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| 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!
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!
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!
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!
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| Just arrived in the mail today!!!! |
Report back soon after I've had a chance to read it- gonna start on it this evening!!!
