What does /lit/ think of this?
Is it any good?
I've been considering reading it
>Inb4 it's actually weebshit and i fell for a meme
It's not even fun to read
>>7753320
everybody here hates it even those who like murakami (who are a minority)
where are you from?
I gave up somewhere in the second book.
If you like Murakami, it's not much of a departure of his usual stuff, just much much slower and drawn out.
I'd instead recommend Kafka On The Shore, or The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. If you still want to go on, read the Sheep Trilogy and Norwegian Wood.
If you then still want to go on, read 1Q84, but IMHO it's by far his weakest, most repetitive work. If I were editor I would have cut it down to one book.
>>7753362
Just never seen a Murakami related thread
Pretty understandable now, knowing that the majority dislike him, especially as i'm reading that this is his sup-par work.
>>7753397
murakami is comfy, just all his books are very similar. You'll likely enjoy the first few books you read of his a fair bit
It's too much Murakami for one story. You could read 2 or 3 of his other novels instead for the same effect but more variety.
I read it right after Wind-Up Bird and honestly, it wasn't as good. I did like the romance of it, though. That and the characters themselves are what kept me reading the entire thing.
If you like the style of it, read Dostoevsky later. Especially The Idiot.
I'm on chapter ten or eleven. Aomame's chapters do nothing for me. The chapters with Tengo have me intrigued, but as I get closer to 200 pages in I'm losing interest. I really liked the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Kafka on the Shore, and Hard Boiled a Wonderland. It's a bit disappointing.
A fine, albeit sophomoric, effort from who academia has seemed to dub "The Japanese Borges".
>>7753320
If you want Murakami, read his other books instead. They're great.
I tried reading it about a year ago, but gave up after about the fifth or sixth chapter. It just didn't grab my attention. The two distinct story lines seemed interesting enough, but maybe it was the translation that fell short.
Murakami has no discernible talent
FAO: Murakami fans
Are his short story collections any good? I really enjoyed Hard Boiled Wonderland..., Kafka on the Shore, and Wind Up Bird Chronicle, and I've been getting into short stories this year. How do they shape up next his larger works of literature?
>>7754499
Murakami is garbage
>>7754524
wew
>>7753320
Comfy reading experience, unsatisfying ending.
>>7753397
Kafka on the shore gets pretty frequent shout outs, same with wind up bird chronicles
>>7754524
Thanks for the insight. Satiate my curiosity: what compelled you to click on the thread?
>>7753320
1Q84 along with Colorless are considered his lamest work. Read Kafka on the Shore, Wind-up Bird, Hardboiled Wonderland, Norwegian Wood. Just stay away from 1Q84 and Colorless unless you're a huge Murakami fan
i read 1Q84 a long time ago as my first murakami, it wowed me and i liked it but it was one of the first 'proper' books i'd ever read.
now i've read more of his stuff, i'd say that i still prefer it to wind up bird (that was the book with the long drawling plot for me - the lieutenant mamiya bits and the zoo bits saved it). hard-boiled wonderland is my favourite so far so i'd recommend that, but stay on with 1Q84 to see if you like it as it's not categorically awful but not as well received as his other stuff.
>>7754499
i read 3/4 of after the quake and didn't really enjoy it compared with the rest of his books - his stories need to build more to be good, 30-40 pages isn't enough imo
>>7753320
im currently on page 800 and while its a comfy/relaxing book, its pretty brainless. its like its targeted at 20 year olds brainless girls that are still clinging to their 8th grade crushes. would not recommend unless you want to read to empty your mind.
What about his newest one, Colorless? I heard that one's pretty dry
>>7754756
>What does /lit/ think of this?
>Is it any good?
Not him but I clicked becauseaside from Underground, which is fucking excellentevery book deals in youthful male angst, the japanese version of a manic pixie dream girl, some sort of magical realism usually involving mild homoeroticism and cats, and social detachment.
If you need to read his fiction read kafka or south of the border west of the sun. At least they were short.
Is there any other you think similar to Murakami? Not just magical realism, but also the writing style. I like how his books that have pretty much no "action" are real pageturners to read.
>>7755316
Reading this right now, and its pretty similar, although I am enjoying it more than Murakami
Last book of it was only enjoyable one. P awful experience overall.
>>7755347
Yeah you hit it on the head. Its like the show "Girls" but with deeply emotionally damaged single men.
The only murakami i've read is the strange library, I've by no stretch read a lot of books, but I really enjoyed it. Did any of you read it? Thoughts?
>>7753320
>Given these books by friend who had finished them
>find them really boring, think it might have to do with the translation
>schoolgirl character, wondering: under what circumstances is this guy going to have sex with her?
>he ends up passively having sex with her in a storm of confusion and bullshit, am i being taken for a ride? is the author aware of how meme this shit is?
>decide after 2nd book i'm being had, can't finish it.
>go to kitchen, heat up water for noodles, play hipster jazz record while cutting up radish and sea cress, pour water on noodles, after three minutes add radish and cress, turn record over and listen as i eat noodles.
>realize this sort of crap is why God lost interest in us aeons ago.
>>7755411
You are incredibly pretentious
>>7753367
Kinda second this, only read a couple of his other books, after having read 1Q84 first, and it is just a bit slower. Not bad though, kept me interested in it all the way through.
>>7753433
I don't like looking at stories/authors like this. Just flipping through books to 'collect' a writers ideas is no way to read in my opinion. Murikami wrote 1Q84 to be a longer story and I think you get what he wanted to share if you put in the time. You'll get something else in his other stories, and that's what they were written for.
It's weird, but I'm actually really enjoying 1Q84 a the moment. Yeah, it's pretty standard Murakami in terms of tone, and it hits all the notes - casual sex, long-lost love, cats and crows and smooth jazz, weird shit that's never explained - but the plot is actually quite interesting for once. I like the focus on cults and political extremism, and the characters are really compelling. It's the first long novel I've read since Gravity's Rainbow that's managed to keep my attention.
south of the border west of the sun is his best
I love Murakami threads. It's always the same: People saying that his books are shit, people who have not read any of his books asking for recommendations, people who likes his books and want to read something else that shares his style and finally the ones I hate the most: the guys who have only read tokyo blues/IQ84.
What is funny is that almost everybody here hates this author because he repeats themes in his books too much, not seeing that this also happens with a lot of writers. And also, that almost every thread is just like this one and they still enter just to shit on him.
Contributing to the thread:
My favorite books are in this order: Sheep chase > Hard boiled wonderland > Wind up bird > Kafka > That collection of stories he made with Shigesato Itoi > everything else
>>7754162
>A fine, albeit sophomoric, effort from who academia has seemed to dub "The Japanese Borges".
So I guess the low quality of Murakami's output is why Borges refused to write a full-length novel?
Hard Boiled Wonderland is fucking solid, and it's Scaruffi-approved for our /mu/ immigrants
