My Haruki Murakami Top Ten Books!

My Haruki Murakami Collection

With the brand new Haruki Murakami novel  "The City and Its Uncertain Walls" English translated version out this month, thought it a PERFECT time to go back over his past titles and making an impromptu TOP TEN list, ranking my favorites in order and giving a brief summary of what made it special to me!

Over the years, there have been some I've LOVED, some I thought were OK and even some that underwhelmed, but all of them touched me in some way and here are what I consider his ten BEST!

10.

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

This was the first 'real time" novel of Murakami's I'd read since getting in to him- A story I enjoyed a lot, detailing the story of a man whose childhood friends abruptly began ignoring him one day, I was surprised by how little "magical realism" was in this. In fact, save for a few small abstract scenes, Colorless Tsukuru read like a fairly straight-forward book!

Named "Colorless" Tazaki because all his friends have colors for surnames ( Aka, Ao, Kuro, Shiro), we meet each of them one by one as he goes on a journey to figure out just why all of them have decided to cut him out of their lives one day on a seeming whim!

A funny side-story is that at the time Tsukuru Tazaki came out, I was in charge of the book department of my store. The original hardcover version had an intricate dust jacket with "windows" cut out to show colors. Very intersting, but really easily damaged during shop wear, and to alleviate this problem, the publishers sent a whole mailing tube full of replacement covers. I'm talking like about 30 covers, and though I did use a few to replace the slightly damaged copies, I still had a whole tube full. I meant to hold on to those, sadly I changed departments and in the handover the new guy got rid of all my old signs, posters and those covers!!! Too bad, would be great to have now as a collector!

9.

A Wild Sheep Chase

A much-lauded book,  A Wild Sheep Chase was entertainingly baffling as expected! The story of a man who is hired by a mysterious group to track down an elusive sheep of unknown breed with a star on its back is as surreal as it sounds, and with it came all the quirks a Murakami novel is known for!

Murakami's "Trilogy Of The Rat" series is one which I read in just about the worst way possible, with Dance Dance Dance (Part 4) being the first book I read, then Wild Sheep Chase (2) and then Hear the Wind Sing (1) and Pinball,1973 (2). Luckily they all seem to hold their own as individual stories, and the connecting character of the Sheep Man as a mysterious part of the story you can still enjoy without knowing all his backstory, and Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance are some of my faves EVEN reading them out of order!

8. 

Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

One thing I really liked about Hard Boiled Wonderland is that it seemed just made for fans of his specific style. Like director Wes Anderson is constantly accused of making quirky films that exist only for fans of his eccentric style, Hard boiled seems to say, "So You Like Murakami's Magical Realism? Well, HERE's A story for YOU!"

Overlapping stories following two men: one a guy hired by a secret governmental bureau located underneath a labyrinth sewer system  as a human data programmer, and a young man working in the library of a magical town surrounded by a a huge intricate wall, where he is tasked with reading and cataloging dreams away. As things ratchet up, the two stories converge and become one greater tale, a method I was thrilled to experience!

Besides how very "Murakami-ish" the book is, Wonderland was one of the few Murakami books where the conclusion seemed to make perfect sense to me, a real "Ah! I get it!" feeling, a far cry from a lot of his others where you leave scratching your head, trying to make the most of it, LOL!

7.

Killing Commendatore

This was a highly enjoyable and easy read which, after I’d finished reading it and wanted to go onto the forums to discuss it, was shocked to find many fans didn’t enjoy it as much as I did- citing boring story, meandering plot, etc, but I REALLY dug it!

Commendatore tells the tale of a portrait painter who, after breaking up with his wife, moves to a secluded house inthe mountains owned by a famous artist where his life takes a surreal turn after he discovers a mysterious painting in the attic. from there things begin to happen to him: ringing bells in the night, a mysterious hole in the ground that beckons him, and visits from a creature that may or may not even exist in this world!

Perhaps as an artist myself I easily identified with the main character as a portrait painter.

Murakami's attention to the artist’s methods, the posing, the sketching, the painting, all of it made for intriguing storytelling to me, and these passages are the parts I love most.

Always interested to read about what would "happen next", I liked the secondary characters as well; the enigmatic neighbor Menshiki, the blunt but curious young girl Mariye, all of these types you expect to find in every Murakami novel, and I welcome them all!

6.

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle

Seen by most to be THE definitive "Murakami" book, this story starts with the main character' tasked by his wife to find their missing cat, a seemingly simple request that takes him into a long, mysterious journey of back alleys, abandoned homes, abandoned wells, and the most unusual of people!

I love the first part where he meets the sassy young girl May Kasahara and gets involved in her shenanigans (including counting the number of bald people for a wig manufacturer) their relationship reminded me of the patter between the main character and Yuki in Dance Dance Dance, and I loved the dialog.

Part two is the one which lost me a few times, the part involving the war veteran and his horrific memories of the war. As the war and the traumas related to it seem to be a major theme of this book, it is possible that I am LITERALLY "losing the plot", however, I admit I just couldn't get into it.

The third part was another one I really loved, where the main character meets a Mother and Son whose business seems to be de-stressing clients ( this reminded me a LOT of the movie "Touchy Feely" where a man finds himself with the same kind of powers), I  was so interested  in these people and was curious about their history and backstory. Could have been a whole book on their own!

All in all, a real EPIC of a novel! With SO MANY different stories and arcs within it, it's no wonder so many cite Wind Up Bird as their favorite!

5.

Kafka On The Shore

 A wonderful, wonderful story, and such GREAT characters! With the book split between two characters, 15 year old Kafka Tamura who runs away from his abusive father to find solace in a mysterious private library run by a beautiful librarian named Miss Saeki, and a simple-minded elderly man named Nakata who speaks with cats who finds himself on a quest to find a magical doorway with only a tuff and gruff lorry driver named Hoshino to help him, there was much to captivate the imagination and as I read it, I didn't want it to end!

Once I was done, I ran online to read up more about the book, and was thrilled to find that they had done an onstage version of Kafka On The Shore, starring such luminaries as Naohito Fujiki and Rie Miyazawa!

Very intriguing to scroll through the pictures of the performance (as well as other fans' illustrations of what they think the characters look like) though I must admit that no matter how good they are, they' ll never quite match what I imagined for myself in my head! 

4.

Dance Dance Dance

 I made a note to myself to seek out The Elephant Vanishes, but happened to come upon one of Murakami’s earlier works instead, a book entitled “Dance, Dance, Dance”, and reading just the first page of this tale of a man obsessed with revisiting a place called the Dolphin Hotel because he has dreams of a voice calling him back, instantly captivated me and I knew I had to read this one first!

  Years Ago, an unnamed man  had gone to the hotel with a call girl who abruptly disappeared. He makes plans to go revisit the hotel, but when he does, he is shocked to find the entire business has been replaced with a rich, glitzy establishment. When asking the receptionist what happened to the old place (and its owners), she confides in him that she has experienced things of a supernatural nature and feels it’s connected to the old hotel…and why no one seems to want to talk about it.

  As he researches more, he finds that there is a lot more going on than what appears on the surface, and as he explores, he crosses paths with new and interesting characters- from a former classmate turned movie star named Gotanda to a precocious 13 year old girl named Yuki (easily my favorite character in the book), and the more he looks, the more he finds himself getting deeper into the murky mystery!

As my very first Murakami book I have strong sentimental attachment to Dance Dance Dance, and there was even another connection when part of the story ended up taking place here in Hawaii!! And as I mentioned, though this was actually part 4 of a trilogy, I never once felt like I was missing out on anything- (Murakami's stories are so abstract anyway, that when characters like Sheep Man appear, I just take it at face value of a new character appearing for the first time!) and in fact, loved the novel so much that it ignited my passion for Murakami and his works which continues to this day!

3.

Norwegian Wood

PS: Just to show how polarizing Murakami books are with his fans, though there are many like me who cite 1Q84 as his best, other readers rate it as his WORST! Same with "Norwegian Wood" (who similarly falls onto either his best loved or least liked), only Murakami's works have such opposite reactions from fans!!

As for me, I really adored it, and felt it his most "human drama" out of all his books: following the story of a young man named Toru and his meeting and losing of a love interest and his journey in between. This story felt like it could have been directed by Hirokazu Koreeda with its slow-paced scenes which let you sit back and absorb the moments...

There was a scene where Toru goes to visit his Love Interest's aging father in the hospital and I remember that there wasn't much going on to advance the plot, but such care was taken describing what was happening- him cutting cucumber and feeding it to the old man, etc, and I thought, "This is like those Koreeda movies!"

MANY hate the third act of the story for some reason, and though I won't spoil any of it here, I must say how surprised I was to find it so disliked as I personally found it an absolutely wonderful wrap up. Maybe they didn't see it the way I did, and come to think of it, even the MOVIE version didn't convey the ending correctly, at least in MY opinion!

2.

After Dark

I simply BLEW through Haruki Murakami’s book “After Dark”…had no idea it was such a relatively SHORT story, but MAN was it good! 

After Dark tells the story of a girl named Mari who is nursing a cup of coffee in the wee hours of the night at a Denny’s restaurant.  A young trombone player named Takahashi  comes in for a meal before his gig, and tells Mari that he recognizes her. They had met years ago when he was on a group date with Mari’s beautiful older sister Eri. They talk about things for awhile at the Denny's and have a nice enough conversation but he cannot help but feel there is something bothering Mari...

I have to say that even though this book was certainly full of “Murakami-isms” (Jazz Records, Cats, Supernatural Powers), this was much more straight-forward than his other books, and even had a nice, thoughtful conclusion to it (a REAL rarity in the books I’ve read!).

I mentioned how short the book was, and perhaps that was an added charm to it: the entire story of After Dark takes place in one evening over the span of about 7 hours (from midnight to 7-ish in the morning) and when I finished reading it, I had that same satisfaction I had after seeing movies like “Before Sunrise” or even “The Breakfast Club”, where entire scenes are simply people talking and learning about each other through one sitting.

Just LOVED this Book!

1.

1Q84

HOLY HELL was this GOOD! The story of the two star-crossed (moon crossed, rather) romantics Aomame and Tengo fighting against distance, time and unfortunate events to meet one another laid against the surreal backdrop of other-worldy “little people” who control the world behind the veil of a mysterious cult is a mysterious, engaging and totally exciting tome of EPIC proportions!

The book takes its time to introduce and flesh out the main characters with so much care that you come to really love them, from the main characters of Aomame, Tengo and the precocious 17 year old scene-stealer Fuka-Eri down to the wizened Dowager and her kind but gruff bodyguard Tamaru and even Tengo’s outspoken Editor Komatsu, their personalities just leap off the page and make you want to read MORE!

I can’t remember a time when a book thoroughly entertained me so much- the pages of my book are now full of post-its marking some of my favorite scenes and quotes, some intriguing, some hilarious, and some just very beautiful and poetic passages. Leaving those stuck there so I can refer back and read them from time to time!

After finishing up the book which ended with one of the most SATISFYING CONCLUSIONS yet, I was sorely in need of more 1Q84, and so went online to read up more about it. It was here I found that there is quite a bit of appreciation for this novel by people all over, and some of the artier ones have even taken the time to ILLUSTRATE their versions of what the characters and the world of 1Q48 looked like through THEIR eyes! So much fun perusing the images, though of course there can't match what I'd already dreamed up in my head!

Another thing that I found so fascinating : Haruki Murakami writes his stories with such detail that I would find myself wanting to look up what some of the things he referred to actually looked like: Aomame’s Green Junko Shimada dress. The Esso “Tiger In Your Tank” Billboard which figured prominently in the backdrop of the important scenes.The Autobahn which Aomame used to climb down from, etc…and guess what? when you typed in “1Q84 into the image search engine, ALL of these images came up with it! It seems there were a LOT of people looking up these images after reading his book!

And for those wondering, the title makes a lot more sense when you read it in Japanese, as "9" is pronounced "Kyu", so the book in Japanese is called "Ichi-Q-Hachi-Yon", a very punny title indeed!

And that's where we stand!!!

At this moment I haven't included his short-story collections, though I may work them into my rankings if i decide to make a bigger list incorporating ALL his books. I will say that if I DID include the compilations here, "The Elephant Vanishes" would almost certainly be in my Top Ten somewhere... And with the new book "The City and It's Uncertain Walls" out (and of which I've JUST acquired today!!!), it may yet be ANOTHER big fave and I'll  have to readjust this whole list all over again!

Just arrived in the mail today!!!!

Report back soon after I've had a chance to read it- gonna start on it this evening!!!

More Keigo Higashino on Film: "The Name of The Game Is a Kidnapping"

As I’ve mentioned many times before, one of the great things about being a relatively new Keigo Higashino fan is that every time I’ve finished reading yet another terrific story from him, inevitably there will already have been a TV or movie adaptation of the works.

And so it was with “The Name Of The Game Is A Kidnapping”, a Keigo Higashino novel I recently finished  (and loved) and, when going online to see it a Special or Film had been made of it, found that not only HAD they made a movie of it, I had actually downloaded it along with a few other flicks some 15+ years earlier!

As I recall, I was trying to acquire the 2007 Erika Sawajiri movie “Closed Note” and on the same movie film forum they had also just uploaded a 2003 film called “g@me” with Naohito Fujiki and Yukie Nakama. I grabbed both of them, but as I was in Erika Sawajiri mode at the time, I chose to watch Closed Note...and simply put g@me in a folder on my HD for another time! There it sat for YEARS until, looking up film adaptation of The Name Of The Game is a Kidnapping and seeing the movie poster for that same film I had downloaded a decade + ago:

"HEY!" I gasped. "I HAVE this movie somewhere!" Racing to my shelves, I found the hardrive and located the folder containing the film...but sadly, it was so OLD that the file was utterly corrupted and unplayable! D'OH!  Undeterred, I ran over to the forums and went through the long and tedious process of acquiring it all over again!  Succeeding, I had it it hand, and just this past weekend I FINALLY got to watch it!!!

Our story:

The main character Shunsuke Sakuma (Naohito Fujiki) is a flashy ad man in charge of  a Beer Company’s promotion, including the launch of a new item.. Arrogant and ruthless, he executes plans in a calculating and intricate way built for success!

 

With meticulous thought and planning, he has no room for failure…thus he is stunned and shocked when his ideas are nixed and he is taken off the team by the beer company’s president Katsutoshi Katsuragi (Ryo Ishibashi) who feels Sakuma's ideas are not the direction he sees...and wants Sakuma OFF the team!!!

A blow to his ego, Sakuma spends the evening drinking and then somehow finds himself at the gates of Katsuragi’s home that night. Whether he is there to confront him with fisticuffs or to beg for reconsideration of his plans, he does not know, but before he can act, he sees the most unusual sight: a young woman (Yukie Nakama) sneaking over the walls of the property and scurrying away!

Intrigued, Sakuma follows the girl as she takes a cab to a hotel and, when he sees that she cannot get a room no matter how much she pleads, finally confronts her and, introducing himself as a business associate of the Katsuragi Company,  asks who she is and what she was doing at the house!

The girl confesses that she is Juri Katsuragi, the black sheep daughter of the family whose mother was one of father’s mistresses. Always at odds with Chiharu, the family’s real daughter, the two sisters had a heated argument that evening which blew up, causing Juri to suddenly decide to run away from home!

Trying to calculate how he can use this information against Katsuragi, Sakuma temporarily takes the girl to his place, deciding what to do. Juri would like to leave the town and go to a faraway place, but to do that, she needs money, and lots of it.

With Sakuma hell-bent on punishing Katsuragi and with Juri needing funds, they come up with an elaborate plan: to FAKE a kidnapping! Sakuma will pretend to kidnap Juri and then hold her for some 3 million in ransom, and then split it evenly between the two of them! With Juri’s family connections and Sakuma’s savvy, they create an elaborate con to trick the blustery Katsuragi out of his money and make him feel the dregs of defeat!

But things won’t be easy for the two: Not only does Katsuragi have the authorities on his side and the money  and power to get the best people looking for them, but Sakuma must now stay one step ahead of them and deal with a naughty and strong-headed young girl on his hands as well!

Despite his intricate and careful plans, Juri infrequently listens to what he says and acts on her own…and at the end of the day, may be hiding a huge secret of her OWN, one which threatens to undermine Sakuma's finely laid plans!

My summation of the film: Thought the first half of the movie was a fairly faithful take on the book, with only minor changes (like Katsuragi owning a beer company instead of a car company), the second half really veered into uncharted territory!

At the place in the film where the novel ended, I was surprised to see a good 35 minutes of story “added” to the film’s conclusion, and one I can’t say I was too enthusiastic about! Without giving away any spoilers, I really liked the end of the book but found the new ending in the movie quite bland and cliched in that generic j-drama kind of way. 

Too bad, as I feel both Fujiki and Nakama great in their roles (though Yukie looked a bit old to play a runaway teenager, but I digress…) and did a convincing job!

Nonetheless, another fun experience reading the Keigo Higashino novel and then immediately watching the adaptation. Always interesting how they bring the book to life and the cinematic choices they make!

New Keigo Higashino Novel "The Final Curtain" Arrives!

Just got the Keigo Higashino novel THE FINAL CURTAIN in the mail today! His latest novel (and the fourth in the Kyoichiro Kaga "Shinzanmono" series), this makes 12 of his books I’ve managed to acquire over the years!

My Keigo Higashino Collection

Out of them, the ones I’ve enjoyed most (probably not surprising since I was already quite familiar with the characters from its television series) are the Galileo books, (The Devotion of Suspect X, Salvation of a Saint, A Midsummer’s Equation and Silent Parade)…these are fun and quirky, as expected of its lead character Manabu Yukawa!

I also like “Under The Midnight Sun” quite a lot, a riveting tale of revenge being best served cold (made into series "Byakuyakou"), and I loved, loved loved  “The Miracles of Namiya General Store” (of which I’ve recently gushed about here!)

And now we have the fourth Kyoichiro Kaga novel. As you may recall, it was Higashino’s book “Malice” that first introduced me to Higashino’s novels, and that happened to be the first in the Kyoichiro Kaga series (with “Newcomer” and “A Death In Tokyo” following), so I’m particularly amped to get into this one!!!

This should be a good one, and one that hopefully will tide me over til we can get the next translated Detective Galileo book “Invisible Helix” late this December!

The Wonders of “The Miracles of the Namiya General Store”

Recently read one of the most entertaining, sweet and touching books, “The Miracles of the Namiya General Store”, by the awesome author Keigo Higashino. As some of you know, I’ve been obsessed with reading all the works of his I could find (of the few works of his that have been translated into English, anyway) after being blown away by his story “MALICE” and this was one I was particularly anticipating!

Most of Higashino’s novels centre around mystery and crime, (a la his GALILEO and SHINZANMONO works) however, Miracles of Namiya Store is a pleasant diversion, dealing with a more magical realism type style  in the vein of Haruki Murakami. Miracles concerns an old, abandoned general store that gives out advice to those who seek it- though the method of transaction between asker and giver is one of inspired wonder! More on the plot later....

I really loved this book, and after wards must have recommended it to SEVERAL of my friends, even as I was re-reading it yet again! And as almost every novel of Higashino’s has been translated into television series, one-off specials or theatrical films, I wondered with hope if Miracles had had the similar treatment….and was HAPPILY THRILLED to find out it HAD! A 2017 release, this movie starred actors and actresses I loved, and wasted NO TIME grabbing it!

Our Story:

 Three troubled youths (Ryosuke Yamada, Nijiro Murakami, Kanchiro Sato) break into a house, tie up the owner and flee with her valuables into the darkness. They attempt a getaway, however the vehicle they’ve acquired won’t start and, trapped in the neighborhood by the police, they’re forced to find a place to hide out for the night til the heat dies down.

One of the teens remembers an old abandoned general store in the neighborhood and they make for it.

 This is the Namiya General Store, and though they do not know it, once upon a time it was famous not only for its goods and wares, but the kind and humorous advice given by the Owner, Mr. Namiya (Nishida Toshiyuki). If fact, the place and his advice became something of a small sensation in the area at the time!

 

Namiya has long since passed on and the general store shuttered for years. But from time to time, troubled individuals will still drops letters asking for advice into the mail slot, in hopes of getting some kind of divine guidance in their problematic lives.

As the three teens hunker down in the dusty old store, they contemplate their options…when a letter clinks down from the mail slot, startling them all. But after checking outside, it seems this letter came from out of thin air. And upon reading the letter, they realize it is a letter that had actually been sent some 30 years past! 

How can this be happening? The boys do not know, but without anything else to do while they wait out the night, one of the lads decides to answer the letter and place it in the mail crate out back, where the writers always picked up their messages.

Through this magical, impossible connection, the boys answer letters from a faraway time, and as we do, we see how their crude but sincere advice shapes those that ask for it, as well as those around them.

There is  Katsuro Matsuoka, (Kento Hayashi), a struggling musician torn between taking over his Father’s (Kaoru Kobayashi) fish business…or leaving the family and little sister (Asami Himeka) behind and pursuing his career.

There is Seri Mizuhara (Mugi Kadowaki),  a former orphan herself who rises from despair to become a world famous vocalist…

An orphaned young woman named Eiko (Rio Yamashita) who becomes suicidal when she discovers that she is a child from an illicit relationship and a mother who seemingly tried to kill both of them in a car crash (which only she survived)..

A woman named Harumi Tamura (Machiko Ono) balancing life working an office job by day and  cabaclub hostess by night, while all the time caring for her elderly parents . She hopes to gamble on quitting her office job and working full-time as a hostess and investing in a (seemingly  shady) business venture with one of her clients.

With all of these individuals, their lives are guided by the words of the mysterious advice-givers, and we see by the fateful outcomes, for better or worse, just how everyone, in one way or another, is truly connected to each other.

“The book was better” is a oft used trope, and I can’t deny that a lot of the time I was disappointed by the exclusion of certain scenes or passages from the novel, however, for its cinematic time restrictions, I think this movie hits all the high points and captures the spirit and hopefulness of the book perfectly fine, and had me bawling my eyes out by the end as well!

I've already long sung my praises of Keigo Higashino ,and as he's one of the most celebrated writers in Japan, my opinion hardly matters, but I'm just amazed at how many wonderful novels, short stories, television series and movies he's made that have all become huge favorites of mine. Here's hoping to MORE of his work getting translated! There's still so MUCH out there and I'm eager to read 'em ALL!!!