NP: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

[Bekah]

Have you (or anyone) read Kafka on the Shore?

Bekah

At 9:24 PM +0000 2/19/06, richard baillie wrote:
>Interesting point.
>
>I guess the main similarity between Pynchon and Marukami is that the
>quality of the writing is extremely variable.
>
>In Pynchon's case from the outstanding (GR) to the merely very good.
>
>Marukami is much more middle brow and accessible but his better novels
>(South of the Border West of the Sun and Norwegian Wood) are worth
>reading. The rest are fairly silly and predictable.
>
>
>On Sun, 19 Feb 2006 16:07:26 -0500, "Joe Allonby" <joeallonby at gmail.com>
>said:
>>  I loved the minimalist language and the oddly magical story itself. I
>>  liked
>>  Mr Wind-up Bird and especially May Kasuhara.
>>
>>  On 2/18/06, kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
>>  >
>>  > Just finished reading "the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle," by Haruki
>>  > Murakami.  When I was asking for reading suggestions a while 
>>back, a number
>>  > of people on this list recommended it.  Also, the blurb on the back of the
>>  > book compared it to Pynchon.  I have to say, I was really
>>  > disappointed.  Aside from some historical flashbacks (which were the best
>>  > part of the book) and a vague atmosphere of conspiracy, there was nothing
>>  > Pynchonesque about it.  The writing was minimalist and the characters and
>>  > conspiracy elements got way too close to being merely cute 
>>(ick).  The most
>>  > telling difference:  it's easy to imagine this as a flick; extremely
>>  > difficult for Pynchon's work.
>>  >
>>  > Just curious to hear why people like this book so much.
>>  >
>>  > Laura
>>  >
>--
>   richard baillie
>   richbaillie at fastmail.fm
>
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