Murakami
Images are sometimes not shown due to bandwidth/network limitations. Refreshing the page usually helps.
You are currently reading a thread in /lit/ - Literature
You are currently reading a thread in /lit/ - Literature
Hi /lit/, so a while back my friend recommended that I read some Murakami and following this my mother bought me Norwegian Wood for Christmas.
So far I'm about 200 pages in and in all fairness I'm not being blown away. I trust my friend's literary knowledge and taste as she's an intelligent and well read person but I'm not convinced here.
What does /lit/ think of Murakami in general and would you recommend any more of his stuff? Cheers.
I wanted to make a thread like this too.
I see him getting shit on a lot on /lit/ but I'm nearly finished with WUBC and have really enjoyed it so far.
Is his other work just not as good?
I read Wind Up Bird in 2012 and didn't care for it.
>>7784429
Yeah, I'd been thinking about posting this for a while but i'm a bit of a lurking newfag so ya know.
I'll give it a go as I've heard pretty decent things and I don't want to just discard literature that is celebrated and important just because I disliked one text.
I'm just not convinced by it, the imagery seems incredibly secondary school level and Catcher/Gatsby wannabe if I'm honest. So far I'm sat here anticipating a colossal change in quality which I'm starting to think isn't present.
>>7784468
Yeah don't expect anything amazing but it's worth the read.
That said I'm curious how much is lost in translation, Japanese always sounds awkward when translated to English.
hahaha 'wood'
>>7784425
NW is solid, but his true style lies in his magical realism works. Kafka on the Shore, Wind up Bird, Hard-Boiled Wonderlands, A Sheeps Chase etc. Check any of those out.
>>7784504
I couldn't disagree more. Well I do, yes his style is evident in that genre but its not very good for the usual well cited reasons. I think his best writing is his early stuff, including NW, but also the rat trilogy which only take on fantastic elements in the last book.
>>7784425
Norwegian wood is comfy as fuck, i wish murakami wrote more like this, without the surreal elements his other works have.
Murakami is shit
>>7784468
I'm not the other guy but I'm also reading WUBC now and it's pretty amazing. I read NW a while ago, and I like it a lot but WUBC is on a whole other level. I see a lot of people say he's at his best when he's using supernatural elements heavily, like in WUBC, so check that out
I'm reading Norwegian Wood, too, right now and think it's quite OK, but nothing too special. His strongest points are his ability to invoke a certain soft nostalgic melancholy in his reader's mind and from time to time the dialogues hint at some lyrical qualities.
The characters are mostly clichés, except for the narrator who remains mostly opaque and serves as a figure of identification for the reader. I also dislike those in-your-face references to popular authors (Fitzgerald, Salinger, etc...).
The worst one is probably Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain, which the narrator reads on his trip to the remote mountain sanatorium, where one patient has been living for seven years - yes, seven years! - and now has lost contact with the outside world.
In total, I rate it 6/10.
>>7784429
He gets shit on because he writes the same book everytime. Some detached protag loves cooking and jazz, has a strange run in with a girl with a funny name, a cat and a well
>>7784479
Nah, it's Jay Rubin translating and Murakami even said that the English version of the book is superior.
>>7784518
>but its not very good for the usual well cited reasons.
I have never heard this before. Everyone generally agrees his MR stuff is way better. And Wonderland, Sheep & WUBC ARE his early work.
I read Dance Dance Dance.
Had good characters but the plot was messy and too surreal. Ending didn't explain shit either.
It's a PoMo for me
>>7784543
It's the sequel to Sheeps Chase
>>7784504
Ah thank you man. Once I've finished this I'll go on a binge and hopefully have a more solid opinion of his work in general
>>7784519
Comfy is definitely a solid adjective for this book so far, good shout
>>7784519
I agree. Norwegian Woos is so fucking comfy. The snow, the brooding, the detailed description of what they're wearing, the food. It really makes me wish I was Japanese.
>>7784560
hAHA YOu're so funny man hehehe *high five*
>>7784479
The only reason i would read murakami in japanese is to read the wind up bird chronicle in its full glory. The translator said he cut quite a bit at the end of book 2. I doubt a unabridged english edition will ever surface.
>>7784553
>tfw no nagasawa bro to discuss gatsby
>>7784568
>Discussing pleb-tier literature
>Ever
>>7784568
I personally wouldn't have become friends with Nagasawa. Tory only does so because he is a beta cuck who longs for friends. Nagasawa is ok as an older brother figure but his personality faults are so glaring that I would avoid him and eat ramen alone in my dorm instead.
>>7784529
You're reading my mind my friend, spot on
>>7784425
i liked Norwegian wood a lot.
try kafka on the shore or wind up bird for something more surreal. but really...I thought Norwegian wood was an amazingly well-paced and well-written coming of age story.
>lit y does someone's opinionizations
>not match my own
hell. I played the game undertale recently and everyone jerks off to it including people i trust with game recommendations but I thought it was shitty.
NO DISCERNIBLE TALENT DESU.
>>7785375
If Murakami is the Wallace of Japan, who is the Pynchon?
>>7785388
some harem hentai or light novel
>>7784425
>I trust my friend's literary knowledge and taste as she's an intelligent and well read person
>she
theres your problem
don't expect to be blown away by murakami, his books are plain comfy and rarely anything but. norwegian wood is nice and the ending is feels, but you can't go into it thinking it's going to be ~life changing~ or whatever.
if you get to the end of the book and feel like you enjoyed it then i recommend hardboiled wonderland. i personally didn't like wind-up bird and found it long winded and sluggish but it's raved about probably the most (along with kafka on the shore which i'm yet to read).
some people here like him and other shittalk him but all jokes aside his books are a nice gateway to harder literature, especially if you're like me who had only read YA wank before reading his stuff.
>>7785505
Norwegian Wood is YA. All major characters are young adults (except Reiko, but she's still childish in her mind). The themes are typical for YA. I don't think literature can get much more YA than this book.
>>7785558
YA is a demographic. IRC NW is most popular in 30+ year old women in Japan.
>I don't think literature can get much more YA than this book.
Then you really haven't seen any real YA before. That's Hunger Games, John Green, stuff like that.
>>7784560
gave me a stiffy 2bh
