Anyone here like Murakami? What do you think of him?

Sputnik Sweetheart was my first, and really stuck with me desu. He's very formulaic and recycles a lot of similar characters/plots, so while I did enjoy the relative novelty of the odd spacial vibes and surreal shit, as I read more of him, (eg Kafka, 1Q84, Chronicle) I still liked his prose and story construction, but it was all so familiar. Like wanting to redecorate your room, but just changing your comforter from blue to green. Some of it is really nice though.

>"In the sky above the summer, the coarse-looking moon loomed awfully near. A hard ball of stone, its skin eaten away by the merciless passage of time. Ominous shadows on its surface were blind cancer cells stretching out feelers toward the warmth of life. The moonlight warped every sound, washed away all meaning, threw every mind into chaos. It made Miu see a second self. It took Sumire's cat away somewhere. It made Sumire disappear. And it brought me here, in the midst of music that-most likely-never existed. Before me lay a bottomless darkness; behind me, a world of pale light. I stood there on the top of a mountain in a foreign land, bathed in moonlight. Maybe this had all been meticulously planned, from the very beginning."

What's his best short story?

This man, in my country, he is nothing.

are you saying carver's writing isn't as minimal as murakami's? because I would definitely disagree with that

Explain what is retarded, please.

if you're talking about ray carver as edited by Gordon lish then yes. if you read "beginners" where it shows unedited ray caver...then it could be debated. they're very similar.

i like him overall but did not think NW was that great. South of the Border was much better imo, and Wind-Up Bird was good too. After Dark and Colorless were ok.

I might start up another soonish but I kinda ran through a bunch of Murakami in a short time so i'm a little sick of it

super comfy

>The central characters of the novel are bizarre space people who act like five year olds half the time and then completely apathetic robot people the other half.

Man, thats just what Japanese people are actually like

Read Norwegian Wood, liked it a lot(22 yo student), found it at my local library and bought it(read it in english and bought it in spanish).
I pretend to read it again in the future.

Interesting, I've read: 1Q84, Wind Up Bird, Hard Boiled Wonderland and, Tsukuru. I found Tsukuru the weakest out of them, mostly because it read like the MC was going through AA's twelve steps, trite at best. Some parts were better.

The color metaphor fell flat with me, and it's an interesting book about an individual healing, and coming to terms with his responsibility for his own life and happiness.

I adore him but it's true that his books are similar and repetitive. If you like his stock characters, you'll probably end up enjoying any of his books. If you don't, none of his books are for you.

A Wild Sheep Chase was my first and it caught my attention with its quirkiness and insightful description of feelings of depression and dissociation.

...

i second this home boy

I like Murakami. Have read him in English and Japanese. He's not much of a writer or wordsmith, but he's a great storyteller and his stories never fail to leave me completely absorbed.

But, OP, hating Murakami's guts is a meme on Veeky Forums. So you're not going to get much of discussion or anything well thought out around here.

For me personally, 1Q84 was the only one of his books I didn't like (and admittedly didn't finish).

Eh, he's not really much of a short story writer. I read "Tony Takitani" and pretty much forgot about it.

I enjoyed Tsukuru even though it rustled my jimmies.

I started with Norwegian Wood and really enjoyed it. Murakami has a certain flatness that it really appealing to me. I also liked Kafka on the Shore, Wind Up Bird Chronicle, and my absolute favorite was Dance, Dance, Dance.

The magic realism can kind of get annoying though. I really tried to like 1Q84 but I just ended up losing interest. It's meme on lit to despise Murakami, just read NW and go from there.

How much does IQ84 actually have to do with 1984?

>very subtly

Which book do you guys recommend to begin with?

Haven't read the book. But you clearly sound like a pretencious ass who doesn't get things at all. Clearly human beings are different in terms of emotions and reactions to our surroundings. If you're expecting every fictional character to act the way you or "normal people" do, then you're in for a shitty surprise. There's people in the world Who enjoy fucking a childs corpse ffs, and you complain about a japanase character that acts all robot when clearly if you knew something about japanese culture you'll know this isn't uncommon at all. Stop being such a pretencious bitch.

I discovered him via Underground. Which was pretty much a coincidence because I've always found the Tokyo Subway gas attacks to be an interesting topic and liked to learn about the cult that was behind it.

Undergound is a non-fiction piece where he tracks down and personally interviews the victims of the gas attacks and how it has affected them in a more human light than what the headlines portrayed.

>my absolute favorite was Dance, Dance, Dance
same here user

Have you read the 'prequels'? Hear the Wind Sing, Pinball and a Wild Sheep Chase? The first two are a bit slow but comfy reading nonetheless.

What is this meme?

I like him, good comfy books.

about to start this Veeky Forums what should i expect?

Poorly written comfiness that leads nowhere.

He's getting paid to raise the awareness of Murakami, supposedly resulting in better sales

barn burning or the one about robbing a bakery. fuck i cant decide just read the elephant vanishes theyre all very good.

hmmmm i guess i'll give it a shot then

I've only read sputnik sweetheart and it was pretty cool despite the weird ending that most of his books are rumoured to have

I liked it but he is a guilty pleasure for me.
It's just not as great as some people say it is, or as bad it's just decent but very comfy.

He's okay but he describes shit in a way that's very obvious and school-level, and makes all his characters also describe stuff in exactly the same way, making dialogue much less believable.

He also fails to convey information that reconciles differences between Japanese culture and the rest of the world. That can be good because he doesn't lord over "I'm Japanese! That's cool now!" but it also makes some things like... "what".

Book burning is stupid, user. Jeez.

What country would that be?
In my country, the people who do read books, they mostly like him. I was reading 1Q84 on the subway once and a girl came to me and talked briefly about him. It's the only time someone's struck up a conversation with me while I'm in public, reading.

Unironically got me into reading

I liked Hard Boiled Wonderland quite a bit.

Norwegian Wood specifically or Murakami in general? How old were you then?

Murakami in general
16

He's pretty cool guy.

Is that petzold?

Im a big murakami fan.

I still want to try sensory deprivation because of the wind up bird chronicle.

Reading hard boiled blah blah end of the world now - its like one long dream.

Kafka on the shore

Are you retarded or something?

His books are nihilistic, surrealistic, even esoteric trash without juicy contents, instead of reading him you can also just go sleeping and see a dream which would even be better for your health.

Dont expect too much. It's a "comfy" book with some good sex scenes and some cool ideas. It leaves alot unanswered and one of the best characters isnt truely explored, but I still enjoyed it.