The OTHER Pile.

The pile of books above looks a lot more adventurous than anything I am actually able to partake in. Reading, while something I want to be doing, has been rather difficult for me over the past few weeks. I am not retaining information very well and can’t seem to focus more than fifteen minutes on any particular task. My doctors assure me this is normal but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating. Regardless of that frustration, I have finished the top book (more below) and am dipping into all four of the rest. It’s amazing how I can have books on my shelf for a year and still pass them over for something new that I picked up at a bookstore two weeks ago. Oh well!

Selling a book to someone can be hard work. The art of reading can be an intense and personal experience that you immediately want to share with someone but defies explanation. When I put down "The Wind Up Bird Chronicle," Haruki Murakami's brilliant novel, last week (after my eyes raced to the finish line and tested how quickly I could turn a page) I wanted to turn and start talking to someone. Looking around my apartment there was no one, and my only other companions in this experience are Jackie and Carson both of whom are busy having lives that don't consist of stretching on the couch. So instead I let it soak in for a moment and tried to piece together the somewhat ambiguous ending.

If I start raving about a book, it is understandable that the listener is going to want an explanation but every time I try it ends up sounding like "Back To The Japanese Future". Murakami has created a story that interrogates what it means to exist on this planet. In this constantly shifting world, the protagonist encounters a handful of bizarre characters who will all help lead him to some valuable self discovery. Mixed in with the main narrative, which takes place in 1980’s Japan, are the harrowing and heartbreaking accounts of several World War two veterans. I assure you there is no Asian Michael J. Fox or Christopher Lloyd in this story.

What is so amazing about Murakami's writing is how effortlessly he takes the story into completely unpredictable territory. He is able to get you to suspend belief and become completely submerged in the characters that he has created. Elements of divination pepper the mundane everyday events that the lead character has come to know. Some characters are old men while others are teenage girls yet they all have a voice that is distinctly their own and add compelling structure and depth to the story. Even more amazing to me is the detail with which he creates a scene. Instead of just putting us in a room and telling us we are there, he describes the way the light hits objects, the angles of the doors, the way an earring moves or bubbles sit in a glass all without ever feeling pedantic. Looking back over that sentence it seems as if I described exactly the purpose of every author, but Murakami does it with such incredible use of similes and metaphors it seemed unlike anything I had ever read.

In this story he questions the very meaning of existence, time, identity, and relationships. Some people live a monotonous existence and think they know everything about their surroundings only to find that nothing is what it seems. Once Toru (the main character) pulls on the string the whole thing begins to unravel and the reader is just along for the ride. As people we have to be so open to everything happening around us because the minute we miss something, it could be gone forever.

The other day at a bookstore I was flipping through a magazine when I came across a profile on Ryan Gosling. When he started listing some of his favorite things he talked about Murakami's novels and how every movie studio is desperately trying to get the rights but Murakami is reluctant. Finally an author who realizes how much a movie would butcher his prose and lets it stay the experience that it was supposed to be in the first place. I hope that he continues to hold out because this book really needs to be experienced to be believed.

A few of my favorite quotes that only touch the surface of things:

"Is it possible, finally, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another?"

"It was a narrow world, a world that was standing still. But the narrower it became, and the more it betook of stillness, the more this world that enveloped me seemed to overflow with things and people that could only be called strange. They had been there all the while, it seemed, waiting in the shadows for me to stop moving. And every time the wind-up bird came to my yard to wind its spring, the world descended more deeply into chaos."

"And so time flowed on through the darkness, deprived of advancing watch hands: time undivided and unmeasured. Once it lost its points of demarcation, time ceased being a continuous line and became instead a kind of formless fluid that expanded and contracted at will.... I no longer needed time."

"Hatred is like a long, dark shadow. Not even the person it falls upon knows where it comes from, in most cases. It is like a two-edged sword. When you cut the other person, you cut yourself. The more violently you hack at the other person, the more violently you hack at yourself. It can often be fatal. But it is not easy to dispose of. Please be careful...It is very dangerous. Once it has taken root in your heart, hatred is the most difficult thing in the world to shake off."

"Most of the time, the power of fate played on like a quiet and monotonous ground bass, coloring only the edges of life."

Comments

[tonya]

Everyone does that -- gets a new book when they have tons piled up waiting to be read :) In fact, I think I may have the book you just finished somewhere in my apartment and haven't read it yet :) I know I have his "Wild Sheep Chase"... The problem is when you can't remember what you have at home and you find a book on sale somewhere and you end up getting it again! The Howard Zinn is great by the way!

I'm sorry to hear you're still not feeling so well; it sounded like you were getting better. I hope you're able to dance soon.

[M]

True, true, it is the evil curse of books....you always want new ones.

Unfortunately not doing that much better than a few weeks ago. Looking at a few more weeks at least before I'm back doing any physical activity again. Frustrating but doing my best to stay positive.

[Jennifer]

i'm afraid murakami is the kind of author i will try but never understand :) my friends love murakami, i will bring up the courage to try it one day, def. after finals.

m, do you know if the book originally written in english? or is it a translation from japanese?

[M]

From what I have read this was a translation....I think all of his novels are written in Japanese first but I could be wrong.

I wouldn't be too afraid of not understanding him. There were definitely moments and themes that were difficult but I found that to be part of the fun. Even though the actual events and analyzing them can be confusing or vague (in a thought provoking sense) I never found his writing to be anything but accessible.

[Rob]

Hmmm, I need to get back into reading regularly. Working at B&N for five years just killed my once infamous reading frenzy, because after 8 hours of being surrounded by books, I didn't want to look at them when I got home. I'll swing by my local BN and pick up "Wind up" tonight, since you've piqued my interest. Plus, I just realized the new Tolkien book is out, and I've heard good thing about that too....

As for you still not feeling on top of it, sorry to hear that. But I'm sure things will change soon enough and you'll be back to normal.

[Tania]

Interesting. Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is on my list of books to read. Speaking of piles of books that get bigger and bigger rather than smaller (books are possibly my least controllable shopping urge), I just bought five yesterday including Murakami's "Norwegian Wood." So I have to get through those before I start "Bird Chronicle", which a friend has promised to lend me, along with so many others. And I'm four books into "Paradise Lost." I should start a blog about all the books that I buy and read simultaneously and sometimes don't finish. I've actually been thinking about starting a blog but i'm not sure what i'd write about. Books would be in there. Ahh, summer reading lists are the joy of my life.

[Emily]

Aw I loved the Wind-up Bird Chronicle. I found a well in the town I was living in at the time. Though I admittedly didn't climb into it to sit the bottom.

I like the way he philosophises in a very human narrative. He understands intersubjectivity better than most contemporary philosophers I dare say.

And May Kasahara. I love and hate parts of her, or possibilities she represents in us.

Read Norwegian Wood and Kafka on the Shore. Don't bother with his short stories.

Best,

Emily