Murakami: Master Of The Ordinary

Haruki Murakami, one of my favorite Japanese authors in particular and one of my favorite conteomporary authors in general, has a new novel out in English, Kafka On The Shore, which I recently bought and started reading. I came across this review in Salon and agree with Taylor's basic premise about being leery of Murakami at frist, because of the fantasy/fantastic element, but Murakami transcends this with his simple and sturdy prose and engaging tales:

Master of the ordinary Haruki Murakami's latest novel unveils a world in which the fantastic is trite and the everyday profound.

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By Charles Taylor

Jan. 20, 2005 †|† For all the fantastic and farcical happenings in Haruki Murakami's "Kafka on the Shore" -- amnesia that renders the one who suffers it capable of talking with cats; an evil spirit building a flute of stolen souls, both human and animal; another spirit, this one a benevolent pimp, disguised as Colonel Sanders; a woman whose longing for the lost love of her youth gives rise to a ghost of her younger self; fish and leeches raining from the sky; two Japanese soldiers from World War II standing guard in a forest at the gates to the afterlife -- it's the most ordinary things that attain poetry and weight.

I came fairly late to Murakami (and still haven't caught up) because I confess to being one of those readers who, hearing that a novel contains elements of fantasy and the surreal, imagine something that's impossibly arch while straining to inspire wonder. Even those of us who are turned off by the drabness of much contemporary realist fiction don't particularly want to read books about spouses that become pets, or goldfish who are really the Buddha, or gardens that contain entrances to subway stations.

Murakami escapes the forced winsomeness that often hampers novelists who dabble in the fantastic, largely because the deceptive plainness of his language makes the sudden appearance of something strange as matter of fact as stopping off for a cup of coffee. With the exception of one episode so grotesque it throws you out of the novel, none of the oddball things that happen in the course of "Kafka on the Shore" stick out. They don't add up, either, but this is one of those novels where the book the author seems to think he's writing is less affecting than the one he's actually written.

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Comments

[phatrick]

I just started it as well. Looking forward to it - though I have to admit to being underwhelmed by "The Windup Bird Chronicles. My friend Jeff designed the Murakami/Kafka on the Shore website for Random House. As a fan, you might enjoy the site.