I just finished Haruki Murakami's Dance, Dance, Dance. Fortuitously, my language tutor just read the Russian translation of the work, so we had one of our odder sessions so far. Generally speaking, psychic 13 year olds and Sheep Men aren't our standard topics.
With his flat description of setting, his protaganist's alienation, the magical realism, the constant pop-culture references, etc., anyone looking to taste-test postmodern literature can do worse than Murakami. I enjoyed him much more than Kundera, for instance. And the bouts of surreality are tucked inside a deceptively humdrum context in a way that reminds me most of David Lynch (a beautiful, misunderstood genius if ever there was one.)
His writing was also very reminiscent of Andrei Kurkov (or should I say it the other way.) Death and the Penguin had so many parallels, not only stylistically, but in plot elements like the child-ward, the character's isolation, organized crime and several others. This will likely be of interest only to my good friend and faithful reader, Liberal Media.
Posted by Discoshaman at septembre 20, 2003 11:31 PM | TrackBack
Funny you should mention that...I was just shuffling some papers around on my bookshelves (looking in vain for my dictionary for a Scrabble game) and I came across Death and the Penguin, which somebody lent me about a year ago. I'll be sure to pick it up! Yes, my bookshelves are indeed so disorderly that I've managed to lose an entire dictionary; not sure whether I should be proud of that or not.
Posted by: The Liberal Media at septembre 21, 2003 03:36 PMYeah, I really liked "Death and the Penguin." Have you read his new book? Something like "The General's Thumb." Can't remember the title exactly--but I got it for John for his birthday. *g*
I really, really enjoyed "Dance Dance Dance." More than I expected to, honestly. But now I have several questions about what is "normal" in Japanses culture and what is just the peculiarities of the book.
Posted by: Alexandra at septembre 22, 2003 03:02 AM