It was a co-worker who finally told me about Mishima's famous "Sea Of Fertility" series, and when he talked to me about the books, he added, "This Yukio Mishima was famous for committing seppuku", and as he described him in more detail, I went, "Wait, I KNOW about that guy! HE was a WRITER??"
I didn't know if I was being suggested to read Yukio Mishima because he wrote in the same style as Murakami, or if he was just another Japanese writer they knew and figured, "If zdorama loves Murakami who is a Japanese writer, then he'll surely love another Japanese writer!"
In any case, I had read and heard enough about the Sea of Fertility series enough to know I'd have to at least check out the first book "Spring Snow", and as luck would have it, I found a dealer selling the entire series in one paperback lot!
Right now am about halfway through Spring Snow,and I can see why my co-worker recommended mishima to me, a VERY similar style- very surreal in tone and also quite heavy on the man objectifying women thing that occurs so much in Murakami novels!
At this point, though, I must say I find main character Kiyoaki Matsugae to be an entirely disagreeable person whom, though similar in ways to the standard Murakami protagonist, I find offensive and hard to sympathize with! Reading up, it seems his friend Honda is going to be the recurring character in the series, so we'll see how this all goes down....
