Comments on: Norwegian Wood

By: DxJ

DxJ — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:28:01 +0000

Just finished it, theres a short story entitled “firefly” in one of his short story collections, which is a gently modified version of everything up until mr.Clean gives the firefly (his name was changed from shock trooper to something else).

Anyway great book, first of his long works that I’ve read through; I don’t care if people say that it’s easy to read and unoriginal (Jay Rubin talks about this in the afterword in my edition), I loved it.
It’s harsh, yet soothing. It’s realistic, yet not at the same time.
Awesome

Btw how does this site assign those random pictures :D

By: Shintaku

Shintaku — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:56:40 +0000

I read Norwegian Wood first, and I just had to read more of this author.
So I did: Wild Sheep Chase was second, and the bundle about all the earthquake stories after that. ‘After The Quake’ as bundled in English, unfortunately I read all of them in Dutch, but I think for once the translator did a proper job and didn’t use an English translation as a basis. At least the rythm felt right.

I’m yet WAY off reading in actual Japanese beyond kindergarten-level, but I can’t help but wonder what his ‘real’ timing feels like …

Usually, in proze people make sentences like :”He lit a cigarette from his pocket”, yet with Murakami, he can draw them out like :”He looked around in his pocket for a cigarette, and found the lighter to light it with and inhaled”…

According to the interview included after one of these books that’s quite unusual…

For some reason or another, I like his style of writing. A LOT. But I will be looking around for more of different authors as well ^^

By: DragonGaze

DragonGaze — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:35:38 +0000

Just finished reading this a few minutes ago after hearing you recommend it, and thank you very much. Absolutely loved it, and no doubt it will stay with me for a long time.

By: Ashleigh

Ashleigh — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 04:12:05 +0000

I would recommend Sputnik Sweetheart. One of his greatest novels imo.

By: DxJ

DxJ — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:07:23 +0000

You’re alive!

I’ve heard good stuff about “wind up bird chronicle”, but because it’s an official IB programme book, I’ve decided to skip it (Yeah my logic isn’t waterproof I know).
I love his short stories! The long stories are too deep for me, but the short ones are amazing! Like Honey Pie and ” The 100% perfect girl”, which is just amazing. I’ll take you up on the Norwegian wood though, give a long murakami another shot!

By: Ben

Ben — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:10:52 +0000

Wind-up Bird Chronicle is indeed a good choice. But his most unsettling epic has to be Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.

By: Rey Cazador

Rey Cazador — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:56:40 +0000

Try reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Its interesting. Btw its good to see you return to blogging.

By: ayasawada

ayasawada — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:36:44 +0000

Hey, DM’s back :)

‘South of the Border, West of the Sun’ is my favourite and a heavily underrated Murakami novel. Highly recommend (and it’s short).

His short stories are also great. ‘The Elephant Vanishes’ is a good collection.

And as something different, I found ‘Underground’, his interviews with people involved in the Tokyo gas attack, to be really interesting.

By: quendidil

quendidil — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:13:13 +0000

It seems to be fine now. You’re in Japan as of post 21.

By: steelkokoro

steelkokoro — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:53:32 +0000

Why am I listed as being in the USA?