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[unsung]

This is a great book by Japanese author HARUKI MURAKAMI. It's writen like a dream. [!!SPOILER ALERT!!] There are two stories and it takes you til the end of the book to figure out that they are the SAME stories.

I'd highly recommend this book to anyone keen on Japanese authors.

[AndyH]

Yeah, it's a great book!
Actually, I've liked just about everything I've read by Haruki Murakami.

[stretch]

Ummm,
yup good author indeed. however, what's up with spoiling the ending??? thats part of the fun of that book.
"a wild sheep chase" is also good.
I'd also suggest David Suzukis "the japan we never knew." (He's nisei Canadian)

[saloc]

That's the only Murakami book I haven't read yet - I hope you haven't ruined it too much by telling me the ending! He is indeed a great writer.

[Hoser]

Yeah I was actually interested until you gave away the ending >.<

[AndyH]

Even though Unsung gave away the plot, I recommend that you read it anyways. Actually, I figured out that the stories were intertwined a good deal before the ending-you still don't know what will ultimately happen, so go ahead and read it!

[JimDunlop2]

Aww man,

Didn't your mamma ever teach you to alert people to SPOILERS when you write a review??

[unsung]

[Hoser]

lol that's ok.
By the time I get around to reading it, if I ever do, I will probably have forgotten what happens

[junajuna]

Anybody ever checked out the other Murakami? Ryu? Look for Coin Locker Babies or Almost Transparent Blue. He's really good, just unfortunately not as famous.

[JimDunlop2]

n/p.. It's not like you told us the storyline and spoliers for The Revenge of the Sith or nuthin.

Then I'd have to hunt you down and shoot you.

[AndyH]

Has anyone read the newer Haruki Murakami book, "Kafka on the Shoreline" (or something to that effect). I saw it last month at Tower Records bookstore in Shibuya, and was thinking about getting it. New books are just too damn expensive here!

[Like a Rolling Stone]

Another good writer in Japan is Abe Kobo. In his book there is a village under the sand and everyday the peole in the village hacve to dig out the house but the sand comes back in again. Very Camus. There is a film too. I watched it too. Top!

[abufletcher]

I've just started reading my first Murakami book, A Wild Sheep Chase. I'm about 50 pages into it so PLEASE DON'T anyone spill the beans on this one!

But what I wanted to say is that what impresses me immediately is how very little about this book is specifically Japanese. In fact, I'm tempted to describe Murakami as "a GREAT NOVELIST who, by the way, have you heard?, happens to be Japanese -- not that it matters."

Sure there are things that can be understood perhaps a little more fully from a Japan perspective (for example the obsession with the beauty of ears) but I think that any urbanite anywhere on earth could read and appreciate this book (and it's style of writing) without knowing thing one about Japan, Japanese people, or Japanese culture.

It's frankly amazing to me that "a Japanese person" can communicate so little "Japaneseness" in extended writing! Actually, I keep asking myself if it is just the language of the (English) translation that's causing this effect. It's just such common conversational language, fun but very common. Like of some of the things by Kurt Vonegut, for example Breakfast of Champions or Slaughterhouse Five. I sure wish I had the ability to read it in Japanese.

[fluffyhamster]

Anybody read Murakami Ryu's In the Miso Soup? If so, what did you think of it? (I quite enjoyed it myself).