In getting ready for the long-awaited release of 1Q84 on October 25th, I was pleasantly surprised to find evidence of Lemuria-Staff-Past who have also been devoted fans.

Enjoy this review by Catherine, Lemuria Class of 2006. -Lisa

A Wild Sheep Chase is, in many ways, Haruki Murakami’s break-through book. It was his first novel translated into English and his first popular, if not critical, success in Japan.

The book is considered the second episode of his “Rat” trilogy, the first of which is not available in the U.S. and the third being Dance, Dance, Dance. (No fear, the books are only bound by one character, so it not essential to read them in order, or together.) Immensely successful in Japan, A Wild Sheep Chase is a comic combination of disparate styles: a literary mystery, a metaphysical speculation, and an ironic first-person account of an impossible quest. A beach read if Murakami has ever written one.

It begins innocently enough. A Woody-Allen-esque chain-smoking ad executive receives a photograph from a long lost friend and appropriates the image for one of his firm’s promotional posters. But the photo – of an idyllic sheep-populated countryside – is no ordinary scenic view. Rather, it is photographic evidence of an elusive sheep with a star shaped birthmark that (traditionally) brings its owners incredible wealth and power.

Soon, the ad man finds himself hunted by underworld figures who instruct him to find the sheep, or face dire consequences. Armed with a laissez-faire attitude and enigmatically-eared girlfriend, the man sets out on exactly what the title promises.

It is the way Murakami describes everyday oddity (such as the girlfriend with the perfect earlobes) and the way he conveys modern Japan (as a nouveau wonderland with a nameless male “Alice”) that gives the novel its ample charm. A Wild Sheep Chase contains passages of incredible beauty, as well as breathtaking humor, all delivered as intimate author-reader conversation. Like the work itself, Murakami is very hard to compartmentalise. Just when you think you have a handle on his eerie brand of surreal description, he finds a new indulgence. And while this might sound irritating, it proves to be extremely rewarding.

Admittedly, this book is probably not Murakami’s masterpiece (I’ll save that honor for Wind-Up Bird Chronicles or Kafka on the Shore), but it might be his most fun to read. Grab onto this book, get a feel for the world you are about to enter, and read on for greatness.

-Written by Catherine

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For an introduction to Murakami and preview of 1Q84, click here.

Click here to see other blog posts on Murakami.

1Q84 is here.

In getting ready for the long-awaited release of 1Q84 on October 25th, I was pleasantly surprised to find evidence of Lemuria-Staff-Past who have also been devoted fans.

Enjoy this review by Catherine, Lemuria Class of 2006.

One of the more preoccupying themes of Japanese literature in this century has been the question of what it means to be Japanese, especially in an era that has seen the rise and fall of militarism and the decline of traditional culture; but from reading the books of Haruki Murakami, one of the country’s most celebrated novelists, you’d never know he was Japanese at all: his characters read Turgenev and Jack London, listen to Rossini and Bob Dylan, eat pate de foie gras and spaghetti, and know how to make a proper salty dog.

In Murakami’s early books, the references to Western pop culture were sometimes so obscure that they even flew over the heads of many Americans. Murakami’s protagonists are soft, irresolute men, often homebodies with dynamic girlfriends or wives, who go through long, inert periods of ennui — a blatant renunciation of the frenetic, male-dominated ethos of modern Japan. Breaking with his own tradition, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is Murakami’s attempt to not only glimpse at Japanese-ness, but to use a very wide lens.

This is a big, ambitious book clearly intended to establish Murakami as a major figure in world literature. Although his earlier books bristle with philosophical asides and literary allusions (Western, mainly), most critics treated him as a lightweight, a wise guy who never took anything seriously. Wind-Up Bird Chronicle almost self-consciously deals with a wide spectrum of heavy subjects: the transitory nature of romantic love, the evil vacuity of contemporary politics and, most provocative of all, the legacy of Japan’s violent aggression in World War II. But it all begins with a man losing his cat. Then his wife. (Then his mind?)

Focusing some of Wind-Up Bird Chronicle’s best chapters on the occupation of Manchukuo and the consequent border skirmishes with Russia and the Mongols, Murakami seizes upon a sense of collective guilt as cause of personal Japanese confusion. The Manchukuo passages are absolutely dazzling; the prose crisp and the visuals epic. The narrative leaps from 1930s Manchuria to 1980s Japan – with comparative stints spent in downtown Tokyo and Siberia.

The transitory nature of the book, to me, was one of the most intriguing elements of Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Yes, it is a big book, but one that is constantly changing. At times, I felt so far away from the original premise that I wondered if I was still reading the same book at all; oddly enough, instead of feeling muddled by the development of the book, I felt refreshed, glad to be always moving; leaving characters and plot lines behind; going deeper into the rabbit hole.

Many regard Wind-Up Bird Chronicle as Murakami’s masterpiece and I would be inclined to agree. The experience of reading this book is absolutely mesmerizing — and utterly indescribable, so perhaps I will stop trying to explain. Instead, I will say that Murakami has written a bold and generous book, and the resulting reading experience is its own reward. Trust me: It’s a beautiful mind bender.

Written by Catherine (Lemuria 2006)

For an introduction to Murakami and preview of 1Q84, click here.

Click here to see other blog posts on Murakami.

1Q84 is here.

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Some years ago I met Tom in the fiction room and eventually we discovered that we both loved Murakami. We have had many conversations about books we love, but none so enthusiastic as the ones on Murakami. In all the anticipation for 1Q84, I asked Tom if he would like to join our blog series on Haruki Murakami. -Lisa

Here’s what Tom has to say:

The spring semester of my junior year of college was – without question – my worst. Within a stretch of about two weeks, Cancer forced itself into my family and Murder pointlessly ended the life of one of my dearest friends. Even now, the weeks and months that followed are blurry at best.

That summer, I discovered Murakami.

The nominal purpose of the summer was to conduct research for my thesis, but – whether it was clear to me or not at the time – the summer also served to remove me from a world that made no sense and whose foundations no longer seemed stable. Though I wasn’t aware of it, the financial crisis happened that summer, too.

I picked up Kafka on the Shore in a bookstore in D.C. – drawn by the back cover’s promise of talking cats, fish falling from the sky and prophecies. That summer, I needed – and more importantly, needed to believe in – all those things.

And, what Murakami gave me that summer was solace in chaos. Peace in grief. Life in absurdity. Constancy in change. Hope in loss.

I needed another world – perhaps where cats talk or soldiers never age – as an escape, and Kafka on the Shore – every time I read it on a subway or in a café – delivered.

It’s not very often – for me, at least – that books make me wholeheartedly want to live in the world that is described within them, but Murakami’s books did and still do that to me. They are stories where the journey is more important than the ending. And where the ending doesn’t always make sense. Where our questions – not the answers, necessarily – matter most.

But more important than my own personal experience with Murakami is how your experience will be. I envy everyone who has never picked him up before. I envy the discoveries that you’ll make and the characters that will speak to you – who maybe never spoke to me. I envy your first dive into a world where things are not as they seem – and where everything in this world, even for just a moment – seems possible, and dare I say, magical all over again.

1Q84 is on sale today!

Click here to see all of Haruki Murakmai’s books.

Click here to see other blog posts on Murakami.

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Within the past year Haruki Murakami has become one of my favorite writers. I’d like to take up a little space on this blog to tell you about him and maybe win you over on his behalf.

Murakami is a Japanese writer (his works, both fiction and nonfiction, live in the foreign fiction section here at Lemuria), who has gained a great deal of international acclaim over the years for novels like Norwegian Wood, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore.  He’s one of the only Japanese writers to gain a loyal following in the United States, and in Japan his novels have made him into something of a celebrity. Not being a fan of his fame, Murakami exiled himself for a few years and has allowed few interviews (I was only able to find five when I was researching for this blog).

Part of Murakami’s success in America may come from the fact that stylistically his novels are Western.  He explains his style choices in a 2004 interview with the Paris Review:

“When I was 29, I just started to write a novel out of the blue. I wanted to write something, but I didn’t know how.  I didn’t know how to write in Japanese—I’d read almost nothing of the works of Japanese writers—so I borrowed the style, structure, everything, from the books I had read—American books or Western books.”

Though the structure of his writing may be familiar to those of us who are fans of Western European and American literature, Murakami’s themes and stories are all his own. He has a talent for churning out fantasy/sci-fi mixed with serious philosophical and moral questionings.   I have never before encountered an author who writes so elegantly about the kinds of strange events that pop up in Murakami’s novels and short stories.  I’ve discovered dancing dwarves, psychic prostitutes, girls who willingly fall into the role of sleeping beauties, and alternate universes entered through sleep and deep wells in abandoned lots. Yet as magical as his worlds are, Murakami’s protagonists are level-headed and calmly take on their fantastical encounters with amusement and intelligence.

I never tire of the recurring themes in Murakami’s works. Whenever I’m in a reading slump, I put down everything else and dive into one of his novels.  I’ve read three of them already since January (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, After Dark and Norwegian Wood) and I have three more waiting on my shelves.

But besides being a wonderful fiction writer, Haruki Murakami is just an interesting guy, who has managed to achieve quite a lot in his lifetime.  Below I’ve listed some fun facts about Murakami, so you can get a sense of what he’s all about:

• Before becoming a writer Murakami opened the coffeehouse/jazz bar named Peter Cat with his wife.
• Murakami is a marathon runner and a triathlete (He has written a book on the subject of running called What I Talk About When I Talk About Running).
• In 2006 he won the Franz Kafka prize for Kafka on the Shore.
• In addition to being a writer Murakami works as a translator. He has translated the works of Raymond Carver, J.D. Salinger, Truman Capote and F. Scott Fitzgerald into Japanese—many of which are the first translations to ever be available in Japanese.
• Murakami served as the writing fellow for both Princeton and Tufts University.
• Murakami received an honorary doctorate from Princeton in 2008.
• When he won the Jerusalem Prize in 2009, Murakami attended the ceremony (despite the public’s threats to boycott his work) and gave a speech to Israeli dignitaries criticizing Israel’s policies (concerning the recent bombing of Gaza).

Interesting guy, huh? I can’t get enough of his work and have seen information about there possibly being a new book being published in the U.S. sometime this year.  Needless to say I can’t wait.

Do you have any writers that you simply can’t enough of? If so, please share.  -Kaycie

You can read the entirety of the Paris Review interview I cited here.

This blog was originally published March 12, 2011.

1Q84 is on sale today! Click here to reserve your copy.

Click here to see all of Haruki Murakmai’s books.

Click here to see other blog posts on Murakami.

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Teaser courtesy of A. A. Knopf.

1Q84 is coming October 25th. Click here to reserve your copy.

Click here to see all of Haruki Murakmai’s books.

Click here to see other blog posts on Murakami.

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