The Year of Spaghetti

by Haruki Murakami

Genres: Short Stories, Japanese Literature

4 pages, 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

[K.T. ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Durum semolina, golden wheat wafting in Italian fields.

Can you imagine how astonished the Italians would be if they knew that what they were exporting in 1971 was really loneliness?”

Actual rating: 3.6/5☆

[Natalia · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Can you imagine how astonished the Italians would be if they knew that what they were exporting in 1971 was really loneliness?"

[Sofia Yordanova]

Единственото нещо, което мога да кажа за тази историйка, е, че ми напомни на стихотворението „Повест“ на Атанас Далчев с темата си. Съжалявам, че прочетохме творбата набързо и по време на шумното междучасие, защото така не можах да вникна пълноценно в нея. Интересно е, че госпожата по английски каза, че това е любимата й кратка история на Мураками, а на мен тя ми хареса най-малко от досегапрочетените.

[صالحة · Rating 5 out of 5]

وجدت هذه القصة في إحدى نشرات The New Yorker. لا أعلم كم مرةً قرأتها منذ ذلك الحين، أو كم مرة سأعيد قراءتها. أحبها كثيراً، أحب شاعريتها وإخراجها للسباغيتّي على أنها رمز للعزلة الخالصة.

“Can you imagine how astonished the Italians would be if they knew that what they were exporting in 1971 was really loneliness?”

قد يكون كل ما سبق وقرأته لموراكامي قصصه القصيرة فقط، لكنها جعلتني بالفعل أقع في حب نظرته للأشياء والهدوء المخيم عليها. أتوق لليوم الذي سأبدأ فيه بقراءة إحدى رواياته!

[Elena ( The Queen Reads ) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hope your spaghetti is okay

[TJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Truly confused about what i read.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know that I understand the story, and maybe I don't have to. Does it have a deeper meaning? I would only know if I talked to Murakami himself. I've read other books of his, which are strange. This is a short story some students are reading for a fiction class, and I am sure it will be analyzed and picked apart. Maybe the point of this reading is not to understand Murakami but implied author and the implied reader (rather than the real reader).
Making spaghetti is a pretty mundane task, and while I love spaghetti, I don't think I could eat it for a year. Having it made with different sauces would help. Murakami makes it sound like an art with the egg timer and ingredients and thoughtful planning.
The story about the woman calling to find the guy? Not sure the point other than a hope that she'd show up and make the narrator less lonely in his spaghetti making.

[Shreya Sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Talk about delivering poignance and hard-hitting truths in short fiction and Murakami takes the cake. I think anyone who wants to start reading his works should begin with the short stories. Despite not being in the realm of magical realism, this particular story is beautiful in its mundanity. Being a city girl myself, I cook the same meals. Feeding oneself is an act of persistence and I happen to know only a couple of things.

The narrator's cooking of spaghetti is an act of seeking comfort in food. It's the loneliness with spaghetti, nobody to share with, and eventually not wanting to share it with anybody.

[Yuri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Somehow listening to an amateur 10-minute-long audio narration of this short essay in the middle of the night only amplified the (H.)Murakami effect. Perfectly cooked, music softly blended in in the background, served just right.

No matter HOW you consume this story, it won't take much of your precious time. Hence one of the easiest recommendations from me. Plus, you get to know and savour the famous (H.)Murakami vibe in a cute-sized digestible format.

[Aparna Nayak · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first time I read this story I was like 2 or 3 years ego I all over felt kind iffy about it and decided It was not a memorable story after all
But now That I reread the story about a week ago I could not stop thinking about it.

[mvpenguin · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Can you imagine how astonished the Italians would be if they knew that
what they were exporting in 1971 was really *loneliness*?"

The final quote leaves such a lingering feeling of solitude that it made me dive right back into the story and read it again.

[MC · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0 / 5.0

What was this? Like, did he secretly want to eat a dog? And why buy a pot so big when there’s only one person to feed?

I just don’t have the patience to decipher this. It’s strange but also, fit the bill for the anthology I read it in.

Until Next Time,
MC

[Mahya Shahshahani · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.9

[Irene Gonzales · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only Murakami can write about cooking Spaghetti and make it like it's the best thing to do in the world. The way he builds an atmosphere with his words is just amazing

[Arkadii Archie Maznev Elóv]

astonishingly sorrowful

[Sarà Grilli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Racconto tra i più noiosi dell' autore

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a clear short about being tied up with absolutely nothing. It foments a familiar feeling.

[Garima · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ones who get it , get it and the ones who don't, don't. The book is about a lonely person navigating through life.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Selected Short

[سـمــا · Rating 3 out of 5]

"وحدة"
تشعر بالارتباك عندما تقرأ نصًا مباشرًا واضحًا لشخص عرف بالغرائبية والرمزية.

[Keiko, the manga enthusiast ♒︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

i hate you, murakami, i loathe you. you don’t lure me with my favorite dish in the world just to put shape to my loneliness—because it will resonate, asshole.

[sirazum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murakami will make a spaghetti bowl with bizarreness, surrealism and utter confusion that makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE and I will still eat up every single string of it.