Who cares What I’m Reading But Here It Is Anyway Part One

 Haruki Murakami   

I have worked my way through all of the Haruki Murakami novels (translated) I can lay my hands on.  It has been an interesting experience as reading them now in Japan they do not seem to be the same.  Murakami writes for Japanese people who are interested in foreign things so that often he goes to great lengths to list brands in his novels.  This has led to a large number of Japanese people seeking to emulate him or rather the characters in his books.  Sometimes I see little difference.  I came to the conclusion that he was a spent force and then he comes out with a cracker like ‘Kafka on the Shore’ and you realise he has still got it.  So, I am still a big fan of Haruki Murakami and hope to meet him here one day.

Ryu Murakami  

Another novelist I am reading is Ryu Murakami.  This guy is in many ways more Japanese in his writing than Haruki Murakami.  I just finished reading ‘In the Miso Soup’ and also ‘Coin Locker Babies’ and passed these on to a friend who has the added advantage of being able to read both the translation and the original.  It is tempting to compare the Murakami’s but they are in my opinion like chalk and cheese.   In a nutshell Ryu Murakami is very much on the cutting edge, sometimes shocking, often disturbing, taboo breaking, whilst Haruki Murakami ambles around familiar and explores his usual themes in a thoroughly interesting, deceptively simple (but actually complex) and pleasant fashion without ruffling too many feathers and breaking too many taboos in the process.  A public image is a terrible burden for any novelist.  Anyone who has seen the film ‘Audition’ will be familiar with Ryu Murakamis work and his power to surprise and shock whereas it is unlikely that anything other than a short story of Haruki Murakamis’ could make the quantum leap to the big screen as there are just too many subtleties and in-jokes that really do lose a lot in translation from one medium to another.  I’d love to see someone try however and I am looking forward to seeing the movie ‘Starfish Hotel’ by Japan based British director John Williams that is apparently influenced by his work.

 Yukio Mishima

I am tempted to revisit Yukio Mishima but maybe that will be a future project.  I picked up ‘The Golden Pavillion’ for the first time in 15 years and realised why Mishima is still widely read and acknowledged as a great novelist.  His words really do have a timeless quality even in translation.  Mishima was an extremely interesting product of Japanese culture and society.

David Sedaris  

I have just started ‘69′ by Ryu Murakami so I will let you know how it goes.  After this I will continue reading ‘Naked’ by David Sedaris that my good friend Micheal from Philadelphia lent me some time ago.  

That reminds me I need to get working on my own novel between posting a few snippets on here.