Japanese Literature discussion

For a group about Japanese literature, it's surprising we don't have a thread about Haruki Murakami!

As Bill pointed out in an other thread, not everyone likes the same works. If I had to guess, I'd say it's because he wrote novels that go from 100% realistic (Norwegian Wood) to very surreal (Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World), but there's probably more to it...

So let's share which ones we did or did not enjoy, maybe we'll see some clustering! Also include which one you started with!

1Q84 was my first novel from him!

Judging from my ratings here, I like pretty much everything I've read lol! My favorites are: 1Q84, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Kafka on the Shore and After Dark (seems like I'm one of the rare fan to have liked this last one btw! Anyone else?)

Seems to fit my own theory (surprise!), but the ones I've liked just a little bit less are Norwegian Wood, South of the Border, West of the Sun and his essay What I Talk about When I Talk about Running.

For me, Murakami's works can be easily divided into the surreal ones and the erotic (I meant romantic) novels. Murakami is a brilliant writer and I absolutely love his surreal works. Wind Up is most definitely his Nobel worthy masterpiece. Wild Sheep Chase is another masterpiece from his earlier time. I also enjoyed IQ84, which some did not care for that much.

His romantic novels are pleasant but overly linear in their plot. I am not really sure why Murakami is so obsessed with eroticism. Norwegian Wood is a beautiful and a very
moving novel. It could have easily been one of the most elegant romantic novels of all time. Unfortunately its elegance was ruined (for me) by Murakami's excessive use of explicit scenes.

And yes, Christian, I am one of those who believe that After Dark is his worst novel. It does not even read like a novel; rather I think of it as his attempt to write a lousy movie script. Colorless Tezuka is another of his weaker works (my opinion).

Tenma, I agree that the explicit scenes in Norwegian Wood ruined what could be a perfect novel. I also disliked the ending scene. Looking back, I'm thinking that Norwegian Wood is probably a novel that would give the most impact depending on what age you're reading it or which period of your life. I read it in my 20s, and I'm not so sure I'd think it that high if I read it in my 30s. (Definitely scared for a re-read :)

In the interest of full disclosure, I've not read any of Murikami's novels and, whilst I feel a certain amount of shame on that front, I also have some ambivalence about reading certain contemporary cool authors (Julian Barnes is another) when there's little concensus about which work is "the one" one must read. So... What is "the" Murikami's work I should read either because it's the one you enjoyed the most or it's the seminal work everyone's read?

That would be terribly hard to answer. As Bill mentioned everyone I know who likes Murakami seems to disagree on which books are the best / must-read / favorites. You'd probably better off whittling down the options by the years they're published and the number of pages. More recent works means more people have read them compared to his older works, so you can find more people to talk about them.

Personally I'd still recommend my own favorites: Norwegian Wood and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, but with a catch each. Norwegian Wood is not representative of his style - more an anomaly, while The Wind-up Bird is a thick book for first Murakami if you want to test the water.

I think those two are among his most popular works. Kafka on the Shore is also very popular, but I didn't like it. Goodreads also thinks these three are his top books :) https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "That would be terribly hard to answer. As Bill mentioned everyone I know who likes Murakami seems to disagree on which books are the best / must-read / favorites. You'd probably better off whittlin..."

This is perfect. Thank you!

In order to truly appreciate Murakami one should read The Wind Up Bird Chronicles, his masterpiece. Wind Up however is humongous and may confuse those unassuming or unfamiliar with his works. Therefore, I would recommend A Wild Sheep Chase, a lighter novel that has all the hallmarks of Murakami's works. It is the one novel that prompted Murakami into the global stardom.

I think you should give it a try Carol! However I think I understand how you feel, because even though something is popular right now doesn't mean it's good fitting to your own tastes.

I'm biased as well, but I'd suggest either 1Q84 or Wind-up Bird Chronicle as they contain a bit of everything that Murakami is known for. He writes well in a more realistic style too, but if you had only one work from him to read, I would choose one of those two.

Oh, great topic. I've read almost everything that he's written. I love the WAY he writes but certainly don't love EVERYTHING he writes. I agree that Colorless was a pretty weak effort. My two favorites are Wind-up Bird and Hard Boiled Wonderland, for very different reasons. I will never get the sections on the Manchurian war from Wind-up Bird out of my mind.... The first book of his I read was Kafka on the Shore. It took quite a while because his style is so...interesting for the uninitiated. Ultimately I really enjoyed it. Then I listened to it on audiobook and it was even better. IQ84 is a doorstopper, wouldn't recommend it for a first-timer, but it's worth the effort. Another shorter work that I really enjoyed is Sputnik Sweetheart--romantic and a little weird.

Christian wrote: "Judging from my ratings here, I like pretty much everything I've read lol! My favorites are: 1Q84, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Kafka on the Shore and After Dark (seems like I'm one of the rare fan to have liked this last one btw! Anyone else?)"

I loved After Dark. It left me thinking for a long time afterward.

Google Haruki Murakami Bingo, and play along as you read. Highly amusing.

The odd thing about the Murakami novels I've read is I remember either liking them (Hardboiled Wonderland, Kafka), or being underwhelmed (Norwegian Wood, Wind-up Bird Chronicle), without being able to recall anything substantive about them. This hardly ever happens to me.

With 1Q84, which was a DNF after about 150 pages, all I remember is thinking that this is Murakami getting meta with himself, like he finally reached the point where he could produce the perfect Haruki Murakami parody and serve it forth with a straight face.

This might be why I prefer his short stories, because it seems to me that his brand of surreal works better in short form. The Elephant Vanishes is a pretty solid collection.

First: Sheep Chase
Favs: N. Wood, Wind-Up Bird, After the Quake
OK: After Dark, Blind Willow
Haven't Read: Colourless, Sputnik, South of Border, Elephant
Still want to read: Underground
Dislike: All others
Hate: 1Q84

I used to be a fan of Murakami then I wrote a thesis on Kafka on the Shore and I became less of a fan and then I read 1Q84 and now I am not a fan. I thought the half of After Dark with the dude was OK, but only because I would like his life (except the becoming a lawyer part). Norwegian did have some ridiculous sex.
Dioni, scared to re-read perfectly captures my feelings about Murakami.
And Carol, the must-read Murakami is Wind-up Bird. However, N. Wood is important as his breakthrough book in Japan. It sold tons of copies there and before that he was only known to literary types.

Hez wrote: "First: Sheep Chase
Favs: N. Wood, Wind-Up Bird, After the Quake
OK: After Dark, Blind Willow
Haven't Read: Colourless, Sputnik, South of Border, Elephant
Still want to read: Underground
Dislike: A..."

Thanks, Hez. Very helpful on which, and why it matters.

Hesper wrote: "The odd thing about the Murakami novels I've read is I remember either liking them (Hardboiled Wonderland, Kafka), or being underwhelmed (Norwegian Wood, Wind-up Bird Chronicle), without being able to recall anything substantive about them. This hardly ever happens to me."
This is exactly me! I know I loved the books, but don't ask me any specific questions about them...

Hesper wrote: "With 1Q84, which was a DNF after about 150 pages, all I remember is thinking that this is Murakami getting meta with himself, like he finally reached the point where he could produce the perfect Haruki Murakami parody and serve it forth with a straight face."
I can't remember who said it, but someone somewhere once said it seems like Murakami is writing the same book over and over again, as if he's writing parallel universes. Each book is substantially different and new, but you can't shake the feeling of deja vu: recurring themes, recurring characters (both characters that feel the same and characters that actually are the same), etc. This is what is most fascinating for me about Murakami.

Anyway!

First: Wild Sheep Chase
Favourites: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Kafka on the Shore 1Q84, Sputnik Sweetheart (no idea what I loved so much about that last one!)
Dislikes: Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki, Men Without Women

Besides these, plenty that I enjoyed a lot, quite a few that I thought were alright, and a few that I still have to read. I guess my love for Murakami is overarching, not just one book but all his work combined is fascinating to me.

Like everyone else here I agree Wind-Up is an absolute must read, but maybe not as your first book. It's very representative. 1Q84 was really good but quite repetitive (not usual for his translated works, see also our topic on 1Q84 here). I can't make up my mind what would be a good first book though. Kafka?

Not a big fan of his more realistic works (Norwegian Wood, Colourless, Men Without Women). Norwegian Wood wasn't bad at all, just not my favourite Murakami style.

I second Hez about N. Wood as is important in a way that it was his breakthrough book in Japan.

This discussion makes me want to read more of his books if only to argue about them ;D

My stat:
First: Norwegian Wood
Favorites: Norwegian Wood, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle
OK: Sputnik Sweetheart
Dislike: Kafka on the Shore
DNF: Hard Boiled Wonderland
Own but not yet read: After Dark, "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman", The Strange Library, Hear the Wind Sing

Still want to read mostly his non fiction: Underground, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. I've been hearing very mixed reviews on 1Q84, so it's not very high on my read list. Seems if you start from 1Q84 you'd like it, but if you've read his older works prior, it's a pale imitation if his classic.

I have read some of his short stories. One of them is one of my favorite short stories ever :) titled On Seeing The 100% Perfect Girl On One Beautiful April Morning (This one is easy to find online as it's so short. People also made all sorts of illustration and video based on it.)

I haven't read any works from him yet, but what do you recommend for starters? I love fantasy and futuristic genre but also am open to others. And of course I want to dive into Japanese literary works other than manga.

Hi Nərmin, the consensus seems to be The Wind-up Bird Chronicle if you don't mind the length. If you want something shorter, probably Wild Sheep Chase, Hard Boiled Wonderland, or Kafka on the Shore. For non-fantasy, Norwegian Wood. Agree everyone? :)

Agreed, well summarized!

Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "Hi Nərmin, the consensus seems to be The Wind-up Bird Chronicle if you don't mind the length. If you want something shorter, probably Wild Sheep Chase, Hard Boiled Wonderland, or Kafka on the Shore..."

Thank you very much! I added Norwegian wood, going to add the rest. ^^

First: Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I read this because it was a required book for a lit class in college (I wasn't taking that class, but was taking Japanese and wanted to find more Japanese lit).

I didn't read anything else by Murakami until I was an exchange student in Japan, where I came across the Kodansha International translations of A Wild Sheep Chase, Pinball 1973, Hear the Wind Sing, and Norwegian Wood. (I still find it odd that Pinball and HtWS were available in the mid 90s in English in Japan, but not in the USA until 15 years later.)

I kept following his books when I came back to the USA, the next one I read being The Windup Bird Chronicle, which I bought in hardcover when it came out, and which I still consider his best.

The only one of his I haven't read (that's available in English) is The Strange Library, because I thought it was overpriced for its length. Sometimes I feel I should have given up on him earlier when he was going downhill, but Kafka on the Shore I felt was a resurgence of his earlier talent.

Best: Windup Bird Chronicle, Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore.

Worst: IQ84, Sputnik Sweetheart, South of the Border West of the Sun. (The first is a bloated mess that could have been good at half the length. The others passed through my brain not even leaving a semblance of themselves behind.)

I can see how some people object to the odd sex scenes in Norwegian Wood, but I felt at the time that he was trying to shatter a mold: Why do we demand chastity from our love stories? Why can't we have romance with explicit sex, like we do in real life?

Pinball 1973 and Hear the Wind sing perhaps deserve a similar caution, though I don't recall if there is explicit sex in either one. A Wild Sheep Chase has been called a sequel to them (even officially here on GR). Perhaps it's true, perhaps not. The main character only feels the same, in a generic sort of Murakami male lead way. Virtually nothing happens in these two short novels. They are a series of vignettes about an aimless man who lives with two women. Everything about his behavior is westernized, including his dress, his apartment, his food, his music. Yet somehow his aesthetics are still Japanese.

Bill wrote: "The only one of his I haven't read (that's available in English) is The Strange Library, because I thought it was overpriced for its length."
It's worth it for the design, although you'll have to decide which design you like best (US, UK, or even Japanese or German). I've seen it pop up regularly in used book stores here in the Netherlands so you might get lucky finding it used for a low price.

Bill wrote: "I still find it odd that Pinball and HtWS were available in the mid 90s in English in Japan, but not in the USA until 15 years later."

The Japanese editions are for students of English right? From what I understand, Murakami didn't want those novels published overseas. I guess the publishers finally convinced him how much money they could make.

Bill wrote: "I can see how some people object to the odd sex scenes in Norwegian Wood, but I felt at the time that he was trying to shatter a mold: Why do we demand chastity from our love stories? Why can't we have romance with explicit sex, like we do in real life?"

I don't object to the normal sex, just the stupid stuff. Like evil lesbian schoolgirls. And when he has sex with Reiko near the end it just felt like really? Was this really necessary.
I just realised how Midori constantly talks about sex but is the only one he doesn't get with. What was he saying there?

The only thing I remember about his first two novels is the sequence where he plays pinball all day everyday. That was good. Also there is that part where he's sleeping with two hot twins that, like a lot of sex in Murakami, is a parody of male fantasy but doesn't really go deep enough to actually say anything.

Great news! In case you haven't read about it already, Murakami wrote another long novel! http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ2...
It should be published Feb. 24th :)

Very excited about it! I suspect we will have to wait a while for the English translation but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that at least the Dutch one will be out within a year at most...

Lol! Dutch translators are more efficient?

Aw, I was hoping you'd join in reading it in Japanese! Think about it!! We could drop spoilers to everyone else!!! (¬‿¬)

Edit: I just splurged and pre-ordered them :)

i have read 12 Murakami Haruki incl. his nonfiction Underground, some many years ago (decades...), but i would suggest Wild Sheep... as first, easiest to get used to, the second i read was Hard Boiled... which is possibly his strangest. i would agree Wind-Up... is his masterpiece, then read Sputnik..., then South... then Underground... though by the time i got to Norwegian... i had gone through a bad stretch of Japanese lit (not just him i think) where characters had a tendency to commit suicide (thus ending stories) and this seemed to be romantic for them but just annoying to me... then was very unhappy with IQ84 because it was. just. too. long. years later i read After Dark, Strange Library... just read Colourless..., then Kafka... decided to try a reread to see if he still 'works' (currently rereading Wind-Up... while reading other work)...

Christian wrote: "Aw, I was hoping you'd join in reading it in Japanese! Think about it!! We could drop spoilers to everyone else!!! (¬‿¬)

Edit: I just splurged and pre-ordered them :) "

Tempting..! But my (Japanese) reading speed is so slow I will probably just get frustrated hahaha

Well, I’m a fan of his work since last summer and I have bought and read all of his books and there’s none for me that I didn’t enjoyed. What I love about him is what people don’t like about him. For me he was the one that change my life and marked me in many ways.
I’m Portuguese and books in Portugal are way more expensive that in the United Kingdom so after some time I started to read his books in English.
I would say my favorites are Sputnik, sweetheart and Norwegian Wood. I just love the way he tells the story and how some details are always present in his books

A friend is reading, The Wind Cave, a Murakami short story available at the link in this GR blurb and published in the September 2018 NewYorker Magazine. 18 pages.

Very excited to be going to see Burning at the local arts cinema in a couple of weeks. South Korean film based on Murakami's short story 'Barn Burning'. Have heard good things about it.

Alan wrote: "Very excited to be going to see Burning at the local arts cinema in a couple of weeks. South Korean film based on Murakami's short story 'Barn Burning'. Have heard good things about it."

so cool. Let us know what you think of it, alan.

I'm embarrassed to say it was the only film I saw at the cinema in 2018. Was worth it though. :D But do remember it is based on Murakami's story...

Alan wrote: "Very excited to be going to see Burning at the local arts cinema in a couple of weeks. South Korean film based on Murakami's short story 'Barn Burning'. Have heard good things about it."

Our Sunday morning tradition is to have coffee in bed with the kitties and books. While I'm reading The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa, Mr Gnoe just started Murakami's new release Romanschrijver van beroep ("Novelist by Profession"). Anyone else reading it yet?

I think the best thing he's written is the introduction to the English translation of Sanshiro.

My impression is that he keeps trying to write the same story over and over, edging ever closer to saying what he wants to but never quite getting there. After years of going along with this, I just find it tiresome now.

I’ve only read two of Murakami’s shorter works: After the Quake and The Strange Library.

I liked The Strange Library a lot, but I don’t think I’m interested in reading his long novels.

My reviews are here:

After the Quake
The Strange Library

I really like Murakami and did read most of his works. I read German translations and I don’t not to which extent they might have a slightly different vibe then English translations at times.

I did start with Norwegian Wood when I was 20 or 21. (Btw the German translation has a different title: Naokos Lächeln - Naokos smile, which I kinda like.) I had read a lot of Banana Yoshimoto before so I was not completely foreign to Japanese literature. I do agree with some people in this thread that it probably matters a lot at what age you get to this novel. Back then it deeply touched me. I found a lot of my feelings and just my quite uncertain place reflected very well in this book without them being rationalized too much. Even tho it’s not quite a happy book and reading about so many characters who commit suicide whilst struggling with mental health problems myself I guess essentially it did made me feel less alone in the world. I gave it a re-read about 2 years ago (so 5-6 years after I read it for the first time) and still really liked it. But I’m not sure how I’d judge it if I hadn’t made this special connection with it early on.

After this book I didn’t read anything else from him for several years. I don’t really know why I didn’t since I enjoyed my first book from him so much and I was always planning on reading more. When I did finally start reading him again I read a lot in a rather short time. Maybe too much. At some point I got tired of repeating themes, patterns and a view on women that doesn’t seem to evolve throughout the years. I also got slightly tired of the repeating details: the same music, the same whiskey brands etc. Plus after reading some of his later books some of his earlier works just can’t really keep up from my point of view.

To me it feels that some of his books contain very similar elements and eventually that he kinda tried to tell the same story multiple times. Maybe to in terms of direct storyline but more one a deeper level of what he’s trying to say. I personally see this perfected in Killing Commodore and it made some books I read afterwards feel quite unsatisfying. Does anybody else have a similar perception?

I guess my favorites from him therefore are Norwegian Wood and Killing Commendatore. I also really enjoyed The wild Sheep Chase; Dance, Dance, Dance; Kafka on the Shore; 1Q84; Afterdark; Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. The order In which I’ve listed them is not really a representation of which I liked best. I don’t think I can really rank them.

There’re some books in between that I neither loved nor really disliked like Sputnik Sweetheart and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki.

Plus I feel it’s hard to rank his first two books. I think you can really tell they’re first books and I didn’t necessarily liked them in the first place but it also feels wrong to put them on a list with what I enjoyed less.

My two least favorite books are South of the Border; West of the Sun and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle essentially felt like a lesser version of Killing Commendatore. I had quite a hard time getting trough it. Sometimes the plot just felt a bit lost. Especially after having read several later works from him shortly before.

What I talk about when I talk about running was a bit disturbing to me. Not how it was written but the actual content. I do jog myself but with a very different approach. The way he pushed himself to crazy things like a 100 km marathon without reflecting on it seemed questionable to me.

Professional writer on the other hand I deeply enjoyed.

LEA:

What are your thoughts on IQ84? Some people hated it, others say they love it but they never say why they love it.
Ive been tempted to get into Haruki Murakami. Im a Ryu Murakami fan and whenever i go to a bookstore with japanese lit i always look for ryu and only ever see haruki

Monique, I'm not Lea but I loved 1Q84. My review gives some reasons, if you're interested.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I have read two of Ryu Murakami's books. I also like his writing very much but he and Haruki write in very different styles, imo.

Two fun facts about the German translations:

1) Murakami's translator Ursula Gräfe is so good, she was even awarded the Japanese Noma Prize for her work. She also translates Ryū Murakami, Yukio Mishima, Sayaka Murata, and many others.

2) The translation of South of the Border, West of the Sun was at the root of a major literary scandal in Germany: The first German edition Gefährliche Geliebte (back then not translated by Ursula!) was translated from an English translation and then heavily edited, and when this altered text was discussed on German tv, there was such a big disagreement about the quality of a passage that didn't even really feature in the original that one critic left the show for good. It was insane. Years later, Ursula crafted a new translation, directly from the Japanese, now called Südlich der Grenze, westlich der Sonne.

Aaaand one fun fact about Haruki and Ryu: When I once interviewed Ursula, she pointed out that while Ryu's texts do have more splatter elements and extreme imagery, he writes a lot more about morality than Haruki - and I think that's absolutely true! (Here's the link to the interview: https://papierstaupodcast.de/special/...)

Meike wrote: "Two fun facts about the German translations:

1) Murakami's translator Ursula Gräfe is so good, she was even awarded the Japanese Noma Prize for her work. She also translates [author:Ryū Murakami|..."

What fun. Thanks for sharing this link, Meike.
- signed, a Ryu fan

Carol wrote: "What fun. Thanks for sharing this link, Meike.
- signed, a Ryu fan"

...you're welcome
- signed, another major Ryu fan :-)

I read Norwegian Wood maybe 15 years ago. I remember liking it but was a bit devastated when I finished the book. I was older when I read it but I don’t remember anything about out of character sex among the MCs. What I remember over time is that the book was different from other Murakami books that I tried but DNF. We had quite a few in the home library but they have gone with an adult son who is a fan of his writing. This thread provides encouragement to try again. Thank you for the posts.

Anyone have thoughts on which is the better UK cover for The City
And Its Uncertain Walls? I really like the main (left) version but the right is definitely more unusual and will be more rare so I'm leaning towards that. https://www.instagram.com/p/C7UAPqeoR...

Since Instagram is not my friend https://www.foyles.co.uk/book/the-cit...

I haven’t really enjoyed reading Murakami’s novels, a big reason being that he often writes in genres I don’t have much interest in.

I first read Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage years ago because it sounded interesting and I wanted to try reading Murakami. It was somewhat intriguing at first, then as the book went on I didn’t like the direction it went in.

The past few years I’ve been reading Murakami in chronological order, up to Dance Dance Dance now. Most of the books were disappointing, but I did like Hear the Wind Sing (underrated work of his) and Norwegian Wood. Those two books were in the realism genre, one of my favourite genres. I do want to read South of the Border, West of the Sun soon, and I'm hoping it's another one of his realism novels.

There's going to be a new translation of Hardboiled Wonderland, this time by Jay Rubin: https://tazakitsukuru.blogspot.com/20...

Carola wrote: "There's going to be a new translation of Hardboiled Wonderland, this time by Jay Rubin: https://tazakitsukuru.blogspot.com/20..."

Wow, a new book and a new translation all in the last months of 2024. I have both on preorder now. These will make great gifts for my family member who enjoys Murakami’s works. I wonder if he will compare the two translations.
Thanks Carola.

Jack wrote: "Carola wrote: "There's going to be a new translation of Hardboiled Wonderland, this time by Jay Rubin: https://tazakitsukuru.blogspot.com/20..."

Wow, ..."

The re-translation has been in the works for a while. They moved it back, presumably so it wouldn't be in the way of the November release of City.

The original translation was more of an abridgment, back from the days they were still Americanizing Murakami. (And I do mean Americanizing, rather than any other version of English.) I think we're likely to get back the equivalent of something like 40k words? I'd need to check my notes on that one.