Dances With Sheep

In Matthew Stretcher’s introduction to his book on the work of Haruki Murakami, Dances With Sheep, he states that he is trying to write a book that will appeal to academics and general enthusiasts alike. Stretcher is a former colleague of mine from Toyo University, and I think he book has merits, but I can't imagine that it would be of much interest to the general reader given its price and his emphasis on postmodern theorists like Althusser, Jameson, Lacan, and the like. In particular the third chapter, “Desire, The Symbolic Order, and Mass Society,” was difficult to get through. However, I think he has some interesting insights into the Murakami’s meditations on identity and his opposition to capitalist consumer life that has enveloped post war Japan and the failure of the left to make a stronghold after 1969.