"Murakami is a boring guy. I have only read four of his novels, but all four of them are heavily influenced by jazz and classical music, as well as sex. It seem's he can't write a novel without adding superfluous sex scenes. "
zerky hasn't read South of the Border, West of the Sun, but upon reading Kafka On The Shore, she believes that you may be correct.
Yeah, there was that whole Oedipal thing going with the protagonist, so those scenes were kinda necessary, but did he really need an elaborate description of the protagonist masturbating in a hotel shower?
Hmm, well I loved both Norwegian Wood and Sputnik Sweetheart, in fact launched the latter. I love Murakami's writing, so elegant yet beautiful it utterly draws me in to the world he creates. The metaphysical stuff can be a bit grating depending on my mood, but in general I found the writing lyrical and rather enchanting. I don't remember finding the sex scenes over the top or anything but I'm not very prudish.
Basically I disagree with everything you wrote. Aren't opinions great
edited 22nd Nov '11 4:16:39 AM by Falco
"You want to see how a human dies? At ramming speed." - Emily Wong.I've only read After Dark, but it didn't particularly inspire me to read anything else by the author. I read books largely for the narrative, and that book didn't have anything close to a narrative—it was like walking through a gallery of paintings, with similar themes, but unrelated contents.
That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

I just read this book by Japanese author Haruki Murakami.
Since there is no page for it, I'd like to hear other people's ideas on this book.
I have to say, this is the fourth Murakami book I' ve read. The first one was Kafka on the Shore, and I got so disappointed that it was the very first time I felt cheated by a book. Then I read "Norwegian Wood" and "Sputnik My Love", and I also felt cheated (not as much, though).
South of the Border West of the Sun tells the riveting tale of a middle-aged man, reminiscing of his whole life, particularly remembering a childhood friend, Shimamoto. And here begin the spoilers.
Murakami's writing style gives the vibe that he makes everything up as he is writing. This is obvious by the endings of the few first chapters, which "end" about halfway through, then Hajime (the protagonist) angsts about things that happened in the chapter and then, in the last paragraph, he says something to keep you reading, along the lines of "I thought I'd never see her again. I was very, very wrong".
Murakami is a boring guy. I have only read four of his novels, but all four of them are heavily influenced by jazz and classical music, as well as sex. It seem's he can't write a novel without adding superfluous sex scenes.
Or a weird and unreachable woman.
This book goes on and on without ever going anywhere. We end up watching Hajime grow old and more mature, until he sees Shimamoto again and suddenly the protagonist forgets he is a married, forty-year-old man.
Hajime angsts. A lot. About everything. And that's boring, because nothing interesting happens in this book. I had the feeling I had been watching a long and boring TV Movie, which will completely disappear from my mind in a couple of days.
Globally, the novel was average, and many times I got angry that this guy, with his short sentences and his dull style (weird and poetic descriptions of irrelevant things), is so admired.
With Murakami I get the same feeling I got with Jack Kerouac. Their stories go on and on, detaling things that shouldn't be detailed, leaving out things that could be way more interesting than what we get. Capote said from Kerouac's style "That's not writing, it's typing". This is also applicable to Murakami, and this is exactly the same reason why I'll never, ever read anything from these two again.
edited 20th Nov '11 4:05:39 PM by Ruduli