kumiko have similar resemblences as well as Midori and May. Its weird how stuff can be so similar and yet the novel can still be very amazing and interesting. Perhaps it is like a good storyteller where you dont mind hearing the same story over and over again.

[sircheesecake]

This hasnt been posted and it a pretty sweet biography on Murakami

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVy0EsGQ6Ns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96J70zlRfFk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcQCF0CTXcQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuOkHBjTrHE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xmtetT4274

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwECY3Jz3dA

[Wolves]

I'm starting to read Hard boiled wonderland as I just got it for my birthday

[costly]

Wolves I just read HBW after glancing over this thread, and immediately it became one of my favorite novels I've ever read. I love the style Murakami uses and how he goes just over the edge, something very few authors can do without being subject to extreme criticism. You'll be sure to enjoy it.

[bbours]

I'm re-reading Blind Willow Sleeping Woman for a class in which I will re-design the hardcover jacket. It felt good reading Tony Takitani again.. gonna rent the movie again soon.

[habia]

I had the opportunity to see Murakami speak this past weekend.

What interested me most is that he doesn't seem to consider his work to be particularly artistic, instead he sees himself as just a guy telling stories, doing what he does.

He compared himself to a taxi driver at one point, saying he sees himself "as a guy just doing what he has to do." Craft of writing more than art of writing.

Also he said that when he writes he never/rarely has a destination in mind. That what he enjoys in writing, is seeing "what's next, what's next." "If you know the end, the fun is spoiled."

He will start writing with just an opening scene or image which he may have had in mind for weeks or months, then make things up from there.

He claims to never dream while sleeping, and that instead he does his dreaming while he writes, almost comparing it to lucid dreaming without ever actually using that term. he did say though that it is fun to be able to "stop, start, stop start."

He writes every day in the early morning, usually goes to sleep at 8 or 9pm and wakes at 3 or 4am. As he said, and I totally agree, there is something special about the hours or the early morning.

I love the way the light is during dawn and pre dawn hours, and if I really wanted I could see it all the time, yet instead every single day I and most other people sleep through it, dream through it. There is something in Murakami's writing which is dream like, simple and calm, I find it reassuring almost that he is writing his stories while I am sleeping.

Additionally, he said that he does read the english translations of his work and is very satisfied with them. Repeatedly questioned on this by the audience, each time he claimed the Japanese and English versions of his books are "basically the same" and couldn't seem to think of any even minor differences between the two.

about his musical taste:

he has somewhat of a rotation. In the morning he listens to baroque music, while driving always rock (REM, Beck and Radiohead are a few artists he mentioned), and in the evenings always jazz.

And about his open ended writing style, not having a plan or destination in mind for a story, he compared knowing when he is done to making love. "Somehow you just know."

a puzzling thing about this is that he seemed to say it is a subtle, vague thing, that somehow you just sort of know when you are done writing/making love. When making love though, knowing you are done is not so subtle...

he concluded the talk with a couple anecdotes. One, "Life is good sometimes" about a fan who might love one of his books but dislike the recent ones, or vice versa.

and his last line

"Please buy my next book"

[Fookums]

Good to know you were able to make it to the talk.

Murakami seems like an interesting guy in the sense that while he doesn't sound that eccentric, he would have interesting thoughts-- a guy I'd like to talk to while sitting in a café.

That answer about having no destination when writing is pretty interesting, especially since I've just finished HBW+tEotW, since it seems as if the ending were "Predetermined" related to the plot, but he didn't even know it himself; though, I guess the ending would have been "known" halfway through it.

I definitely have to read more of his work.

[fallen angels]

thanks for that habia. i was supposed to go to his lecture in Berkeley this saturday, already got my ticket and everything.. but i just found out i will be out of the country for work so i will have to miss it

anybody from the bay area want to buy my ticket? (its sold out!)

[Baeyer-Drewson]

I just finished Kafka on the Shore, and have previously read A Wild Sheep Chase, and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles. Thinking about reading Norwegian Wood or Hard-boiled Wonderland at the End of the World next time I read some Murakami.

Any other suggestions?

[cyberPUNK]

hard-boiled wonderland is definitely one of his best, norwegian wood doesn't even compare. dance dance dance is the sequel to a wild sheep chase if you're looking for something else.

[原料かば]

I just finished Kafka on the Shore, and have previously read A Wild Sheep Chase, and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles. Thinking about reading Norwegian Wood or Hard-boiled Wonderland at the End of the World next time I read some Murakami.

Any other suggestions?

did you finish sheep with dance dance dance?

[fallen angels]

I just finished Kafka on the Shore, and have previously read A Wild Sheep Chase, and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles. Thinking about reading Norwegian Wood or Hard-boiled Wonderland at the End of the World next time I read some Murakami.

Any other suggestions?

I think Kafka would've been more enjoyable after Hardboiled. Dance Dance Dance is a good story to follow with Wild Sheep Chase. Norwegian Wood would be a good choice if you want a change of pace. It's more "realistic" and doesn't have any of those surrealism elements or alternate reality themes like the others ones you named. Otherwise grab Hardboiled and enjoy the ride.

[american_hearts]

Agreed with all of that. I'm going to add that Norwegian Wood is a personal favorite of mine and endlessly re-readable. It seems to strike just the right note.

[into the rain]

latepass but can i just ask... so was she actually his mother in kafka? the ending was so ambiguous. i will probably reread the book after some time.