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Haruki Murakami - The Wind-up Bird Chronicles

 
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butlerian



Joined: 04 Sep 2006
Location: Korea

PostPosted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 8:25 am    Post subject: Haruki Murakami - The Wind-up Bird Chronicles Reply with quote

Great book...recommended Smile
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SuperHero



Joined: 10 Dec 2003
Location: Superhero Hideout

PostPosted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 1:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

His short stories are better than his novels. Get yourself a copy of The Elephant Vanishes and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.
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faster



Joined: 03 Sep 2006

PostPosted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 3:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

SuperHero wrote:
His short stories are better than his novels. Get yourself a copy of The Elephant Vanishes and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.


I disagree. I think The Wind-Up Bird... is his best work. People get a little breathless about him, but his stuff is good.

His non-fiction book about the sarin gas Tokyo subway attack (the Aum cult) is awesome, too.
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Kenny Kimchee



Joined: 12 May 2003

PostPosted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

faster wrote:
SuperHero wrote:
His short stories are better than his novels. Get yourself a copy of The Elephant Vanishes and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.


I disagree. I think The Wind-Up Bird... is his best work. People get a little breathless about him, but his stuff is good.

His non-fiction book about the sarin gas Tokyo subway attack (the Aum cult) is awesome, too.


You guys aren't actually disagreeing, since a portion of Wind Up Bird is in The Elephant Vanishes. My favorite story from Elephant was "Barn Burning" or something like that.

I love Murakami because I can empathize with the protagonists - 30-something single guys with an existentialist crisis and a taste for jazz and classic rock. The early stuff is great, but the later stuff is kind of one-trick pony. I read Kafka on the Shore this summer and wasn't really impressed.
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bucheon bum



Joined: 16 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I find his short stories to be a bit on the boring side. Wind-Up Bird Chronicles was great. I'm slowly getting through Kafka on the Shore. Just don't find it as interesting as his earlier works.
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faster



Joined: 03 Sep 2006

PostPosted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 6:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Kenny Kimchee wrote:
faster wrote:
SuperHero wrote:
His short stories are better than his novels. Get yourself a copy of The Elephant Vanishes and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.


I disagree. I think The Wind-Up Bird... is his best work. People get a little breathless about him, but his stuff is good.

His non-fiction book about the sarin gas Tokyo subway attack (the Aum cult) is awesome, too.


You guys aren't actually disagreeing, since a portion of Wind Up Bird is in The Elephant Vanishes. My favorite story from Elephant was "Barn Burning" or something like that.

I love Murakami because I can empathize with the protagonists - 30-something single guys with an existentialist crisis and a taste for jazz and classic rock. The early stuff is great, but the later stuff is kind of one-trick pony. I read Kafka on the Shore this summer and wasn't really impressed.


I agree with your assessment completely (except I can't relate to his protagonists at all; well, okay, I like some jazz pretty well).
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Are they the lemmings



Joined: 15 Feb 2007
Location: Not here anymore. JongnoGuru was the only thing that kept me here.

PostPosted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 6:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

bucheon bum wrote:
...Kafka on the Shore. Just don't find it as interesting as his earlier works.
Good call. I read Kafka on the Shore in Japanese so I don't know how good/bad it is in English. However, for a while I skipped the chapters about Kafka ruminating over his genitalia and went straight to the parts about old man Nakata's trip with the young trucker.

Ultimately, I liked Kafka, but I felt there was lots of flab on it.
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jajdude



Joined: 18 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 6:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

faster wrote:


His non-fiction book about the sarin gas Tokyo subway attack (the Aum cult) is awesome, too.


Yeah, an amazing book.



There was a program on Discovery on the 10 year anniversary of the event, and I think youtube might have it too.

Ah, here's 10 minutes of it, interesting stuff:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hC6fuOYmp_A
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