Fantasy Aficionados discussion

It's fantasy, but so not your usual fantasy.
Murakami is one of my favorite authors. And recent conversations indicate lot of other people here admire him as well..
So I thought of having a thread where we can collectively orgasm over his works..
My favorite remains Norwegian Wood, mainly because it introduced me to Murakami's world.

Soan wrote: "It's fantasy, but so not your usual fantasy.
Murakami is one of my favorite authors. And recent conversations indicate lot of other people here admire him as well..
So I thought of having a thr..."

I think if you read his latest, 1Q84, you love it even more than any of his other books. Its his best book yet, he has out done himself.

I also find that all his books are similar in that its always magical and mysterious in that all his main characters are trying to find something. At the end never of them really do find what they are looking for, leaving more to everyone to wonder.

Soan wrote: "It's fantasy, but so not your usual fantasy.
Murakami is one of my favorite authors. And recent conversations indicate lot of other people here admire him as well..
So I thought of having a thr..."

Yeah, he is quickly becoming my favorite author of all time even though I only read any of his work earlier this month because of hearing all the raves about 1Q84 on this site, and elsewhere on the internet. I think he is so different from everyone I have ever read. That might be because he is a eastern author, and I have mostly western authors.

My friend literally forced me to read Norwegian Wood. And I have never looked back. Windup Bird Chronicles, Sputnik sweetheart.. all remains close to my heart..
The only reason, I'm not beginning 1Q84 is huge pile of books on desk from library. If I start Murakami, it means everything will be ignored for atleast a week or so.. :)

I noticed today that a movie is coming out called Norwegian Wood. Wonder if it's based on the book.

Traci wrote: "I noticed today that a movie is coming out called Norwegian Wood. Wonder if it's based on the book."

There is a Japanese movie which was released last yr based on it.

Soan wrote: "Traci wrote: "I noticed today that a movie is coming out called Norwegian Wood. Wonder if it's based on the book."

There is a Japanese movie which was released last yr based on it."

I did not know there was a movie. I'll have to check it out. Thanks!

I'm reading 1Q84 right now and I'm having trouble moving forward with it. I really just don't like Tengo's story so I'm plodding through. Does it get better after the first 1/4 of the book?

I love Murakami (Kafka on the Shore is one of my favorite books), but I guess I'm an outlier in that I wasn't all that impressed by Norwegian Wood, which, really, isn't all that different, in my mind, from the various other self-indulgent literary shishōsetsu-type novels of Japan and or the rough equivalents in the US/UK markets (confessional loner intellectual middle class type coming of age).

I certainly didn't dislike it and I get that Murakami was trying to do something different from his other work, but as that was his first book of his I experienced, I almost didn't read anything else thinking it was all going to be that sort of thing and style.

I'm looking forward to 1Q84 but just haven't gotten around to reading it though.

I never heard of this author until I saw 1Q84 on the shelves at B&N. It seems like it is getting a lot of the buzz. The thing that is making me hesitate is the "heft" of the book. Anyone who has read it...is it a fast read?

I find that I need to read something else in between Murakamis. Because of the style, Reading two in row becomes repetitive to me.
So even though I love Murakami, I always take a break after reading one of his books.

Elizabeth wrote: "I never heard of this author until I saw 1Q84 on the shelves at B&N. It seems like it is getting a lot of the buzz. The thing that is making me hesitate is the "heft" of the book. Anyone who has re..."
I haven't read it, so cannot comment. However, personally I like to read his books slowly. Get lost in between, grasp the threads, reflect on what I have read.. (Ok, I sound bit crazy here)
Maybe someone who has read IQ84 can share how it is.

Norwegian Wood seems like a coming of age drama/romance. If someone wanted to read something more fantasy would you recommend another of his books?

Elizabeth, I don't think his books go very fast at all, and the style is so different, that it's not like an action /problem oriented plot is driving you to read faster. For me, his book was a slow, meandering read.

Traci, I'm not sure anything of his is truly fantasy, as much as maybe a little magical realism. I'd never call him a fantasy author--more literary fiction.

Yeah, I kinda got that but didn't ask the right way I guess. I'm thinking his books might be sort of like The Night Circus. I mean not "like" but in the same genre. But I'm totally going by impression because I haven't read him, yet.
So which is more magical realism. :)

I wouldn't even go that far... like, the one I read had a ghost angle, not prominent, but enough to start and finish the writer on a quest. It was a bit of a slog at times--one of those disaffected/passion-less narrators whose own life is a mess.

Traci wrote: "Yeah, I kinda got that but didn't ask the right way I guess. I'm thinking his books might be sort of like The Night Circus. I mean not "like" but in the same genre. But I'm totally going by impress..."

Well, the relative weirdness varies by book. I mean a key element of the first part of Kafka on the Shore is a man who can speak to cats for instance and understand them as intelligent beins. It's presented very-matter-of-factly, but it's a prominent supernatural ability and there's no real ambiguity in that it's occurring.

Several others have aspects like that. So, it kind of changes. Some are literary magical realism and some are just literary.

Traci,

If you're going for more magical realism, maybe Kafka on the Shore, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Dance-Dance-Dance, or A Wild Sheep Chase.

The relative level of supernatural/fantasy/weird elements varies in those, but they are all over the line enough that I'd call them magical realism.

Wild Sheep Chase is the one I read, and I wouldn't even come close to calling fantasy. I have nothing against him, I just felt disappointed when I started reading, expecting 'fantasy' and have basically an examination of modern life in Japan. Not fantastical at all. The surprise end is barely enough to call it magical realism. I'm just trying to be clear on genre and expectations; maybe each book is individually different enough to call elements fantasy. I wouldn't call any of it close to The Night Circus in feel or magic.

It depends on book to book. I would call Wind-up Chronicles and Sputnik sweetheart Magical Realism.
But yes, I agree. One cannot call Murakami's books fantasy in popular sense of term.

Oh, I definitely agree one shouldn't call Murakami fantasy. I shouldn't have had that in the attribute list above, but when I actually mentioned genre, I said "literary magical realism" and some just "literary".

I actually think Night Circus is more a straight-up fantasy than it is magical realist (especially when one considers the genre as a role and the particular magical emphasis in NC), so I also definitely agree that one should not go to Murakami looking for something like Night Circus (actually, when I think about it, a lot of Charles de Lint's stuff would probably appeal to NC fans).

A lot of Murakami books have much more straight-up weirdness than many books by say Rushdie or Gabriel Garcia Marquez, both poster-boys for magical realism. The emphasis, in Murakami is very much on psychological and cultural thematic aspects, with the supernatural elements made 'mundane' by how they are handled and focused on heightening those elements. So like in Rushdie or Marquez, these elements, in many ways, are stripped of their fantastical nature and so end up often more surreal (due to their treatment and the removal of the fantastical emotional interface) than anything else versus something like Night Circus where the magical itself is of particular thematic interest and the supernatural elements suffuse the plot in a way that a lot of the emphasis is on those elements rather than a deep psychological exploration of the characters. Don't take that as a knock on NC; I really liked it, but it's definitely not an in-depth psychological or cultural study, and it definitely is a very different kind of book than the stuff Murakami writes, even when he's at maximum weirdness.

I'd say if someone liked, say, those kinds of works, they'd like Murakami.

Good to know, Soan, as I have WUBC on my shelves and still need to read it. I found Murakami interesting, and he occasionally has a way of building a scene or phrases where I found myself saying, "oh wow," so its not that I dislike him.
Very interesting, Jeremy, and I certainly don't take anything you said as knocking NC--it is a thoughtful analysis. When I read Wild Sheep Chase, I often felt like I was missing... something, particularly when I suspected he was deconstructing or gently mocking cultural standards. Now I know who to come to when I read my next one.

Admittedly, it's interesting to be discussing Murakami in this group of all places.

NC is currently being discussed in like three different GR groups I belong to.

Jeremy wrote: "Admittedly, it's interesting to be discussing Murakami in this group of all places.

NC is currently being discussed in like three different GR groups I belong to. ;"

Also Murakami is being discussed in an another group that I belong to, and coming up next month in an another.

Soan wrote: "It's fantasy, but so not your usual fantasy.
Murakami is one of my favorite authors. And recent conversations indicate lot of other people here admire him as well..
So I thought of having a threa..."

I recently read Kafka on the Shore and loved it! I gave it 5 stars. Fantasy as in your typical Epic fantasy or Urban fantasy, it is not, however it does definitely have fantastical elements. I find the style is very unique but the closest description would be Magical Realism or Mythic fiction.
Here is my review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...