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Murakami Mon Amour
I adore the work of Haruki Murakami, and I was excited to hear he'd won this year's Kafka Literary Award, which he accepted in Prague on Monday. While 'Kafka on the Shore' is one of Murakami's best-known recent works, he didn't win because he used the famous Czech novelist's name in the title; the prize is awarded to "authors whose works of exceptional artistic qualities are found to appeal to readers regardless of their origin, nationality and culture, just as the works of Franz Kafka do."
I've been meaning for some weeks to have a chat with a family friend who is Murakami's translator -- and now I am determined to do so. Anyone else out there a Murakami fan? He's not for everyone, but once you acquire a taste for his dark, thoughtful and taut prose, you'll be hooked.
bookmaven2005 at 9:49:00 AM EST Blog about this entry |
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Hi. Jay Rubin, Philip Gabriel, and Alfred Birnbaum are Murakami's three English translators, so I'll guess . . . Jay Rubin?
Of the ones I've read, I liked them in this order:
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
A Wild Sheep Chase
Kafka on the Shore
Sputnik Sweetheart
South of the Border, West of the Sun
I think of South of the Border, West of the Sun as the more conventional Murakami. Sputnik Sweetheart, inspired by a Michelangelo Antonioni film called "L'Avventura," which stars Monica Vitti, represents in my opinion, the minimalist Murakami.
His short story collection The Elephant Vanishes is supposed to be very good. Dance, Dance, Dance, the sequel to A Wild Sheep Chase, is not supposed to one of his best. That's according to Jay Rubin in his book "Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words," which I liked a lot. It's out of print, but I bought a new copy relatively inexpensively on the Internet. I think it was published before After the Quake. -
thank you majbeck and bookmaven for the Murakami recos! appreciate it.
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Majbeck, Murakami is so on my beatnik path, LOL... good suggestion to start with 'Norwegian Wood.' 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle' is also great. I try to stay closer to the middle of the path most of the time, but when I saw this news bit I knew I had to out myself...
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Although I am not the book maven, my suggestion would be to start with Norwegian Wood, by far the most successful of Murakami's books. My favorite, are the short stories in After the Quake.... Sputnik Sweetheart is Kerouac-esque, by choice, but a little too angst ridden for me... intersting choice of authors, Maven. Off the beaten path, or should I say the beatnik path??
11/20/06 9:48 AM
To end, when I finish one of his books, I usually feel as though the world has changed in some way, a way that is far-off and that I cannot pinpoint. Afterwards, I may wander around in a daze for a few hours, contemplating. This is the best kind of book. It is the type of book that makes you feel like one of his characters, slightly enlightened from his/her experiences, yet inevitably with more questions than those that you had at the beginning.