Murukami

[Robert Mahnke]

I've read just about everything he's written, save for some of his
earliest stuff and some of the short stories.  I re-read Wind-Up Bird
Chronicle a few months, on a trip to Japan, and I really don't see the
Pynchon influences -- I see a novel that is much more about Japanese
concerns.  Like some of Pynchon's books, it is big and rambling, but
Murakami's method is quite different (and at least some of the
rambling quality may be due to cuts that were made to the English
translation). Where Pynchon's plotting and references are very tight
and can hide all sorts of pre-meditation, Murakami has said that the
way he writes is more intuitive, less planned.  (I'm sure many writers
want readers to believe that -- in his case, it seems more true to
me.)  His other books are similar in style and atmosphere but
generally less sprawling -- and less likely to prompt comparisons to
Pynchon.  One book he wrote that deserves more attention is
Underground, a non-fiction, almost Studs Terkel-like effort to get at
the anthrax murders on the Tokyo subway by a Japanese cult.  I also
liked After The Quake, short stories prompted by the Kobe earthquake,
in each of which the quake is a presence in some way.  I also recently
read his non-fiction book/memoir about running, and don't have much
good to say about it.  Geoff Dyer's review of it (not sure where I saw
it) was pretty dead on.

To answer the original question, I think it would be great to read the
new one as part of a group read here, but have some travel planned in
October and November and may find it hard to keep up with a group or
participate much.

On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 10:02 AM,  <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
> The only book I've read by Murukami is The Wind-up Bird Chronicle.  I thought it was a pale, overly cute attempt to copy Pynchon.  Are his other books substantially different from Wind-up?
>
> Laura
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>>From: Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
>>Sent: Sep 21, 2011 12:50 PM
>>To: Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
>>Cc: "pynchon-l at waste.org" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>>Subject: Re: Murukami
>>
>>I'm game but, per Amazon, the book isn't available in the US until October 25.  With or without a group read, I'm definitely planning to read it at the first opportunity - like I'll have it in my hands on the day it's available.  I've read quite a lot of Murakami, novels, short stories, non-fiction, and am very curious as to what direction his work is going.
>>
>>Bekah
>>
>>
>>
>>On Sep 21, 2011, at 10:30 AM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Trying again. Is there a plan for group read  of IQ 84?
>
>