Where To Start With Murakami — Book Guide || Bookish Santa

“A deserted Library in the morning, there’s something about it that gets to me. All possible words and ideas are there, resting peacefully.”

This quote amongst others is packed up in a bag and dropped over the huge vast possible landscape of “ Kafka on the Shore “ written by Haruki Murakami. Such quotes and sentences break out and fill the already bizarre landscape, making it richer. This world is different, here cats can talk to humans, it rains fish, people are named after brand icons, and a boy sets out to become the strongest fifteen-year-old.

Who is Haruki Murakami?

You might have heard of Murakami from people who’ve read at least ‘Norwegian Wood’ and won’t shut up about how good it is. Maybe, you’ve always been intrigued by the basic cover design and always wanted to pick it up.

Murakami was born on 12th January, 1949 to parents who both taught Literature. In a post World War 2 Japan, he grew reading the likes of Kafka, Kerouac, Dickens, Raymond Chandler, and Vonnegut. He would sit down to write something until he was 29. He ran a Jazz Cafe with his wife, Yoko. Like Kafka, Murakami’s writing shows us the deep influence of his father. More so, the absence of his father owing to the Sino-Japanese War.

It was 1978 and it was a Baseball Game. Dave Hilton had come out to bat and hit a double. It was at that moment when he thought of writing a novel. He went back home and started writing a novel. And with an illustrious career of over 40 years and 20+ years, one must wonder why hasn’t he got a Nobel Prize yet.

Murakami-esque

Murakami deals with Magical Realism. If you’re unfamiliar with Magical Realism, it’s a genre that combines magical and supernatural elements with reality. Pioneers of the Genre include Gabriel Garcia Marquez. With other notable writers including Toni Morrison and Salman Rushdie, amongst others.

Murakami recalls an incident from his life. He says in his New Yorker Article that he grew up without any siblings. Cats were always his best friends. His family once wanted to get rid of their cat and as young Murakami didn’t protest, they decided to abandon it. They took the cat to a beach and left it there. On returning to their houses, they were shocked to see that the Cat had Returned to their house somehow. He still doesn’t know how it got there and it mystifies him to this day.

This is also how reading a Murakami novel feels. You pick it up and start to read it. You go through the book, shifting across the house and adjusting yourself every once in a while, on the couch. It feels different from what you’ve read before.

The things you see in day-to-day life are all there but there’s still a feeling of surrealism to it. Reading the book is a very small part of the experience. When you go back and look at the small intricate details of how it traverses, you’ll see something hidden beneath it. The details will then form a mesmerizing collage that will present itself to you like the book.

One thing is for sure, it’ll haunt you long after you’ve put it down.

Where to start reading Murakami?

I remember when I started Murakami. It was my first try with Magical Realism. I started reading Kafka on the Shore and completed it in a few odd weeks. After I finished it, I realized I didn’t get anything. All the reviews I had seen seemed false and it felt like the genre wasn’t for me.

I went online and read interpretations of the book; I couldn’t understand a word of what they were saying. I was confused and decides to re-read it. This time I took my own time with the book, ditching my quick style of reading. This time things made more sense to me.

I realized one thing. Murakami isn’t something you can just read and get done with it. It’s much like sculpting with your eyes blindfolded. If you hurry to just get done with it when you open the blinds you won’t understand what you’ve made. You have to take time with it and figure it out ever so elegantly. Once you’re done, you wouldn’t want to remove the blindfolds.

The first three books you read of Murakami are always very important. Because that determines how you will view the rest of his literature as. These books go in this order of absurdity. I suggest this order:

1. Norwegian Wood

Toru Watanabe is an airplane in Germany when he hears his favorite The Beatles song, Norwegian Wood. He is taken back to a bright day in his youth where he is reminded of his first love, Naoko. Naoko was the girlfriend of his deceased best friend, Kizuki. Spread across the student’s days of Toru, the novel traverses through friendships, student rebellions, loss, sex, desires as another girl named Midori enters Toru’s life leading him to make a difficult choice.

This is always known as the easiest Murakami to get into as it provides the language and emotional elements of Murakami while treading lightly on the absurd. Also, if you get uncomfortable with the sex scenes, it’s completely normal whilst reading a Murakami.

2. Short Stories / Short Story Collections

If you don’t want to start with a big novel, short stories are always the best way to start your Murakami journey. They’re the small-sized version of the same absurd adventure.

Some of his Short Stories include-

• On Seeing the 100 Percent Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning
• The Little Green Monster
• Sleep
• The Kangaroo Communique

If you want to go for a collection, The Elephant Vanishes and After the Quake are short story collections to look into.

An advertising executive receives a postcard amongst other things from his friend. He uses it for an advertisement. The image is what can be described as a picture of a sheep with a star on the back. What he doesn’t realize that the sheep is a mutant sheep as he gets a call from a man who gives him an ultimatum. This book takes you through the cityscape of Tokyo to the Rocky Mountains of Northern Japan, where the executive has to deal with his demons.

These books should be good enough for a solid enough foundation. The other books you can hop on for a specific genre are as follows:

Sci-Fi / Detective — Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Coming of Age — Kafka on the shore

A Lost Love — South of the Border, West of the Sun

Last but not least, his Magnum Opus — The Wind-Up Chronicle.

Enclosing, I’d like to say that Murakami is a perfect example of Death of the Author being prominent. His books belong to the readers and their interpretations. It will surprise you that every reader has a different interpretation. There’s no one true ending and the end will leave you with more questions than answers. So, grab a Murakami, find a corner, and engross yourself in his creations. As he once wrote in “Kafka On The Shore”:

‘If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.’

- Harsh Kichambare

To read more articles written by Harsh Kichambare — CLICK HERE

Originally published at https://www.bookishsanta.com.