Haruki Murakami
Most of my time reading this year has been put towards getting through the works of Haruki Murakami.
I picked up "A Wild Sheep Chase" on a whim and was enthralled by the way it dealt with its themes of loneliness, loss, death and the consequences of modernisation. Not with a heavy handed bonk on the head and answers handed out, but with a glimmer of magical surrealism that leaves more questions and time for reflection. It was that glimmer of magic that hooked me in to read more of Murakami's works.
Some quick Googling, suggested "The City and its Uncertain Walls" would be a next good read, but the library and local bookshop were out of copies, so "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" (the latter is a re-working of the former), was the next best thing. This one took me a moment to get in to, but again, the matter-of-fact way in which the weirdness of the universe was accepted drew me in. Of course there exists a city that has walls so high no one can ever leave once they've entered. Of course the only things that pass through the gates are unicorns going out to pasture. Of course it's possible to encrypt secrets in ones brain. Of course!
"Kafka On The Shore" was hauntingly beautiful. A little more out there than the previous instalments, featuring cameos from Colonel Sanders and Jack Daniels (because of course), it tells the story of a boy with an Oedipal curse trying to outrun his fate. There are also hints of "Aristophanes' speech" with multiple characters completing each other.
I've just finished "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle". To say there are layers on layers would under sell it. This thing leans in to the law of "conservation of characters" so hard that with ~9-10 major characters, each character is a representation of another in some way — leaving only ~2-3 total characters. This was an incredible tale of loss, growth and how peoples realities can all differ so vastly.
I've picked up "1Q84" to read next.
The one thing that I have really appreciated in Murkami's writing is that he can write dream-like sequences incredibly well. Which, in this genre, where it's up to interpretation what is real and what is not makes everything just so much more interesting. Actually, I would go one further. Reading his writing makes me feel like I am dreaming. And I love every moment of it.
I picked up "A Wild Sheep Chase" on a whim and was enthralled by the way it dealt with its themes of loneliness, loss, death and the consequences of modernisation. Not with a heavy handed bonk on the head and answers handed out, but with a glimmer of magical surrealism that leaves more questions and time for reflection. It was that glimmer of magic that hooked me in to read more of Murakami's works.
Some quick Googling, suggested "The City and its Uncertain Walls" would be a next good read, but the library and local bookshop were out of copies, so "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" (the latter is a re-working of the former), was the next best thing. This one took me a moment to get in to, but again, the matter-of-fact way in which the weirdness of the universe was accepted drew me in. Of course there exists a city that has walls so high no one can ever leave once they've entered. Of course the only things that pass through the gates are unicorns going out to pasture. Of course it's possible to encrypt secrets in ones brain. Of course!
"Kafka On The Shore" was hauntingly beautiful. A little more out there than the previous instalments, featuring cameos from Colonel Sanders and Jack Daniels (because of course), it tells the story of a boy with an Oedipal curse trying to outrun his fate. There are also hints of "Aristophanes' speech" with multiple characters completing each other.
I've just finished "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle". To say there are layers on layers would under sell it. This thing leans in to the law of "conservation of characters" so hard that with ~9-10 major characters, each character is a representation of another in some way — leaving only ~2-3 total characters. This was an incredible tale of loss, growth and how peoples realities can all differ so vastly.
I've picked up "1Q84" to read next.
The one thing that I have really appreciated in Murkami's writing is that he can write dream-like sequences incredibly well. Which, in this genre, where it's up to interpretation what is real and what is not makes everything just so much more interesting. Actually, I would go one further. Reading his writing makes me feel like I am dreaming. And I love every moment of it.