羊をめぐる冒険〈上〉

by Haruki Murakami

노마문예신인상 수상작. 세계적인 작가가 된 무라카미 하루키의 초기 청춘 3부작을 완결 짓는 작품이다. 군조신인문학상을 수상한 하루키의 데뷔작 《바람의 노래를 들어라》와 두 번째 소설 《1973년의 핀볼》, 그리고 노마문예신인상을 수상한 《양을 쫓는 모험》을 묶어 하루키 초기 청춘 3부작이라 하는데, 이 소설들에는 주인공 ‘나’의 친구 ‘쥐’가 공통으로 등장해 ‘쥐 3부작’이라 부르기도 한다.

두 전작이 1960~70년대 일본 사회의 혼란 속에서 전공투(전국학생공동투쟁회의)에 휩쓸린 작가의 자전적 체험을 다루면서 그러한 정치적 계절이 ‘나’의 청춘에 남긴 깊은 흔적을 그리고 있다면, 이 작품에서 하루키는 아시아의 근현대사와 현대 일본의 소비사회로까지 시선을 확장하고, 거대한 힘의 지배를 받고 사는 현대인의 나약한 실체를 묻는다. 이 작품을 밑거름으로 《댄스 댄스 댄스》와 《상실의 시대》라는 대작을 엮어냈다는 점에서 《양을 쫓는 모험》은 하루키 문학의 기념비적 작품이다.

Genres: Japanese Literature

Unknown Binding

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Noah McMillen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely can see the bridge between his first two novels and his later ones in this book. I like it, but Murakami definitely didn’t come into his full style yet.

「俺の人生は何の意味もない人生だった。しかしもちろん君の好きな一般論を借りれば、誰の人生だって何の意味もないということになる。そうだね？」(下230)

[Aiai H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the story! Except sexual descriptions so minus 0.5 point for me