Haruki Murakami Review
There are a lot of reviews about Haruki Murakami’s works out there, but I think it’s okay for me to write my own thoughts about him. For you who is not familiar about Murakami, he is a Japanese novelist, essayist, and also translator for a few English novels into Japanese. He has written many great novels such as Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore, Wind-up Bird Chronicle, 1Q84, Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage, Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, After Dark, Dance dance dance, and the latest one is Killing the Commendatore. He also writes short stories, essays which mostly tell his trip around Europe, America, Australia and Southeast Asia. In addition, he has translated many works into Japanese including the Great Gatsby (his favorite novel).
The first time I read his work was in 2009. I coincidentally borrowed the Indonesian version of ‘Norwegian Wood’ from one of my friends and I was like falling in love in the first sight with this novel. It was the story of a university student, Watanabe Toru and his gloomy years which was affected by the death of his best friend, Kizuki. I personally think, it wasn’t all about the story which made me fall in love with Murakami’s novel, but the way he wrote it. The words are perfect, the phrase he chose to describe someone’s feeling was just so beautiful. Despite of reading a novel, it feels like reading poems along the story. I have read Norwegian Wood for hundred times and never get tired of it. His novel has become the theme of my Bachelor Degree thesis.
I began to collect his works in 2014. Why there is a long-time span? Because I was too poor when I first read his novel (I was still at university in 2009), I couldn’t afford his other novels which mostly cost US$ 30 (not so expensive, but for a university student, it wasn’t an affordable price). In 2014, I finally bought 1Q84 in English version. It was around 925 pages long and believe me, no novel is too thick when they are Murakami’s works. Next, my husband bought me Kafka on the Shore and Tsukuru Tazaki. But, before that, let me tell a little bit about my husband’s experience regarding Murakami’s books.
He read ‘Terebi Pipuru (TV People)’ in 1990, it is one of Murakami’s short story collections and he found it so weird that he swore he would never read Murakami’s works ever again. Long story short, he accidentally found Norwegian Wood on my book shelf 14 years later and read it to kill the time. At the end, he bought all of Murakami’s works in Japanese version, including the essays I’ve never heard of and he even browsed every detail of Murakami’s works. Thus, he has become a big fan of Murakami.
Now, if you want to read Murakami’s novels, you have to do it in the right order to avoid the wrong impression like what my husband experienced. I searched in the internet and basically, the readers opinion is similar. I have my personal preference and this is how I convince (force) other people to read Murakami’s books hehe.
The order I suggest for you to read:
Well, like I mentioned above, his writing style is one of a kind. I think no other novelists in the world can write like Murakami. His stories expand from realist and surrealist style. From the list above, only Norwegian Wood and Tsukuru Tazaki are realist, the other works are how I called weird fantasies. Murakami’s novels don’t have endings, they are cliffhanger, so don’t expect a happy ending or the complete answers from his works. However, I found it as the charm of his works. He invites readers to speculate about the faith of the main characters in the novel.
If you can read Japanese, I really recommend you to read his essays. They are very interesting, Murakami wrote it from the POV of ordinary man. He never thought that he is a great novelist who needs publication, he even felt bewildered by the attention he got when he came back to Japan after publishing Norwegian Wood. Murakami left Japan after finishing his second story in order to focus on writing and stay away from Japanese bundan circle who always criticized his works. This Japanese bundan were the ones who decided the works which worth for Akutagawa prize. Murakami never won it, because his novels are considered out of the box. But, Murakami himself never thought that winning Akutagawa Prize is a big deal - same thing goes to Nobel Prize on literature.
His latest novel ‘Killing the Commendatore’ has been released world wide this year (it was released in Japan in 2017). He presented unique fantasy as always and I highly recommend everyone to read it.
The first time I read his work was in 2009. I coincidentally borrowed the Indonesian version of ‘Norwegian Wood’ from one of my friends and I was like falling in love in the first sight with this novel. It was the story of a university student, Watanabe Toru and his gloomy years which was affected by the death of his best friend, Kizuki. I personally think, it wasn’t all about the story which made me fall in love with Murakami’s novel, but the way he wrote it. The words are perfect, the phrase he chose to describe someone’s feeling was just so beautiful. Despite of reading a novel, it feels like reading poems along the story. I have read Norwegian Wood for hundred times and never get tired of it. His novel has become the theme of my Bachelor Degree thesis.
I began to collect his works in 2014. Why there is a long-time span? Because I was too poor when I first read his novel (I was still at university in 2009), I couldn’t afford his other novels which mostly cost US$ 30 (not so expensive, but for a university student, it wasn’t an affordable price). In 2014, I finally bought 1Q84 in English version. It was around 925 pages long and believe me, no novel is too thick when they are Murakami’s works. Next, my husband bought me Kafka on the Shore and Tsukuru Tazaki. But, before that, let me tell a little bit about my husband’s experience regarding Murakami’s books.
He read ‘Terebi Pipuru (TV People)’ in 1990, it is one of Murakami’s short story collections and he found it so weird that he swore he would never read Murakami’s works ever again. Long story short, he accidentally found Norwegian Wood on my book shelf 14 years later and read it to kill the time. At the end, he bought all of Murakami’s works in Japanese version, including the essays I’ve never heard of and he even browsed every detail of Murakami’s works. Thus, he has become a big fan of Murakami.
Now, if you want to read Murakami’s novels, you have to do it in the right order to avoid the wrong impression like what my husband experienced. I searched in the internet and basically, the readers opinion is similar. I have my personal preference and this is how I convince (force) other people to read Murakami’s books hehe.
The order I suggest for you to read:
- Norwegian Wood
- Tsukuru Tazaki
- Wind-up Bird Chronicle
- 1Q84
- Kafka on the Shore
- Killing the Commendatore
- Hear the Wind Sing, Pinball 1973, Wild Sheep Chase, Dance Dance Dance (they are series, even though Murakami didn’t intend to write them that way, but they have the same characters).
- Hard boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (this is my husband’s favorite, but I don’t really like it).
- His other works (other novels, short stories, or essays).
Well, like I mentioned above, his writing style is one of a kind. I think no other novelists in the world can write like Murakami. His stories expand from realist and surrealist style. From the list above, only Norwegian Wood and Tsukuru Tazaki are realist, the other works are how I called weird fantasies. Murakami’s novels don’t have endings, they are cliffhanger, so don’t expect a happy ending or the complete answers from his works. However, I found it as the charm of his works. He invites readers to speculate about the faith of the main characters in the novel.
If you can read Japanese, I really recommend you to read his essays. They are very interesting, Murakami wrote it from the POV of ordinary man. He never thought that he is a great novelist who needs publication, he even felt bewildered by the attention he got when he came back to Japan after publishing Norwegian Wood. Murakami left Japan after finishing his second story in order to focus on writing and stay away from Japanese bundan circle who always criticized his works. This Japanese bundan were the ones who decided the works which worth for Akutagawa prize. Murakami never won it, because his novels are considered out of the box. But, Murakami himself never thought that winning Akutagawa Prize is a big deal - same thing goes to Nobel Prize on literature.
His latest novel ‘Killing the Commendatore’ has been released world wide this year (it was released in Japan in 2017). He presented unique fantasy as always and I highly recommend everyone to read it.