A guide to Haruki Murakami's books: what's special about them and why they should be read

Haruki Murakami? What kind of writer is this?

Haruki Murakami should not be confused with his namesake Ryu Murakami. These are completely different people and writers. However, Haruki is much more popular all over the world. It is he who is primarily associated with this surname. Murakami is one of the main contemporary postmodernists in literature.

In total, he wrote 14 novels, 12 collections of stories, one book of children's fairy tales and five works in the genre of non-fiction. His books have been translated into over 50 languages and sold in millions of copies. Murakami has received many Japanese and international prizes, but the Nobel Prize so far bypasses him, although almost every year he is one of her main favorites.

Does Murakami look like other Japanese authors?

Murakami continues the traditions of Japanese literature and its founders like Natsume Soseki and Ryunosuke Akutagawa. However, with the filing of the Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata, he gained a reputation as a "European from Japanese literature." Indeed, Japanese culture and traditions do not play the same role in his books as in the works of the same Kawabata, Yukio Mishima or Kobo Abe.

Murakami grew up under the influence of American culture, his favorite writers have always been Americans. In addition, Haruki lived for many years in Europe and the United States, which also influenced his work.

For Japanese literature, Murakami's books are a unique example of how a Japanese person sees his homeland through the eyes of a Western person.

Murakami's books are set mainly in modern Japan. His heroes are people of the era of globalization and mass culture. Japanese names and titles aside, Murakami's novels could take place anywhere. The main characteristic of his artistic universe is cosmopolitanism. This is largely why his books are so popular all over the world.

What are the features of his work?

1. Almost all books have elements of fantasy and surrealism. So, in the novel "Wonderland without brakes and the End of the World" events take place in a city whose inhabitants have no shadows, and the narrator reads dreams in the skulls of dead unicorns. Very often in the books of Murakami, completely ordinary people are described with whom extraordinary things happen. According to the writer himself, such a plot (ordinary people in unusual circumstances) is his favorite.

2. Many of Murakami's works are dystopias. The most striking example is the three-volume book of the writer "1Q84", the title of which refers to the classic of the genre - Orwell's novel "1984".

3. Murakami's novels are postmodern works. Whatever serious topic the writer undertakes, he will reveal it in an emphatically detached manner, not taking any particular position, but allowing the reader to choose what is more important and closer to him.

4. Music. The writer himself is a great connoisseur of jazz and is known for his unique collection of 40 thousand jazz records. By his own admission, Murakami has been listening to jazz for 10 hours a day for many years.

In South of the Border, West of the Sun, the protagonist (like Murakami himself before his literary career) owns a jazz bar. But Murakami loves not only jazz, but also rock and roll, so his main novel "The Norwegian Forest" is named after the famous Norwegian Wood song by The Beatles.

5. In Murakami's novels there is always a place for animals, especially cats and cats. In The Hunt for the Sheep, an old cat with gas appears, in The Chronicle of a Clockwork Bird, the disappearance of the cat causes mystical events, and in the novel Kafka on the Beach, the protagonist has a unique gift: he understands the language of cats and is able to communicate with them with ease. … Often, the images of animals in the writer's books are directly related to death and the other world.

What is the best way to start acquaintance with the work of Murakami?

If you belong to the category of those readers who are trying to embrace the writer's work as a whole, then it is best to start reading Murakami from his very first books: from the Rat Trilogy, which includes the novels Listen to the Wind Song, Pinball 1973 and Sheep hunting”. A kind of continuation of this trilogy is the book "Dance, Dance, Dance", from which Murakami received the greatest pleasure.

The novels of the Rat Trilogy cycle are united by a character named Rat, who every time turns out to be a companion and friend of the main characters of these books. "Listen to the Song of the Wind" is Murakami's debut work, in which he is just groping for his signature style. There is no single plot in the book, but there are many valuable thoughts and reflections on life.

Pinball 1973 already looks more like the work of Haruki Murakami. The main character of this book has a strange hobby - pinball, to which he is given a special passion. The plot of this novel is unpredictable and surprises with its twists and turns.

In the novel "Hunt for Sheep" the soul of a Sheep is infused into the bodies of different people, which completely replaces a person's personality, but gives him unlimited strength and possibilities. The Sheep's goal is to establish a kingdom of chaos and anarchy in the world.

"Dance, Dance, Dance" tells about the events that unfold several years after the action of the "Hunt for the Sheep". The hero, who has lost touch with the world and his true self, follows the advice of the man-sheep and begins to dance, dance and dance in order to find himself again. This is a philosophical prose about the complexity of the human person.

However, most readers are accustomed to getting to know the author from a separate book. In this case, it is better to start with Murakami's hits: "Norwegian Forest" and "Kafka on the Beach".

Norwegian Forest tells the story of the friendship, love, suffering and joy of several Japanese students. An important place in the novel is occupied by the protests of the 60s, when students from all over the world took to the streets and rebelled against the modern order. But the main theme of the novel is love and how it affects people.

In the center of the story of "Kafka on the Beach" - two characters: a teenager named Kafka Tamura and an old man Nakata. Their fates are connected in a mystical way, both join the other world and live on the borderline between reality and space outside of time. This is a mystical novel typical of Murakami, raising a huge number of philosophical topics and questions.

If you choose the most monumental book of a writer in order to understand all his main ideas and stylistic features from one work, it is worth noting "1Q84", which in Russian translation has a subtitle "One thousand and eighty four."

The book tells about two heroes - a woman fitness club instructor and a math teacher. Both characters represent two different branches of this vast story. The first of them is associated with alternative worlds, and the second is more realistic, but hides a deep subtext.

The main thing in Murakami's book is how the two stories are intertwined and linked together into a single message. This three-volume epic touches on numerous topics: from love and religion to generational conflict and the problem of suicide. According to the writer, while creating this "giant novel" he was inspired by Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov", whom he considers one of the best works in the history of world literature.

What books by Murakami are undeservedly underestimated?

Every writer has books that everyone knows about. And there are those who are either forgotten or known to a very narrow circle of fans. Murakami also has such works. Despite their low popularity, reading them is no less interesting than the recognized masterpieces.

The novels "My Favorite Sputnik" and "After Darkness" are typical for Murakami things on the verge of reality and fantasy, but the writer reveals both plots in a very original manner. The first is connected with the mysterious disappearance of the main character on the Greek islands, and the second takes place in Tokyo over the course of one night.

Little known is the book written in the genre of non-fiction - a collection of autobiographical essays entitled "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running." The title of the collection refers to the work of one of Murakami's favorite writers, Raymond Carver, whose work What We Talk About When We Talk About Love was translated by Haruki from English into Japanese.

The work represents the writer's recollections of running a marathon, which, in addition to literature and jazz, is his main hobby. According to Haruka, "writing sincerely about running means writing sincerely about yourself."

Why read Murakami?

Murakami is an author who, in all his books, speaks either about the present or about the future of humanity. And he does it as accurately as possible. Some of his books can be regarded as warnings to society. They should be read so as not to make the mistakes that the Japanese describe.

His books are read by millions of people around the world, so Murakami's work is truly global and influential.

In addition, much in the author's works is capable of truly expanding human consciousness. There is something in his books that can shock, amaze and delight the reader. Murakami is a true master of words, whose style is mesmerizing and delightful.

Who might like Murakami's work?

The flourishing of Murakami's creativity coincided with the growth of his popularity among Russian readers. These events took place in the 90s. However, unlike many other authors, the love for Murakami has not faded away. He still remains one of the most widely read foreign authors in Russia.

The Clockwork Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

When Murakami began to translate with us, his audience was mainly young people with a rich imagination and broad views. Now these people, who almost grew up on the books of the Japanese, remain his devoted fans, but the books also have new fans.

Murakami is still interesting to young people, because he keeps up with the times, and each new novel becomes relevant and modern. Therefore, it is never too late to start reading Murakami. All people living today and at the same time looking to the future will definitely like his work.