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Wordly Obsessions

~ … the occasional ramblings of a book addict …

Wordly Obsessions

Tag Archives: Haruki Murakami

Book Review | ‘Almost Transparent Blue’ by Ryu Murakami

16 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by mywordlyobsessions in 1001 Book Challenge, Book Challenges, Book Review

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Anthony Swofford, book review, Coin Locker Babies, Haruki Murakami, in the miso, japanese, Japanese literature, Miso Soup, ryu murakami


Almost Transparent BlueAlmost Transparent Blue by Ryu Murakami

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a story about a bunch of disaffected Japanese youths who waste their time with gratuitous sex, drugs and violence. ‘Almost Transparent Blue’ is the other Murakami’s debut novel which was received to critical acclaim and won the coveted Akutagawa prize. It is also one of the must read books on the 1001 list. This is not an easy book to read and I’m sorry to say that it’s not as good as ‘In the Miso Soup’, although it has its moments. Favourite bits include the opening chapter and the bit where they are at the American air base during the thunder and lightning sequence.

The strongest aspect of the book is its gross imagery and the unfathomable sadness of lost youth. The characters (of which the narrator shares the same name as the author) are all stuck in their own desolate vacuum of apathy, moving from one moment to the next in a haze of indifference. Murakami’s image of post-war Japan drags the reader down the dark alleyways of an insular and unyielding culture. His characters allow us to penetrate the stereotypical lacquerwork of strong Japanese moral values and gaze at the ‘other japan’, the one that lives side-by-side with Western ideals. This drug-like cocktail is at once fascinating and repulsive.

Maybe it’s just me, but there were times when this novel didn’t make any sense, but then again this is a ‘mood heavy’ book, and there is not a pronounced plotline, so the narrative sort of echoes the tumultuous lives of decadent Japanese youths. This book reminds me of ‘Exit A‘ by Anthony Swofford which had a better storyline and is also set around an American airbase in Japan. Both novels contain a central theme of degeneration and crime, but ‘Almost Transparent Blue’ is decidedly more corrosive and far more bold than Swofford’s offering.

This is an R-rated book so beware. There are many alarming scenes but nevertheless it is a daring exploration into wordsmithery by Murakami. Considering it was his first novel, (and written when he was still only a student!) it deserves some applause for its pluck. Can’t wait to read ‘Coin Locker Babies‘!

For more on Ryu Murakami, see my review of ‘In the Miso Soup’.

Rating: 2/5 stars.

View all my reviews

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Book Review | ‘Beginners’ by Raymond Carver

20 Friday May 2011

Posted by mywordlyobsessions in Book Review

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

book review, Haruki Murakami, love story, raymond carver, short story, south of the border west of the sun, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love


BeginnersBeginners by Raymond Carver

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I picked this up, I didn’t look at the author properly. I saw the ‘Raymond’ and briefly a ‘C-er’ and just grabbed it thinking it was a gritty detective novel by Chandler. I was disappointed when I got home; however my embarrassing misobservation turned into delight, as I discovered what I could probably call the perfect example of the short story.

Yes, Carver’s precision and execution of this understated and overlooked
writing form had me reeling with wonder and envy. Here was finally an author I could enjoy on a reader’s level yet also learn about from a writerly angle, which goes to show the literary value of this collection.

Originally published in 1981 as ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love‘, these short stories soon gained a lot of attention in America and around the world for their candid and gritty exploration of ‘real’ relationships. As the title suggests, the stories are about love in all its’ various guises and is as bold an attempt to capture what love really is, as opposed to what we expect it to look and feel like. Carver’s stories oscillate between extremes, as he looks at what happens to the chemistry between two people when things willingly or unwillingly go wrong.

In ‘Why Don’t You Dance?’ and ‘Viewfinder’ Carver examines the different ways people respond to a break-up. The former story stands out as the most powerful, as the protagonist completely guts the house of its contents and sets them up on the lawn outside exactly as they were when inside the house. This ‘gutting’ and remodeling stands as a metaphor for loss and underlines how spaces are sometimes saturated by relationships and become an extension of the lover lost.

In ‘Gazebo’, Carver paints the death-throes of what was once a stable relationship. The dialogue between the couple is key, as Carver times speech and prose perfectly to reproduce that unbearable ‘tug-of-war’ between two wills; the betrayed and the betrayer. The chemistry here is extremely volatile and is nicely offset by a side-story of the perfect married couple. This time a motel acts as the setting, showing the absence of ‘home’ and  how the negative energy of a space whose function isn’t to contain and nurture  a single relationship but is designed to be let out to strangers has a devastating effect on the couple.

Houses feature heavily in all Carver’s stories, no matter what aspect of love he is trying to capture. This gives his work a very sharp ‘domestic’ edge which when added with his eagle-eyed observations from real-life, makes his prose believable yet ascerbic and exceedingly uncomfortable. Having said that however, his stories aren’t all in this vein. In ‘A Small, Good Thing’ Carver approaches the tragedy of child loss with language that is throbs with anticipation and transparent fear. The story however ends on a gossamer-like thread of hope, showing Carver’s more merciful side, as the grieving parents find peace in the most unlikeliest of places.

What I ultimately loved about these stories was their honesty and how Carver did not sacrifice nor dilute his narratives for aesthetic or marketing purposes. These stories are also different because they come from a man’s perspective. Carver’s observations teach us that there is nothing separating either sex from the pain of betrayal, nor the act of betraying. Contrary to what we have been taught, there are no separate types or textures to the stuff of heart-break. We are all wonderfully and mutually the same; the only marked difference being perhaps how we deal with it as men and women.

Carver’s little medley of love stories are a rare treat, and for those who have enjoyed them I recommend Murakami’s ‘South of the Border, West of the Sun’. Again it follows along the same lines, except this is an even rarer thing; a confessional where the protagonist (a happily married thirty-something man)  begins a narrative documenting all the rights and wrongs he has done in the name of love.

This is a must-read for anyone interested in studying the art of the short story, or indeed any form of writing. Satisfaction guaranteed.

View all my reviews

Related articles
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Book Review | ‘In The Miso Soup’ by Ryu Murakami

09 Wednesday Feb 2011

Posted by mywordlyobsessions in Book Review

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Bret Easton Ellis, Frank, Haruki Murakami, in the miso soup, japanese horror story, Patrick Bateman, ryu murakami, Tokyo


In The Miso SoupIn The Miso Soup by Ryū Murakami

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“Murakami channels Brett Easton Ellis in this Japanese psycho-thriller with his version of Patrick Bateman. Stockholm syndrome never felt so creepy!” – Zee, The Observer

Haha, only joking. If I were a hip, well-paid reviewer for say, The Guardian or The Times (I know, I know, delusions of grandeur!) this is what I’d want the publishers to display on the back-cover. What I’d also demand is that the book should come with a warning label; the kind they put on CD’s for explicit language. Not that anyone would actually heed it. If anything, it would serve as a homing beacon for spotty emo-goth teenagers to revel in this ‘Japanese’ blood-fest.

I decided to read this after I discovered it was Haruki Murakami‘s favourite author (no relation) but quickly realised that Ryu Murakami had little influence over the former’s writing. ‘In the Miso Soup’ is more in the calibre of Ellis’s ‘American Psycho’, but without the density of long, tedious descriptions of designer-wear. In fact, I’d like to call this a Japanese view on the dangers of Western people; Americans in particular. Murakami seems to have taken the classic American horror elements and placed them in a Japanese setting. Ryu then goes on to create some non-judgmental characters like Kenji and his girlfriend, and just lets the whole thing play out on the garish, neon-lit underworld of Tokyo’s red-light district.

The story centres around Kenji, a ‘tour-guide’ for foreigners aiming to make their way through the sleazy night-life of the city. One night he happens upon American tourist Frank, who hires Kenji for this purpose. But right off, Kenji knows that something is amiss. His feelings only grow stronger as Franks strange behaviour leads Kenji to assume that he might be the serial-killer-at-large that’s been rocking Japanese headlines for the past few days. It all comes to a head when Kenji realises the only way to deal with a man like this, is to try to understand him, and even sympathise.

I found the narrative to be of a sweet and sour mix that is so intrinsic to Japanese story-telling. There were moments of sheer horror, that were later tempered by humour and even pensive reflection. Frank is portrayed as a lardy, pasty, pale psychotic who, despite all his madness has some sort of coherent method to his murders. Like Bateman, there is a side of him that is completely inaccessible, his kill-zone area that operates outside of his will. Personally, I found him more realistic and relatable than Kenji, but was equally relieved that I couldn’t/ didn’t have access to that part of him. In essence, we realise that Frank’s solitude is probably one of the major factors of his being this way:

“… The type of loneliness where you need to keep struggling to accept a situation is fundamentally different than the sort you know you’ll get through if you just hang in there”

As slimy and repulsive as Frank is (almost reptilian with his dead-pan expression) there is also a very human part to him that Murakami did well to bring out in the end. The chemistry between him and Kenji displays ‘stockholm syndrome’ at its best. In general, the Japanese do not treat horror the same way as the West. Which means they come up with more original material to scare by. The scare factor here wasn’t so much the bloodbath, the disseminated school-girl prostitutes or Frank himself, but the fact that Kenji relates to Frank far more deeply than he, or we, could ever imagine. It brings home the fact that serial-killers aren’t a world away from us. They were, perhaps, once ‘normal’. But sometimes something happens somewhere, the normal becomes singed, burned or corrupted. That plastic layer that is clamped over our sensitivity might become unhinged, and the poison of life gets under it; sullying the way we see the world around us.

Frank comes across as one such tragedy. He knows what he is, and confides in Kenji, tries to tell him what and why he does things. The effort alone is humbling really. What ultimately happens is that the two men learn that they are more similar than they think they are:

“Nobody, I don’t care what country they’re from, has a perfect personality. Everyone has a good side and a side that’s not so good …. What’s good about Americans, if I can generalize a little, is that they have a kind of openhearted innocence. And what’s not good is that they can’t imagine any world outside of the States, or any value system different from their own. The Japanese have a similar defect…”

It is passages like this that really helped gel together what Murakami was thinking about. The divide between East and West, their methods and ways of doing things become a metaphor. Kenji and Frank meet, East and West collide. Like the left and right sides of a brain, the conscious and unconscious, they probe and attack each other until they come to an understanding. The inaccessibility of Japanese culture has been the subject of many novels and movies. ‘Lost in Translation’ is a firm favourite of mine in this respect. Tokyo city could be a major culture shock and a source of alienation if you don’t know what it’s all about. It’s a bewildering place, but not as bewildering as perhaps, the inner world of Frank the killer. Murakami manages to unite two opposing cultures who are both fascinated and terrified of the other, through some impressive role reversals.

In some respects, Kenji was more American than Frank and Frank more Japanese than Kenji. Both characters see their cultural ‘self’ in the other; and to them, it doesn’t make sense. If that’s not pure genius, then I don’t know what is.

View all my reviews

Related articles
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Book Review | ‘Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’ by Haruki Murakami

18 Tuesday Jan 2011

Posted by mywordlyobsessions in Book Review

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

book review, hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world, Haruki Murakami, japanese, Tokyo


Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the WorldHard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“You’re wrong. The mind is not like raindrops. It does not fall from the skies, it does not lose itself among other things. If you believe in me at all, then believe this: I promise you I will find it. Everything depends on this.”

“I believe you,” she whispers after a moment. “Please find my mind.”

Even though I read this two months ago, I am still processing the many memorable, often beautiful and sometimes terrifying images that Murakami has left imprinted on my mind. As a Murakami fan, I have read enough of his work to establish an impression of his writing style; but ‘Hard Boiled’ has blown that to pieces.

This novel is one that challenges notions of the psyche, memory and self. It plays around with theories of Quantum Physics as the story is batted back and forth from one separate, insulated world to another. Can a person exist in more than one place at a time? If so, what happens when one entity becomes aware of the others existence? What would you do if you were caught in such a dilemma? What happens when that much-needed membrane of ignorance is broken?

Murakami, with his fistful of crazy characters and seemingly random symbols and metaphors grapples with these and other off-the-wall questions by constructing a hybrid narrative that is part cyber-thriller and part folkloric mythos. As the chapters alternate from one reality (or unreality) to another, the reader begins to see surreal correlations between the two worlds.

Right and left, left and right. Like two sides of a brain that run side by side, but can never be reconciled or come in contact with each other; so the two nameless protagonists of this story begin by skirting along the veil between the conscious and unconscious worlds. On one side lies the Hard Boiled Wonderland; the metropolitan hubbub that is Tokyo city. On the other is the End of the World; a haunted village where shadows wither and die and strange golden beasts graze the plains. Two men exist in these places; two men who begin to question the laws of the places they live. On the periphery of their senses, they both feel the presence of the other and so begins a battle of awakening.

The delicate symmetry between the realities is juggled with expertise by Murakami, who in this novel is beginning to show that he is very capable of managing a large and eclectic cast of characters. What I found enjoyable was the ‘merging’ of the two worlds and especially the originality of the more fantastical aspects of the story. It was nice to see some Japanese mythological creatures appearing in unexpected places (the INKlings or kappa make many appearances).

This is one of those books that one can’t really talk that much about. Saying anything more about the plot or characters would give away a lot of spoilers. But one thing is for sure, this is definitely worth reading, if only for the cliffhanger ending.

View all my reviews

Related articles
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  • A slow boat to China by Haruki Murakami (integrated4.wordpress.com)
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Hello Japan! November Mini – Challenge…

13 Saturday Nov 2010

Posted by mywordlyobsessions in Meme

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

After Dark, akira, anime, gackt, ghibli museum, ghost in the shell, hanami, hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world, Haruki Murakami, in the miso soup, japan, okinawa, ryu murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart, Tokyo, tokyo tower, wind up bird chronicles


Hello Japan! November mini-challenge: Five Questions (a Japan meme)

NOVEMBER MINI-CHALLENGE: Five Questions

Hello Japan! is a monthly mini-challenge focusing on Japanese literature and culture. hosted by ‘In Spring It Is The Dawn’. Each month there will be a new task which relates to some aspect of life in Japan. Anyone is welcome to join in any time. You can post about the task on your blog. Or if you don’t have a blog, you can leave a comment on the Hello Japan! post for the month. Everyone who completes the task will then be included in the drawing for that month’s prize.   

This month’s challenge is a good one. We get to answer five questions relating to Japan and Japanese culture. Here goes!

1. My favourite Japanese tradition is manga because:

I just love art, and manga is probably the first contact I ever had with Japanese culture. A person can learn so much about a country and it’s people by studying its various art forms and manga is so uniquely Japanese that no other culture can copy it. Cult classics like ‘Akira’ made me a firm fan of cyberpunk literature and made me more aware of the dangers of technology, social isolation, corruption and power. This, and a wonderfully complex storyline between Tetsuo and Kaneda led me to look for similar stories like ‘Ghost in the Shell’.   

2. The best Japanese movie I’ve seen this year is:

 

‘Zatoichi’ starring Takeshi ‘Beat’ Kitano. It’s an excellent version of the blind swordsman who comes into a small Japanese town to kick gangster butt. It also stars the awesome Tadanobu Asano. It’s set during the feudal Edo period. It has ronins, geishas and lots of great sword-fighting, so its well worth a look at if you get the chance.

3. What Japanese author(s) or book(s) have you enjoyed that you would highly recommend to others?

Nothing comes close to Haruki Murakami. 2010 has been a good year for reading his books as I’ve got to know him better as a writer. I would recommend ‘South of the Border, West of the Sun’, ‘After Dark’ and ‘Sputnik Sweetheart’ as an introduction to his work. I am currently reading ‘Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’ and ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles’. So far, they are both turning out to be excellent!  

4. What is something Japanese that you’d like to try but haven’t yet had the chance?

I’d love to try Miso Soup ever since I read the novel ‘In The Miso Soup’ by Ryu Murakami. I would also love to try on the traditional Japanese costume and go through the tea ceremony.  I’m a teaholic, and Japan is THE place to do some serious tea-tasting! Just thinking about it is putting a smile on my face!

5. You’re planning to visit Japan next year. Money is not a concern. What is on the top of your list of things you most want to do?

 

 

This is a VERY long list. First off I’d probably stay a few months (considering how long the journey is) so I’d start off with ‘Hanami’ or the cherry blossom viewing in March. It would be a perfect time to go as I’d also celebrate my birthday there. We’d pack our bento lunches and go sit in the park with all the other watchers. Then I’d visit Tokyo’s various districts: Ginza (shopping), Akihabara (electronics), Harajuku etc and some of the old temples that are located in the capital. Something tells me praying there would do me some good. There is also the Ghibli Museum I’d like to see. It’s very hard to get tickets, but because I’m such a fan of Ghibli films it’s an absolute must. I’d also go and visit the Tokyo Tower. I heard that young couples go there and sit under it. If you stay long enough and the lights go out, then its a sign that you’ll stay together forever.

Finally, towards June (I said I was staying a few months), I’d go over to the Okinawa islands as I’ve heard it’s a sub-tropical paradise. A bit of swimming, some fishing; perfect. Nothing like rounding up my Japan pilgrimage by visiting the birth place of my Japanese rock hero Gackto-san!

That’s my questions answered. What about you?

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Unauthorised Absences & The Writer’s Bug

20 Wednesday Oct 2010

Posted by mywordlyobsessions in From Life..., General, Writing

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Haruki Murakami, margaret atwood, Nabokov, writers block, writing


Conquering the blank page is often the hardest task of an aspiring writer…

That’s the way they used to write it in the school register: ‘Unauthorised Absence’. A capital ‘U’ in the margin. That was the shameful mark of a ‘skivver’, a player of ‘hookey’, the class rebel, the tell-tale sign of one who smoked surreptitiously at the back of the bike-sheds. Not that I ever skipped school. Perish the thought! I was a good girl, a model student, teacher’s pet. Really. Honest. Ok, well not quite…

But I’ve been a bit naughty lately, in that I haven’t posted for a while. As you’ll have noticed. To quote Jack Jordon from ’21 Grams’, “The guilt, the guilt will suck you down to the bone”, and that’s exactly how I felt when I realised my transgression. It was only at a friends house last week (when we all got to talking about our respective blogs) that brought on the bone-sucking guilt. So here I am apologising for my unproductive, unforeseen disappearance act. Sharing our blogging experiences made me think about this place and what it really meant to me. It feels like I’ve had it forever, but it’s only been four months since I started blogging here, yet I’ve grown rather fond of it. Before I became a wordpresser (if there is such a word) I had a place on windows live spaces with very little readership. While it was an ideal place to cut my teeth, it didn’t have nearly enough tools that WordPress.com has to offer its bloggers.

However, unlike here, I was blogging more often yet the lack of readers made it feel like I was talking to myself half the time. The final move to a better platform came when Microsoft did away with its mediocre stats page (without warning I might add). Major mistake. As the final straw, I did a toss-up between the book bloggers favourite (blogspot) and it’s more intellectual adversary (wordpress). Now that I’m comfortably settled here and have regular readers, things have become more serious. Suddenly there’s a pressure to produce, to write articles of quality that will generate discussions, questions and hopefully inspire other bloggers too. There is a feeling of responsibility, and that brings with it a learning curve that helps to hone my writing skills and develop an eye for what is a good subject for a blog and what isn’t.

But I digress…While blogging is a whole other kettle of fish among the myriad forms of internet writing, I have been engaged with a totally different, more traditional method which brings me to the reason for my absence: I have begun a novel.

Yes, the writing bug now has me well and truly in its thrall; in a way that I have been praying and praying it eventually would. In the past the muses have not been kind to me and I have learnt that youth is often a disadvantage when it comes to the art of the novel. Coherence, plausibility, experience and of course the all important catalogue of ‘read’ books all go contribute to some aspect of becoming a well-rounded novelist.

As a life-long reader there were times that I’d find myself going through books with a kind of envious longing. As I pass by bookshops I dared to imagine my book, with my name on it filling the shelves. But the daydream would dissolve when I thought of authors like Atwood and Murakami, about how theirs is an inspired genius, a talent that is born not learned. My muses would tell me this, but then they’d also tell me about how half of a writer’s art is his craft, and how at least THAT could be learned through hard work.  

Sometimes a beautiful passage would make me wonder ‘why can’t I write something like this?’ To make matters worse, my family have often said the same thing too, ‘you have imagination, you like books, why don’t you try writing one?’ Or, ‘you read so much, can’t you think up a story?’ But by far the worst is ‘it can’t be that difficult!’ Albeit, its said with all the goodwill in the world, but it’s still irritating. It takes all I’ve got not to turn around and snarl back ‘but it IS that difficult! Can’t you see?’ Writing out of all art forms is the most difficult to understand. In it’s unworked state, without the guidance of an intuitive mentor it is an unruly force that behaves in vastly different ways in different people. 

I think we can agree that some people are naturally gifted. They can just ‘write’ it all out in a coherent manner and be done with it. But for the rest of us, it takes a lot of hard work. Using myself as an example, I can say that for the longest time I carried the ‘idea’ of my novel with me wherever I went. Fully formed as it was, it was my lack of writing skills that stopped me from getting it down on paper the way I wanted it, or more importantly, the way it deserved to be written. After a few unsuccessful, messy attempts, I let it sit at the back of my mind and took the radical decision to allow myself the time to get to know my craft.

After a few years of reading intensively and studying the works of prominent authors, I began to understand that writing is much, much more than merely putting words on paper. It is a way of thinking, a method of Cartesian logic that needs to be re-learned, even though it is, by origin, innate. I set about listening to audiotapes of authors talking about their craft and making notes about how they felt, the difficulties they faced while they set about creating in this loneliest of crafts. The trials and tribulations of each differed, yet the main bugbear of ‘writer’s block’ and performance anxiety (especially after a particularly successful book) were among those that struck a chord with me.  

I began to see many mutual points of suffering between me and authors like Saul Bellow, Katherine Mansfield and Vladimir Nabokov. I was relieved (if relief is such a word) that getting stuck, beating yourself up over a few sentences and the general worry and stress of writing is something that carries on throughout an author’s life and can even be the fuel that drives them to reach their potential best. It was then I decided to make peace with my anxiety, and funnily enough, only then did my story finally come forward and yield itself to me.

It’s been three months now, and my research has gathered a momentum and a logic that is slowly helping me unravel the knots in my narrative. Unlike last time, I’m not in a hurry to get things down as quickly as possible. I take the time to reflect and think calmly on what I have to say and how I want to say it. Needless to say, every now and then the writing bug will take me away from the blog, but it’s all for a good cause.  So there. I’m not playing hookey. When you don’t see any posts for a week or so, it means I’m working hard in finding the meaning of ‘writing’. I’ll be recording my journey as I go along, and if my findings are blogworthy I’ll be sharing them here along with you and my other bookish things.

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Quick Review | ‘Nocturnes’ – Kazuo Ishiguro

20 Tuesday Jul 2010

Posted by mywordlyobsessions in Book Review

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

book review, Fiction, Haruki Murakami, japanese, kazuo ishiguro, nocturnes, Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall


Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and NightfallNocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

‘Nocturnes’ comprises of five loosely interwoven stories that tell tales of the relationship between man and music. Set at nightfall, each piece has its own flavour, with characters in different romantic predicaments that culminate to a moment of revelation.

As I was reading this I couldn’t help thinking about this great concept. After all, I’m one big believer in the thing called the ‘soundtrack to life’. It’s funny how songs flavour and shape the happiest and saddest moments of our lives. So it was with excitement that I picked up ‘Nocturnes’, hoping it would be one of those wonderful reads that takes you back to the times when songs and life’s bittersweet lessons met in a glorious serendipitous requiem. But alas, it wasn’t so.

It’s hard to place as to where the disappointment lay, but I think it has something to do with a misplacement between the characters and the music. They just didn’t seem to fit together. Either there was too much music and not enough ‘story’, or the story drowned out the music. The third story in particular held some vile characters. There was a vile married couple who seemed to think their way of life was the best and anyone else was simply a loser. I didn’t care for any of them, nor did I connect with their shallow needs and two-dimensional personalities. The women were always too wishy-washy, not at all like real women. The men were either too passive or the total opposite. In a novel where I expected music to temper these extremes, I found it only served to excite it.

Ishiguro is a great author, and I’m certain that his other works are much better than this. I think this would have been a novel better written by someone like Haruki Murakami, who frequently uses Jazz themes as a delicate undertone in his novels. Murakami would have captured and shaped the mood of each story far more successfully than Ishiguro.

If you wish to read a novel with musical undertones, I suggest ‘South of the Border, West of the Sun’ by Haruki Murakami (click for my review). It’s far superior to ‘Nocturnes’ and it has just the right amount of moody nostalgia to satisfy the reader.

View all my reviews >>

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Quick Review | ‘South of the Border, West of the Sun’ – Haruki Murakami

07 Wednesday Jul 2010

Posted by mywordlyobsessions in Book Review

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

book review, Fiction, Hajime, Haruki Murakami, japanese, love story, south of the border west of the sun


South of the Border, West of the Sun South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The passage of time is hard to understand. It runs to its own improvised beat, slowing down and speeding up according to the moment – just like a jazz tune. There are times when the world seems to grind to a painful halt, your breath catches in your throat and your heart beats wildly at the sight of a ghost from the past. Then there are times when it seems the years have slipped by like a thief in the night, taking with it your youth, your dreams, your very ‘self’.

“There are some things in this world that can be changed and some that can’t. And time passing is one thing that can’t be redone. Come this far and you can’t go back.”

Yes, the hours of our borrowed life come and go like the tide of a distant shore rising unexpectedly to the cusp of our existence. Sometimes it leaves cryptic messages in its wake, dredged from the murky depths of memory; and at other times it withdraws in cruel silence, erasing the delicate footprints to our past.

Murakami’s novel follows Hajime, a middle-aged man, who recounts the erratic ups and downs of his incomplete life. It documents his loves and losses, his betrayals and sacrifices, his fears and desires. ‘South of the Border, West of the Sun’ is a story full of a very human reminiscence of what might have been, if only things were different. It underlines the instinctive need felt by all people for recognition; a recognition that can only be fulfilled as a reflection of the self in another human being. In Murakami’s novel this translates into a fervent, never-ending search for Hajimes first love Shimamoto, a mysterious girl with a lame leg.

What began as childhood friendship slowly blossomed into something more, but just as Hajime and Shimamoto began to bond, Hajime had to move to another neighbourhood. However this separation does nothing to sever the bond between them and years later when Hajime has settled down with two children, Shimamoto once again enters his life; this time with devastating consequences. Hajime must cope with the burden of choosing between right and wrong and the intoxicating desire that has matured within him for Shimamoto.

Despite the bad decisions that permeate Hajimes life I found myself thinking of him as a character. I neither liked nor disliked him. Instead to me he was just a disembodied voice, narrating the erratic flow of his story – pointing bravely to the rights and terrible wrongs of his personal journey. The women however were very vividly portrayed. I identified with their emotions far more readily than I did with Hajimes’. The fates of the women in particular concerned me, especially the haunting state of Izumi, a girl full of life and laughter, that experiences a most mind-blowing betrayal she certainly does not deserve.

Murakami is a word-artist in this beautiful, realistic yet painful analysis of love and heartache. He paints as honest a portrayal of male mid-life crisis as can possibly be written laden and the consequences of uncontrolled desire. Recommended to men and women alike, especially those who wonder why we sometimes do the things we do, and suffer the fate brought onto us.

I give this 4/5 stars. I’m still thinking Murakami has a better story in him, and I’m hoping to find it.

View all my reviews >>

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

05 Monday Jul 2010

Posted by mywordlyobsessions in Authors, Meme

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

fear and loathing, Haruki Murakami, hunter s thompson, in the miso soup, Its monday what are you reading?, liz jensen, meme, rum diary, ryu murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart, steig larrson, the girl with the dragon tattoo, the rapture, wind up bird chronicles


It's Monday! What are you reading this week?

Welcome to ‘It’s Monday, What Are You Reading?’, a weekly meme initially hosted by Sheila at the ‘Book Journey – One Persons Journey Through a World of Books’. This is a great way of letting people know what I’ve been reading over the past week and what I’ve got lined up for this week.

I’m sorry to say it’s been a slow one this past week, but it’s a good thing because I tend to take time over the books I like. So, here’s a list of books I completed, am still reading/ listening to/ look  forward to reading this week:

BOOKS READ:
1. Sputnik Sweetheart – Haruki Murakami
Sputnik Sweetheart
I’m quite surprised by how quickly I get through Murakami’s books. They are so reader friendly! This one took no time at all. I think next up is ‘The Wind-up Bird Chronicles’. Click here to read my review. 

2. In The Miso Soup – Ryu Murakami
In The Miso SoupAnother amazing read, this time by Ryu Murakami, who just happens to be Haruki Murakamis favourite author. Hmm. I wonder why? lol! Again, a quick read, not because I wanted to get through it quickly; but because the suspense was so masterfully engrossing. Review coming soon!

CURRENTLY READING:
1. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A savage Journey into the Heart of the American Dream – Hunter S. Thompson
Fear and Loathing in Las VegasTaking it easy with this one, nice slow doses, no sudden movements… after all, you must have your wits about you if you are to venture into Gonzo journalism at its finest! One toke over the line…

2. The Rapture (Audiobook) – Liz Jensen
The Rapture (unabridged audio book)Another one I’m taking my sweet time with. It’s been a while since I listened to a story, and I’m finding it quite enjoyable, if not a bit too tedious at times. WIth books, you can scan a page if nothing worthwhile is happening, but with audio, you have to listen to every single word. It’s a good thing that my version comes with three different narrator speeds. I’m listening to it in ‘Chipmunk mode’. Hilarious! Watch out for the review, it’s going to be one helluva breakdown.

 BOOKS TO READ:
1. The Rum Diary – Hunter S. Thompson
I’m going full-throttle through as many Gonzo books as I can. It’s my version of buying the ticket and taking the ride. I’ll probably end up reading a biography of him too. Anyone recommend a good one?

2. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles – Haruki Murakami
I want to read a fat book by Murakami. I’m fed up with the thin ones. This will give me more food for thought.

3. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson
After reading an excellent description of the main character (a kick-ass girl who’d give Trinity a run for her money) I decided it’s high time I started reading the trilogy. And besides, I saw the movie trailer and it looks absolutely stunning! 

Well, that’s my little list for now, I’d love to hear what other people have been reading the past week and what they’d recommend.

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Quick Review | ‘Sputnik Sweetheart’ – Haruki Murakami

01 Thursday Jul 2010

Posted by mywordlyobsessions in Book Review

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

book review, Haruki Murakami, japanese, Laika, Sputnik Sweetheart, Sumire


Sputnik Sweetheart Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
‘Sputnik Sweetheart’ is a novel that works its way quietly through the mind, awakening the senses and forcing you to look at the world through a different window. Like many of Murakami’s characters, we are introduced to a set of young adults, who have somehow made it through the first stages of their life, but seem to be lost as to where they go from there.

Sumire, a young college drop-out with dreams of being a Japanese Kerouac meets Miu, a woman twice her age who she slowly begins to fall in love with. Confused by her reaction to Miu, Sumire turns to K, her college friend who harbours his own secret love for Sumire. Identifying Sumire as a young woman with no definable goal in life, Miu takes her under her wing and introduces her into the world of enterprise. Under K’s watchful gaze, Sumire begins to blossom into a different, more confident woman. This transformation however gives rise to other more serious problems, until one day Sumire mysteriously disappears and in her wake, strange truths begin to disturb the surface of everyone’s past.

Murakami’s chosen leitmotifs, symbols, and stories often seem totally disassociated, but in this novel they manage to fall like tetris-pieces into a beautiful pattern that is both disturbing and beautiful at the same time.

In this novel, the loss of ones soul, the ridding of the pubescent self and the haphazard journey into ‘becoming’ an adult is portrayed as lonely and full of painful sacrifices. We may have friends to keep us company along the way, but what purpose do they really serve? The title ‘Sputnik Sweetheart’ is well-chosen, as the haunting story of Laika (the poor dog who was sacrificed for scientific progression) returns again and again to hammer home how humans often sacrifice their closest life companions in order to understand more about the mystery of themselves.

After reading four Murakami books, I see that his writing stands out from the rest of his peers for its controlled simplicity. The man has a story to tell, and his job is to tell it as clearly as possible. When a person has a story, they don’t waste time embellishing the background. And so it is that everything he writes stands out fresh and bold and strong. I find that this is an advantage, as he never tires his readers, but leaves them with a set of impressions that linger long after the story is finished.

View all my reviews >>

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