Haruki Murakami (村上春樹) is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been best-sellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Gunzo Prize for New Writers, the World Fantasy Award, the Tanizaki Prize, Yomiuri Prize for Literature, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Noma Literary Prize, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Kiriyama Prize for Fiction, the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Fiction, the Jerusalem Prize, and the Princess of Asturias Awards. Growing up in Ashiya, near Kobe before moving to Tokyo to attend Waseda University, he published his first novel Hear the Wind Sing (1979) after working as the owner of a small jazz bar for seven years. His notable works include the novels Norwegian Wood (1987), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994–95), Kafka on the Shore (2002) and 1Q84 (2009–10); the last was ranked as the best work of Japan's Heisei era (1989–2019) by the national newspaper Asahi Shimbun's survey of literary experts. His work spans genres including science fiction, fantasy, and crime fiction, and has become known for his use of magical realist elements. His official website cites Raymond Chandler, Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan as key inspirations to his work, while Murakami himself has named Kazuo Ishiguro, Cormac McCarthy and Dag Solstad as his favourite currently active writers. Murakami has also published five short story collections, including First Person Singular (2020), and non-fiction works including Underground (1997), an oral history of the Tokyo subway sarin attack, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (2007), a memoir about his experience as a long distance runner. His fiction has polarized literary critics and the reading public. He has sometimes been criticised by Japan's literary establishment as un-Japanese, leading to Murakami's recalling that he was a "black sheep in the Japanese literary world". Meanwhile, Murakami has been described by Gary Fisketjon, the editor of Murakami's collection The Elephant Vanishes (1993), as a "truly extraordinary writer", while Steven Poole of The Guardian praised Murakami as "among the world's greatest living novelists" for his oeuvre.
Murakami has written several travel books. This book is one of them. It contains several travel articles in the 1990s. It doesn't bring strong emotional feeling to me as his other works. Maybe that is because my reading habit has changed a bit since the last time I read his travel writings. In the past few years, I have read over one hundred travel books, which broadly open my views on the whole world. I think once you read more, you will be more seasoned appreciating the good and the less interesting. There are seven articles in the book. Let me introduce one by one.
1. A quiet writing heaven in East Hampton Murakami was invited to visit someone in the Long Island, where many famous authors lived. He discussed why the place become a ideal place for muses.
2. No man's island He went camping on a small no man's island near Japanese main island. Initially, he expected it would be an interesting experience, but it turned out to be a misery.
3. Across Mexico He traveled across Mexico with a photographer. He visited tourist spots and rural villages. He found Mexico was a country of both beauty and contrast.
4. Deep Tonuki Udon travel He went to Kagawa on a mission to discover the famous Tonuki Udon.
5. Iron Cemetery in Mongolia There was big battle between Japan and Soviet Union in WW2. He went there via China. Murakami felt troubled by the Japanese atrocious past.
6. Across America He drove across America from East to West. He didn't especially felt excited. It was just something that everyone needed to complete in one's lifetime.
7. A walk to Kobe He revisited his hometown after two years of Kobe earthquake. It had been over three decades since he moved to Tokyo. He made some recollection. It's full of childhood reminiscence.
Overall, it's a nice collection of travel writing. It's ideal to kill time in leisure time. Not the must-read Murakami, but still a good read.
I wanted to like the book but it'd just not as good as his other books. The less-than-complimentary comments on china didn't help either - some are funny while others just don't seem to have been thought out.
Du ký, tập hợp các chuyến đi của bác già từ năm 1990 đến năm 1997. Theo thứ tự là
1. East Hampton. Chốn ẩn cư của các văn sĩ, đạo diễn, nhà báo v.v
2. Robinson ngoài đảo hoang. Mắc cười lắm, đem sách vở lều bạt nước ngọt các thứ xong trụ được 1 đêm là cuốn gói tháo chạy vì bị côn trùng tập kích :v
3. Mexico. Phần dài nhất và hay nhất. Dù ăn đồ thì tiêu chảy, thổ dân không hẳn là thân thiện hiếu khách, xe khách thì vừa nóng vừa ồn, chụp ảnh lén thì bị ném đá, rồi nỗi lo các nhóm cướp bóc có vũ trang v.v nhưng văn hóa và khung cảnh đất nước này lại đẹp và cuốn hút (ông bác) vô cùng.
4. Đi Kagawa chỉ để ăn (rất nhiều) udon. Trúng tủ em rồi.
5. Nội Mông và nghĩa trang những tàn tích chiến tranh. Nguồn gốc bức ảnh ngầu lòi ở bìa. Bác già lại bàn về chiến tranh và thái độ của nước Nhật với chiến tranh.
6. Xuyên Mỹ. Đúng nghĩa xuyên Mỹ, cắm đầu chạy từ bờ Đông sang bờ Tây, thỉnh thoảng dừng lại motel ăn ngủ và có ghé vô Las Vegas chơi bài chứ còn lại hông có khám phá văn hóa gì hết =)) Dọc đường các bác già toàn bị cho tấp vô lề kiểm tra vì da nâu giống dân buôn lậu Mễ nên các anh cảnh sát để ý suốt haha.
7. Đi bộ đến Kobe. Bác già không chạy nữa mà đi bộ (thỉnh thoảng có bắt tàu) và hoài niệm lại tuổi thơ, tuổi trẻ. Bối cảnh là hơn 1 năm sau thảm họa động đất Kobe 1995.
I re-read this book sometime last year because I fell in love with Mexico and Murakami went to Mexico many many years ago. He wrote the story down in this book and it really gave me much food for thought. That is why I have to rate five stars on this one.