Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

I once had a girl, Or should I say she once had me ...

About Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami: This stunning and elegiac novel by the author of the internationally acclaimed Wind-Up Bird Chronicle has sold over 4 million copies in Japan and is now available to American audiences for the first time. It is sure to be a literary event.

Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable. As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.

A poignant story of one college student's romantic coming-of-age, Norwegian Wood takes us to that distant place of a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.

My two cents

I'm giving you fair warning: I'm a Murakami fan. Although I have to admit that this particular book is unlike what I've come to expect of Murakami. I was expecting a cat somewhere (and there is), something odd to happen (ok, odd but not with the magical realism touches), and maybe a romance with an older woman (not really). In other words, I didn't get any of the trademark Murakami from this read.

What I did get was a book that showcases Murakami's "younger" voice, a vulnerable side and an uncanny ability to tell a simple yet affecting story.

Now, open up the Beatles' Norwegian Wood, the obvious namesake of this novel, and revel in this love that's a throw back to the 1960s. Because at the heart of this sans cats and May-December romances, this is what it is: a love story between two young people. Their love is a strange one, however, borne out of the death of their best friend Kizuki.

This is what makes the story so poignant, so moving, and so unbearably sad. To be so young and to be touched and deeply affected by the hand of death, for me it's unthinkable or even blasphemous for twenty-somethings on the cusp of their lives to have to deal with death.

Toru and Naoko's teenage friendship pre-death seems typical enough. With Kizuki's death, loss and pain becoming their strange binding element, one can only expect a relationship wrought with pain. And so it was: Naoko is held back from truly living, becoming emotionally fragile and retreating from the world. Toru, too is held back, his budding friendship and potential love with the gregarious, sexually liberated Midori, is held at bay.

Throughout the book, we are constantly reminded of death, loss, illness, and the mental anguish that comes with these. All the characters that tromp through the book has been touched in some way. Naoko and Midori are polar opposites in their response to death - Naoko's retreat was brutal and complete; Midori, meanwhile, challenged herself to put herself out there. Toru was a strange one to me - nice but no-so-nice - but then I will let male readers read more into his actions. Reiko, Naoko's roomie-companion in the mountain retreat and later Toru's friend, was an interesting study of fragility and strength. Toru's friend Nagasawa and Nagasawa's girlfriend, both less significant characters, likewise reiterate Toru's constant struggle with loss.

Set in Japan in the 1960s, this book takes place during a time when the world was fired up with revolt and idealism. It is filled with descriptions of Tokyo City life and of Japan's beautiful mountainsides. Book lovers will enjoy references to Toru's reading fare (that too allude to death and loss) such as The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann.

And with this, I leave you the lyrics to Norwegian Wood. 

I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me
She showed me her room, isn't it good, Norwegian Wood?

She asked me to stay and she told me to sit anywhere
So I looked around and I noticed there wasn't a chair

I sat on the rug, biding my time, drinking her wine
We talked until two and then she said, "It's time for bed"

She told me she worked in the morning and started to laugh
I told her I didn't and crawled off to sleep in the bath

And when I awoke I was alone, this bird had flown
So I lit a fire, isn't it good, Norwegian Wood?

Verdict: This is a beautifully told story.  I've read this three times already and each time I am just struck by its simplicity, the naïveté in voice in which it is told, and how profoundly sad this is. When I hear the song Norwegian Wood, I remember the incongruity of youth and idealism ... and sadness. May Reiko continue playing her guitar to Toru and Naoko.

Book Depository

The Mask Carver's Son by Alyson Richman

The agonized and solitary life of an artist.

About The Mask Carver's Son by Alyson Richman: 1890. Yamamoto Kiyoki is a Japanese art student, dreaming of studying in Paris with the inspiring and vibrant Impressionist painters.

Yamamoto Ryusei is Kiyoki’s father. Ryusei’s art, carving intricate masks for traditional Japanese theater, has been his refuge from loneliness since the death of his beloved wife, and he is revered as the most inspired artist of his kind. He expects his only son to honor the traditions of his family and his country, not to be seduced by Western ideas of what is beautiful. Ryusei hopes Kiyoki will follow his own distinguished career, creating masks that will become the family’s crowning achievement.

But what is a father to do when his son’s path is not what he had planned? And how can a son honor his father, and yet fulfill his own destiny?

My two cents

This story has so many elements to it that I thought it would become messy -- two settings (Japan and France, look at that cover with the Eiffel Tower and cherry blossoms), a father-son story, an obscure art angle, and a rather long timeline. But what do I know about writing? Nothing obviously, as the author was able to bring all this into a coherent tale that was both enlightening and heartbreaking at the same time.

This book is a peek into the traditional art of Japanese mask carving used in Japanese theatre, which is wrought with spirituality and believed to be a calling. I found this fascinating: how Yamamoto Ryusei found himself as a mask carver and how his entire life revolved around this calling.

The story traces the life of Kiyoki, who was born into Ryusei's mask carving world, bound by association into this profession but whose heart lies elsewhere in the art world - Paris's Impressionism. On the cusp of old and new, Kiyoki has to decide whether he will continue with the Japanese tradition or find his own way and his own passion. This dilemma is all the more heightened because of the entire backstory of his father which depicted how much his father loved his craft, the impact on their community, and the contribution to the Japanese arts scene. On the other hand, I couldn't help but cheer Kiyoki on to find his own path. I agonized with him during his uncertain steps in Paris, his missteps, and his successes.

It is difficult to read about agonized artists, artists who pour everything into their creations at the expense of everything in their lives. But is is a stereotype that continues to ring true and it makes me all the more appreciative of the art that is created and continues to be created in cultures around the world, regardless of time.

Verdict: A historical fiction piece that is both heartbreaking and enlightening, bringing to sharp focus the artist life of creation, beauty, and agony. I highly recommend this to those who love the arts, have a soft spot for anything Japanese, or simply want to learn about the obscure and fascinating tradition of Japanese mask carving and theatre.

I won this book in the giveaway for the Travel the World in Books Readathon last September 2014. Thanks, Tanya! 

The Ghosts of Nagasaki by Daniel Clausen

The Ghosts of Nagasaki by Daniel Clausen

Amazon.com: Paperback | Kindle Edition

I admit it, I apostasized (the conventional novel).

Synopsis: One night a foreign business analyst in Tokyo sits down in his spacious high rise apartment and begins typing something. The words pour out and exhaust him. He soon realizes that the words appearing on his laptop are memories of his first days in Nagasaki four years ago. Nagasaki was a place full of spirits, a garrulous Welsh roommate, and a lingering mystery. Somehow he must finish the story of four years ago--a story that involves a young Japanese girl, the ghost of a dead Japanese writer, and a mysterious island. He must solve this mystery while maneuvering the hazards of middle management, a cruel Japanese samurai, and his own knowledge that if he doesn't solve this mystery soon his heart will transform into a ball of steel, crushing his soul forever. Though he wants to give up his writing, though he wants to let the past rest, within his compulsive writing lies the key to his salvation.

My two cents
This is one difficult book to review. I have been sitting on this letting my thoughts percolate because it isn't a conventional read, and so my review isn't going to be conventional either.

When I first saw the title, I thought it could be anything from historical fiction (hey, it's set in Japan), to scary mystery (Japanese ghosts = The Ring?). I didn't know what I was expecting, really, and when I posted Daniel Clausen's guest post which was rather funny, I got even more confused.

This is the story of an American expat, a business analyst, who works in Tokyo. One night, he just feels compelled to write. This is the story of his early days in Nagasaki. Of red shoes. Of Japanese ghosts. An island he has to return to. And here's where any sense to the story just falls apart ...

***

If I could venture a comparison, this has the surreal-ness of a Haruki Murakami but it is just a touch more hopeful. And yes, there is a cat in this one too. (Little surprise that Clausen is a Murakami fan.)

The storyline weaves in and out as streams of consciousness, with me constantly second guessing whether what was happening was in the past or present, or real or imagined. Everything about the story is loose, fluid, and ... confusing. I learned to accept the confusion and kind of coasted through the rest of the book. 

This is as much about the story as the feelings that it will evoke. Rather brazen in how intimate the emotions this book will evoke you, I went through the first half just a bundle of energy and with mixed emotions: Strangely hollow, empty, adrift, days filled with meaningless work, meaningless drinking ... Then confused as hell... Then a rather strange little bout of laughing and cracking up (between his roommate Mikey and the constant "I admit it, I apostasized!" (I pretty much looked like a madwoman reading this). ...Then ... BAM! Aha! Ok, I see where this is going! Or I think I know where he is going. I'm not quite sure what crazy little mind game Clausen was playing at!

What I really loved about this book is the way the writing just flowed, languid and poetic. I personally found the writing mesmerizing at times, and very soothing.

What struck me most is the imagery, where the real and the figurative sort of meld together (and all the while I kept internally debating and flip flopping on this). The imagery stays with you, similar to the girl in the red dress in the film Schindler's list. Here, it's a girl in red Converse shoes. Or of Mr. Sparkles, a Welsh (yes, a Welsh) dragon singing Cat Stevens. Or of a ball of steel weighing heavily where my heart should be. The ghosts are not creepy but they did talk back and I was never sure whether they were truly ghosts, memories of real people, or simply the character speaking to himself in his mind.

This is such a satisfying read. I think the trick to enjoying this book is to just embrace the confusion and the seeming randomness. I reveled in it and I have come to the conclusion that confusion is a  necessary part of making sense of things, kind of like Clausen's character who exorcises the "ghosts" of his life. There's probably some profound philosophical or psychological analysis to all this. To me, it simply lent to an air of introspection: what would it take for me not to have a ball of steel but a living, breathing thing of a heart?

Uh-oh. That cover has got to go. It's much too bland and generic. I hope a new cover would feature a little bit of red.

Verdict: If you're out for a straightforward story, this will annoy the hell out of you. But if you're ready for a mind-bending journey and some introspection, I suggest you try this one. You may just like it.

Links:

• Check out Daniel Clausen's guest post and see how funny this guy can be!
• The Ghosts of Nagasaki Website

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

The Ghosts of Nagasaki by Daniel Clausen

Amazon.com: Paperback | Kindle Edition

The 39 Clues (Books 1, 2, 3)

Amazing race meets addictive Facebook game.

I was on my weekly hunt at the thrift store and found a brand new copy of The 39 Clues Book 3: The Sword Thief, with all cards intact! (The sticker holding them in was unbroken!) And of course, how could I let that beautiful copy go to waste? I bought all $99 cents of it and took it home to my daughter.

Now, the daughter is pretty busy rereading her Harry Potter books, in time for the next HP movie installment. But she dove right into this one and it didn't take her long to finish. Before I knew it, she was online and asking us permission to get into the online game and she soon after used up her one-hour quota for computer use!

The books in one sentence each:

• The 39 Clues Book 1: The Maze Of Bones: The first Clue leads Amy and Dan following Benjamin Franklin's life in Paris.
• The 39 Clues Book 2: One False Note: The second book focuses on the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his sister Nannerl, leading Amy and Dan to Vienna. 
• The 39 Clues Book 3: The Sword Thief: Amy and Dan track the life of Hideyoshi, one of the world's most fearsome warriors, to Tokyo, Japan, in a bid to uncover whether he possessed a Clue.

My thoughts

I heard about this series quite a while back, when Blooey blogged about it. Then I started noticing it on the bookshelves. But I never realized how complex this entire series is, with its card collecting, and the online game. Wow, what an incredible way to hook kids on a book series! While the online game can get any parent tsk-tsking with the amount of time it eats up, it does egg the kids to read the books.

Yes, the concept for the whole series is a little fantastic, but remember that this is a children's series after all! Fourteen-year-old Amy and eleven-year-old Dan, recently orphaned, discover that they belong to a family from which sprung some of the world’s most prominent personalities. The Cahill family has four branches:

• Lucian - legendary leaders and spies, such as Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Roosevelt and Napoleon Bonaparte
• Ekaterina - scientists and inventors like Galileo Galilei, Thomas Edison,  Marie Curie and Bill Gates
• Janus - cultural icons like Mozart, Picasso, Van Gogh and Steven Spielberg
• Tomas - daring explorers, discoverers, and athletes like Annie Oakley, Neil Armstrong and Babe Ruth

At their much beloved grandmother's funeral, Amy and Dan are faced with the tough decision: $1 million each or the first clue of 39 that will reveal the Cahill legacy. They choose the clue, and they start a journey of adventure and danger, pitted against their rich and often ruthless relatives.

The stories are fast-paced but highly readable. The "hook" for each book consists of a nice mix of things. One, of course, is the Clue - what is it? and will the siblings solve it? Two, is that each book focuses on a specific popular figures, allowing readers to learn more about them. Three, there are many dangerous run-ins with competing families, upping the suspense. It's the perfect mix that will get your child turning those pages.

Unlike many other popular series out there, each book of The 39 Clues is written by a different author, which I found very unusual. However, the dissimilarities in the writing aren't that apparent. I had first read Book 3 and was quite impressed by it. I followed it by Books 1 and 2 and realized that Book 3 was among the better ones, probably because the story and the characters had become better developed.   

Verdict: The series for youngsters to read, especially with the upcoming movie by Spielberg!

Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat by Naomi Moriyama

 

Here goes. Book reviews K-I-S-S- style. Reposted from my foodie blog.

Ok, so maybe you've heard of the book French Women Don't Get Fat ... obviously this book capitalized on its success. But hey, French women don't have sole dibs on non-fatness. I have always admired that Asian women in general tend to look younger than they usually are.

I decided to read this because: I love Japanese food!

I‘d recommend it to: Those interested in keeping those pounds at bay, Japanese food aficionados, those who are curious what this hype is all about.

 
The book in one sentence: Japanese women live longest and have the lowest obesity rate on earth ... why and how is this possible?

Ok bits: The origins of the book are simple. Naomi, a Japanese who came to the US to study, realized that she retained her slim physique without really trying in Tokyo. She credits it to the fine food her mom used to make her, simple yet fresh home cooking. She set out to try and recreate her mother's Tokyo kitchen in a Western milieu.

The book is a hodegepodge - you get recipes, explanations about Japanese ingredients and where to find them, and Naomi's anecdotes and childhood memories put a personal touch to the recipes as well as the healthy eating advice (mostly her mom's) is scattered throughout.

Probably most important is hara hachi bunme or "Eat until you are 80 percent full." I've fully believed in moderation and shun the idea of having to diet. Moderation obviously makes sense whatever the eating culture you come from.

Based on Naomi, Japanese recipes are based on these "seven pillars"—fish, vegetables, rice, soy, noodles, tea, and fruit.

More sound advice is that food is just an element of healthy living. The Japanese walk a lot. And everyone knows that physical activity is necessary in keeping the weight down.

Serving portions are also key. I have been quite enamoured by how the Japanese package their sweets and cakes, where the visual element is as very much as important as what you are eating, and desserts are packaged in small portions.

I didn’t like: The lack of photos. I'd have loved to see samples of her mother's cooking along with the recipes, as well as snapshots of Tokyo. But then the book may have morphed into a travelogue.


Verdict: Pick and choose the advice found here and I am sure that you'll enjoy the book! I personally would like to get my own copy of this book because of the recipes


Read more here: 

• http://eating.health.com/2008/04/18/japanese-women-dont-get-old-or-fat
• http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/2005/11/22/japanese_women_dont_get_fat_or_old.php 
• http://www.mynippon.com/cooking/japanese-women-fat.htm 

Watch a video of author Naomi and her husband: 

A related video "The benefits of a Japanese diet"

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Amazon.com
Goodreads

Asleep by Banana Yoshimoto

Asleep by Banana Yoshimoto

What can I say, Banana does it again! In three short stories, she manages to capture three women's stories in the entanglement of the simple act of sleeping, love, and of death:

• a sleepwalker because of a death of lover
• one haunted by the ghost/memory of a former lover's other girlfriend
• one who does nothing but sleep because her lover's husband is in a coma. 

Each is written in sparse yet beautiful prose. Each story is a gem with Banana's trademark otherworldliness.

Book Depository
Amazon.com
Goodreads

N.P. by Banana Yoshimoto

 

About N.P. by Banana Yoshimoto: In N.P., Banana Yoshimoto’s enchanting novel of uncanny subtlety, style, magic, and mystery, a celebrated Japanese writer has committed suicide, leaving behind a collection of stories written in English. But the book, itself titled N.P., may never be published in his native Japan: each translator who takes up the ninety-eighth story chooses death too—including Kazami Kano’s boyfriend, Shoji. Haunted by Shoji’s death, Kazami is inexorably drawn to three young people whose lives are intimately bound to the late writer and his work. Over the course of an astonishing summer, she will discover the truth behind the ninety-eighth story—and she will come to believe that “everything that had happened was shockingly beautiful, enough to make you crazy.”

My two cents

The book in one sentence: Kazami is unexplainably drawn into a web of death, mystery linked to the translation of a collection of stories written in English, N.P.

Who would you recommend it to: Fans of Haruki Murakami; those who actually enjoy getting the uncomfortable chill of someone possibly watching you.

OK bits: You just never know what to expect. Yoshimoto has the same eerie otherworldly quality as Murakami. The writing is minimalist. The entire story quite short. But it delves into so many themes – love, incest, lust, obsession, insanity – you’ll shake your head in disbelief.

Boring bits: I think this is too short to get remotely boring. You’ll want to find out what the heck this 98th story is all about, and keep asking why, why, why?

Verdict: My first Banana Yoshimoto. It didn’t disappoint. I will definitely be looking out for more of her work. You should try her too!

Random quote: 

Everything that had happened was shockingly beautiful enough to make you crazy.

The Official Banana Yoshimoto Site: http://www.yoshimotobanana.com

A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro

A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro

Why is it that every time I read a Japanese author, I feel that the atmosphere they so adeptly evoke is just important as the story? Just a few pages into A Pale View of Hills, I was already creeped out. If you have watched The Ring, you'll know what I mean - there isn't anything especially disturbing, but why are you?

I was also getting confused as more characters were slowly introduced; I was trying to get the jumble of characters sorted out and then there is a juxtaposition of imagery: Etsuko, the middle-aged mother grieving her daughter Keiko's suicide, with her younger daughter Niki. Shift to an earlier time where Etsuko recalls her friendship with the mysterious Sachiko who seems to be indifferent, even callous mother to her very disturbed young daughter, Mariko - who is left to her own devices, insists on having talked with imaginary people.

The story continues shifting between the two stories, present-day and past. We learn of the difficulties of Sachiko who seems well-bred, coming from a reputable family, yet falls into hard times and even desperate relationships with good-for-nothing men. Then there is the story of Etsuko and her Japanese husband, Jiro, who challenges many well-worn Japanese ideas about nationalism and education. But wait, isn't Etsuko now somewhere in Britain? Then you get an image of Etsuko with a rope entangled in her feet, and Mariko running from her, deathly afraid of ropes. Why, why, why?

I let questions like these go, figuring that the confusion would clear itself up soon enough. All the ambiguity was apparently a ploy, I was blindsided! What, what, what!?! WHO THE HECK WAS SPEAKING? Etsuko? Sachiko? Did I miss something? And I started furiously flipping back to previous pages, trying to figure it out.

But it isn't meant to be figured out, as there are so many ways to see it.

I initially found the characters rather one-dimensional. I was also put off with the rather cold manner of speaking which I figured was a problem with translation. But things aren't what they seem! Was Sachiko in fact Etsuko? Why such a startling parallelism in their lives? The chilling disconnect, or selective memory of Etsuko from the realities of her life and her daughter's suicide raises even more questions. Was she suffering from or even schizophrenic? Was she responsible for her daughter's condition? This novel explores the psychological coping mechanisms of how one deals with hurt, pain, and death, while leaving you and me, the reader to fill the gaps in.

I finished this book, absolutely in awe of Ishiguro's storytelling, and with so many questions in my mind. I want to re-read it to understand the nuances of the character shifts. And maybe I can even find an alternate interpretation too. A challenging read which I feel everyone should attempt.

More about this book:

• Wikipedia entry
• From here: Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel, won the Winifred Holtby Prize of the Royal Society of Literature, was hailed as "a first novel of uncommon delicacy..., an extremely quiet study of extreme emotional turbulence" by the Times Literary Supplement, and has been translated into 13 languages. Critic Cynthia F. Wong judges A Pale View of Hills, with a first person narrator who tells the story of the suicide of one of her daughters, as an excellent example of Maurice Blanchot's theory that narrators recall and relate past experiences to divest themselves of memories and their past. Like his next two novels, the protagonist of A Pale View of Hills, looks back on his or her life, trying to assess the events that have shaped it. The widow recalls her former life in Nagasaki, and while she never mentions the Bomb, it silently stands behind the events recounted in Ishiguro’s first novel.

{Originally here.}

A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal by Anthony Bourdain

About A Cook’s Tour: In Search of a Perfect Meal by Anthony Bourdain: The only thing "gonzo gastronome" and internationally bestselling author Anthony Bourdain loves as much as cooking is traveling. Inspired by the question, "What would be the perfect meal?," Tony sets out on a quest for his culinary holy grail, and in the process turns the notion of "perfection" inside out. From California to Cambodia, A Cooks' Tour chronicles the unpredictable adventures of America's boldest and bravest chef.

My two cents

Despite the strict weight restrictions on Air Canada, this didn’t stop me from scouring bookstores while in Winnipeg. I would haunt for hours on end the sale sections at each bookstore run in. So imagine my surprise (shock?) when I stumbled upon a C$6.99 hardbound copy of Anthony Bourdain’s A Cook’s Tour: In Search of a Perfect Meal. I snapped it up and went home, sneaking peeks into it during the bus ride with, what I am sure was a silly smirk on my face.

(For those who cannot imagine why I would go gaga over a silly outdated book, here’s the context. I wanted to give the same book as a gift to Y one Christmas and flitted from bookstore to bookstore in the Philippines to get a copy. To no avail. Eventually my request to order in the book came in. Way past Christmas. And way past my limits of my patience. And Y and I had moved on to Jamie Oliver. Oh, at the time, I was willing to buy the book at a crazy close to 2000+ peso tag price.)

Have been reading it (Y has again moved on to another author) and marvel at how much better Tony Bourdain writes so much better than he speaks on TV. He’s not much a looker (he IS middle-aged and is a 28-year-old veteran of New York kitchens) but his book transforms him in my eyes. He is alternately hilarious, irreverent, insightful, silly … but compelling, strikingly honest, and in-your-face in his quest around the globe for a “perfect” meal.

I especially enjoy “Reasons why you don’t want to be on television” where he lambasts his network on his dilemma of how to make good TV and talking in sound bites and forced conversations at the loss of spontaneity. There is no worse thing than saying something scripted for the sake of TV while digging into a piously painstakingly prepared meal (thank goodness his network didn’t sue him for breach of contract, though I guess they realized this makes for even better TV).

You know the “joys” of eating – like indigestion and sometimes inevitable vomiting, and worries about food poisoning and hygiene issues? Tony tells it like it is, and his graphic descriptions are surely not for snotty gourmet eaters.

I’ve also seen his softer side to his oft-times irreverent humor. He become sentimental about his father, his brother, and his childhood in France.

Then in another section he comments about Jamie Oliver ("a boy"), Nigella Lawson’s breasts, and his utter respect for Gordon Ramsey.

Excerpted from the book jacket:

… the adventurous chef crisscrosses the world sampling local delicacies from the sublime to the bizarre.

Throughout his travels, Bourdain discovers again and again the importance of community, of kinship, and the power of food to bring people together.

So did he find what he set out to look for – over Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Morocco, UK, France? His conclusion is surprisingly simple. And so much closer to home.

(I also lugged home Michel Roux’s Le Gavroche Cookbook and Antonio Carluccio’s Italia. I couldn’t very well leave them to languish in an about-to-close bookstore, could I?)

{Originally posted 16 September 2006 on my foodie blog.}

After the Quake by Haruki Murakami

Synopsis of After the Quake by Haruki Murakami: The economy was booming. People had more money than they knew what to do with. And then, the earthquake struck. Komura's wife follows the TV reports from morning to night, without eating or sleeping. The same images appear again and again: flames, smoke, buildings turned to rubble, their inhabitants dead, cracks in the streets, derailments, crashes, collapsed expressways, crushed subways, fires everywhere. Pure hell. Suddenly, a city seems a fragile thing. And life too. Tomorrow anything could happen.

For the characters in Murakami's latest short story collection, the Kobe earthquake is an echo from a past they buried long ago. Satsuki has spent 30 years hating one man: a lover who destroyed her chances of having children, and who now lives in Kobe. Did her desire for revenge cause the earthquake? Junpei's estranged parents also live in Kobe. Should he contact them? Miyake left his family in Kobe to make midnight bonfires on a beach hundreds of miles away. Four-year-old Sala has nightmares that the Eathquake man is trying to stuff her inside a little box. Katagiri returns home to find a giant frog in his apartment on a mission to save Tokyo from a massive worm burrowing under the Tokyo Security Trust Bank. "When he gets angry, he causes earthquakes" says Frog. "And right now he is very, very angry."

My thoughts

My second Murakami book after The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. His short stories prove that he doesn't have the same storylines and same themes. It was eerie reading Wind-up Bird then Kafka on the Shore one after the other ... there were so many parallels that I didn't enjoy Kafka on the Shore as much as I would have liked.

After the Quake made me feel empty, alone, isolated. It's a very lonely book. I don't recommend reading this if you are depressed; it'll only worsen your depression.

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

From the back blurb of Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami: Kafka on the Shore is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search from his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom.

As their paths converge, and the reasons for that convergence become clear, Haruki Murakami enfolds readers in a world where cats talk, fish fall from the sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder. Kafka on the Shore displays one of the world's great storytellers at the peak of their powers.

My take

Spoilers! It was unfortunate that I read this after Wind-up Bird Chronicle. But I found the storyline much much faster and much tighter, and enjoyed it. Although the many parallels to Wind-up Bird (in symbolisms and characters) can be a bit much. (I suggest you space reading Murakami, or you will get sick of hearing about cats and wells and mother-son tandems).

Anyway, I particularly liked how the story was set up - two seemingly separate characters who by some strange coincidences and events are connected. (And I was shocked to realize that it was someone close to Kafka who was killing all those cats that Nakata was talking to! Que horror!)

The talking cats, the falling fish, a man-woman ... all these are taken in stride and I tried not to be too surprised at how the strange are considered "normal." That is what is normal in Murakami's world, an ability to go beyond the expected and tie these into a coherent storyline.

Links:

• Wikipedia
• Bookbrowse review