― jellybean (jellybean), Monday, 17 January 2005 08:26 (nineteen years ago) link
Blimey, I must track this "Sound of the Mountain" film.
I'm going to borrow Natsume Soseki's "I Am a Cat" from the library tomorrow.
― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 18:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― firstworldman (firstworldman), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 19:11 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047682/
I think it's better than that review implies.
― Peter Stringbender (PJ Miller), Thursday, 20 January 2005 09:46 (nineteen years ago) link
or maybe i am a snob, and i just don't like the sort of people who read him. it makes me vaguely irritated that he is often compared, favourably to paul auster, who i rate a lot more highly.
― debden, Thursday, 20 January 2005 15:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― Drake Beardo (cprek), Thursday, 20 January 2005 15:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― Peter Stringbender (PJ Miller), Thursday, 20 January 2005 17:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― jellybean (jellybean), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 22:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 22:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 7 July 2005 16:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 7 July 2005 16:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 7 July 2005 16:46 (eighteen years ago) link
― gunther heartymeal (keckles), Thursday, 7 July 2005 16:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 7 July 2005 16:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 July 2005 16:59 (eighteen years ago) link
― k/l (Ken L), Thursday, 7 July 2005 17:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 7 July 2005 17:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 7 July 2005 17:18 (eighteen years ago) link
For example, he's definitely much easier to read than the typical postmodern writer and his lyricism has an awkwardness to it that makes it more digestible than poetry, maybe like Kurt Vonnegut. And he seems to combine pulp forms (sex! what happened to the girl!) to give the reader something to be interested in, so the novel goes by much faster than if it were just quirky surrealism.
― kenchen, Friday, 16 December 2005 16:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― mark p (Mark P), Friday, 16 December 2005 16:46 (eighteen years ago) link
any defenders?
― The Lex (The Lex), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 17:53 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 17:59 (eighteen years ago) link
lex if I were youI would try norwegian wood,hard-boiled wonderland
― Haikunym (Haikunym), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 18:12 (eighteen years ago) link
murakami reminds me a little of nick hornby urgh!
― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 5 January 2006 12:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― jz, Thursday, 5 January 2006 12:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― chap who would dare to work for the man (chap), Thursday, 5 January 2006 12:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― toby (tsg20), Thursday, 5 January 2006 13:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― Matt (Matt), Thursday, 5 January 2006 13:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 5 January 2006 13:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― I Am Sexless and I Am Foul (noodle vague), Thursday, 5 January 2006 13:57 (eighteen years ago) link
when i was a kid it used to bug me when people mocked the bands or movies i liked or whatever, now it's really only haruki murakami i'm precious about.
― firstworldman (firstworldman), Thursday, 5 January 2006 21:38 (eighteen years ago) link
What I really enjoyed wasn't the moments of revelation or the magic realism but the long stretches inbetween where nothing happens except eating, drinking, sleeping, listening to music, etc.. No one (who I've read) really writes that stuff as well as he does.
― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 5 January 2006 21:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― Haikunym (Haikunym), Thursday, 5 January 2006 21:56 (eighteen years ago) link
― firstworldman (firstworldman), Thursday, 5 January 2006 21:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 5 January 2006 22:00 (eighteen years ago) link
I'm excited this thread popped up again as it inspired me to check and see his new short story collection Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman has finally got a release date on August 29th
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Thursday, 5 January 2006 22:46 (eighteen years ago) link
― Andrew (enneff), Monday, 9 January 2006 02:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― youn, Monday, 9 January 2006 02:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 9 January 2006 02:55 (eighteen years ago) link
I love reading Dance Dance Dance after A Wild Sheep Chase because the same awful stuff keeps happening to the guy that happened in A Wild Sheep Chase, but he has a much different reaction in Dance Dance Dance. Even though for the most part it doesn't seem like it will do much good. His reaction in both books is still basically "fuck it" but he engages instead of disconnecting and the contrast is really uplifting.
Kafka on the Shore is out in paperback, by the way. If not now, soon. When I finish this vampire novel I'm going to reread it.
― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Monday, 9 January 2006 08:35 (eighteen years ago) link
OTM. Some amazing writing during those stretches.
― Baaderonixx born in Xyxax (baaderonixx), Monday, 9 January 2006 08:48 (eighteen years ago) link
i thought those bits were even more tedious - they didn't actively make me cringe and throw the book across the room like some of the more, er, contrived sections, but i am not convinced that boring writing is the best way to evoke boring quotidian life. and the narrator is pretty obnoxious to be around - whiny, perpetually self-justifying, completely self-obsessed.
― The Lex (The Lex), Monday, 9 January 2006 12:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 9 January 2006 22:34 (eighteen years ago) link
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 18:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― Fight the Real Enemy -- Tasti D-Lite (ex machina), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 19:17 (eighteen years ago) link
i just finished kafka on the shore. while it was pretty enjoyable all the way through (except for THAT scene, you can probably guess which if you've read it), i couldn't help feeling like it didn't exactly...add up.
I completely agree. I finished this literally two days ago, and while I enjoyed it, I also thought there were a couple things that didn't quite add up. I think he's great though, and I would give my left arm to meet a girl like Midori from Norwegian Wood.
― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Thursday, 13 April 2006 02:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― Andrew (enneff), Thursday, 13 April 2006 02:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― scamperingalpaca (Chris Hill), Thursday, 13 April 2006 20:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 18:41 (seventeen years ago) link
does anyone know what song's playing on his website?
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/murakami/site_flashforce.php?id=
― kamerad, Saturday, 30 August 2008 05:36 (fifteen years ago) link