Did you know that there is a story by Haruki Murakami in this week's New Yorker? (feb. 13-20)
I won't spoil it for you, but I can see how someone would hate him now!
I don't read the New Yorker, but I can see how nonetheless!
why would people hate him?
Because he inserted something ridiculous out of the blue in the middle of the story!
But just that is good.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is just a classic - insertng ridiculous stuff out of the blue can be indeed good
I'm not saying I didn't like the story :D
I loved what he did with it, but I can see how it would irritate someone
There's nothing ridiculous in that short story. Now if Y. asked M. to be her petite soeur in the middle of the story, I would consider it. :-P
Who is Haruki Murakami?
I'm Japanese,but I have never read his book.
Oh, I thought he was quite big in Japan... he writes novels about many things, but his best ones are strange oddyseys which happen amidst the lives of everyday people. Sort of like some of Kobo Abe's stuff, but perhaps not as far-out, and, some argue, better. I reccomend The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Nejimakidori Chronicle)
he's the best writer in Japan i think
Murakami's most popular work is arguably Norwegian Wood (ノウェーの森). He's undoubtedly famous for a Japanese writer in the so-called "western world," mostly because of the deluge of cultural references to the U.S. and European pop music, unabashed discussions of "fastfood sex," modern fashion, and the occasional jabs at student movement in the 60's as well as capitalism, which makes him posh as well as pop to western sensibilities. He's also quite a problematic writer in Japan because his prose is often criticized for being "not Japanese enough." Murakami has been greatly influenced by American writers such as Raymond Chandler and Truman Capote, whose many works he translated into Japanese afaik.
Personally, I think the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Norwegian Wood, Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and Dance, Dance, Dance make up his four best works. The novels he's written since Sputnik Sweetheart seem to range from subpar to downright boring. One of the biggest problems with Murakami is his way of recyling motifs so that his novels look very similar in content, even though it is obvious that the themes explored in his novels are always, but not always completely, distinct from one book to the other. In Dance, Dance, Dance, Murakami inserts the caricature of a successful hack writer named Makimura, who sees his work as nothing but "shoveling cultural snow." Sometimes I wonder if that's how Murakami sees himself as a writer; but at least I know sometimes that's how I think of him.
Well, I was personally kind of disappointed by Norwegian Wood - it's not bad at all, but it has none of the weirdness which makes Murakami so special - though the book has got a very interesting atmosphere and I quite liked it... I mean, I was disappointed because it wasn't like his other books that I had read. But it's good, anyway.