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Haruki Murakami


Weave

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Aw, I thought it was going to be September. The good news is that all three volumes are going to be released in one 1,000-page novel. I thought we'd have to wait years to receive the whole story. Thanks for the link Raven! :)

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Raven, did you read A Wild Sheep Chase first? Dance Dance Dance is the sequel to that. I loved both of them! :D

 

I'm reading Kafka on the Shore at the moment, and I'm loving it. I also just recently read After Dark, which was phenomenal. Nothing breaks through my lack of reading mojo like Murakami!

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  • 1 month later...

Raven, that's how I am after every Murakami book I read. I've never been able to even write a review for any of them. Each one affects me differently.

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I'm the same Echo and Raven, I just sit there thinking, 'what?' :giggle: but that is what so great about him :)

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I have trouble writing reviews for him too, but somehow manage to write longer reviews as I try to get my thoughts into words!

 

:)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Currently I'm in a Murakami-reading-mood, after reading A Wild Sheep Chase I'm now continuing with the apparently inevitable Dance Dance Dance.

 

And I keep thinking - what is it about this guy and his strange style?

What I mean is, there's always (or at least has been this far in my Murakami reading adventures) a contrast between a normal, everyday (advanced capitalism etc. :D) story, and a strange fantasy-like story. You know, it's like he's talking about his views of the world today, but then he adds something like a Sheep Man and realities, and strange connections between people (and animals) like in Kafka on the Shore. Now I know I'm probably not making much sense here (and not much of a point, for that matter), but basically I'm just trying to explain his books and find a point to his stories. You know, I like to find a point in books, pointless stories are rarely interesting (to me at least :D). And by point I don't mean he teaches us something or whatever, I mean why he wrote the book and what he wanted to say. About the characters, about their relationships, how they cope with their problems or something else.

 

I do enjoy his style, his simple and straight-forward sentences which are often humorous, and how sometimes he manages to create very emotional scenes though he usually seems to be very clinical as it's often described. But I keep feeling like I'm missing something deeper in the books, or maybe they just are very strange, trippy stories intermittent with some serious thoughts and realistic descriptions of the modern world? :D

 

If this didn't make any sense just ignore me :lol:

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Going to see Norwegian Wood tomorrow evening, looking forward to it!

 

I am jealous, I somehow managed to miss what appears to be the only showing in Birmingham

 

Just finished A Wild Sheep Chase on Sunday, was a little disappointed in comparison to other Murakami novels, but still enjoyed it

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  • 2 weeks later...

I read 2 books by Murakami, and discovered similarities with creations of Chingiz Aitmatov. Particularly I must emphasis very big similarity between Murakami's "Kafka on the Shore" and Aitmatov's "The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years".

Additionally I found Murakami's style somewhat strange and it calls many negotive feelings and thoughts.

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Personally, I wouldn't say negative feelings, but Murakami's books often have an aspect of melancholy to them.

 

The bleakest of his books that I have read to date would have to be Norwegian Wood, but I would say that it still contains a lot of humour and there are positives you can draw from it.

 

 

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I've read most of Murakami's novels, and I've loved all of them. A good one for a book club would be maybe Sputnik Sweetheart or Norwegian Wood. Neither are very long and there is a ton to talk about.

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  • 1 year later...

I've been in love with this man's work for as long as I can remember! I always was incredibly impressed by it, completely blown away. Even if I didn't always understand his works because they weren't nearly appropriate to my age at the time I swear I was always so attached to them, clinging to all the dark but poetic images that he created.

 

For me, this man is just such an inspiration.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I find The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore to be his strongest novels. Both are some of my favorite novels of all time. But unfortunately 1Q84 was a rambling disappointment, despite its almost-promising moments with the stairs from the expressway and the two moons.

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  • 1 month later...

One of my favorite writers! I loved a lot of his books, but what blew my mind and gave me a hard hangover was Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Breathtaking.

I also loved Dance Dance Dance! and pretty much like everything else. Except 1Q84, it was major letdown.

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I nearly bought 1Q84 earlier this week but, alas, I'm still stuck in Game of Thrones land.

 

I do intend to buy and read it at some point, however, despite all the negative comments I've read about it.

 

Bad Murakami still has to be better than most other authors at their best, surely?

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