Just finished Kafka on the Shore. Which Murakami book do I read next? I read Wind Up Bird Chronicle a few years ago and remember being thoroughly underwhelmed. But this was beautiful and rich. Should I give WUBC another try, or move on to some other work?
kafka and hardboiled wonderland are my favorites
so i would reccomend hardboiled wonderland
or maybe one of the more realism or love story based books like norweigan wood. my favorite style of his is the kind of fantasy style he used in kafka.
1q84 is also very good
i read the wind up bird once and remember liking it but its hard to dredge up much of what i got from it whereas with kafka the story is so colourful and amusing that i can remember a lot more of that book. i tried rereading wind up and couldnt get very far. the great and bad thing about wind up is that it expresses very well the feelings of stillness or mundanity that come with not having a job or not too much to do.
>>8222687
>1q84 is also very good
Shit taste
>>8223321
What made IQ84 bad?
>>8222037
japanese john green
kafka on the shore was originally intended to be a direct sequel to hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world. they still have a lot in common.
my favorites are dance, dance, dance & wind-up bird chronicle. nothing he's done since Kafka has had any real value.
>>8223745
it was almost entirely a retread of his previous works. it was about twice as long as it needed to be. the entire final third was essentially plotless and had no thematic function. some parts feel almost like self-parody. I've read it twice, because I used to be obsessed with Murakami and I couldn't grasp why it was so insubstantial, and just boring and bad.
>>8222687
>1q84 is also very good
If OP felt Wind-Up Bird was a let down, he's in for an even greater one with 1q
>>8223803
Just reading his synopses I've begun to suspect he retreads a lot of territory. It'll be a shame if his other works kill the magic of Kafka by parroting it. I picked up Sputnik Sweetheart from the library today, so we'll see.
