why i love reading haruki murakami

Blog Post 4.

I truly love some authors. Isabel Allende, Gabriel García Marques, Jane Austen, to name a few. I have read multiple novels by each of them, and would like to read more. But never have I felt compelled to read every piece of writing that any author has produced.

Except for Haruki Murakami.

For about eight months now, my world has had the sometimes painful, usually overwhelming, altogether stimulating opportunity of touching that of the Japanese novelist and runner.

My life is changing because of Haruki Murakami. The first piece of his that I read was Norwegian Wood, known to be his “least-Murakami” novel because it is a completely realistic tale. His language and plot-development impressed me. I liked it enough to venture into his more “Murakami” literature. After the Quake came next. I read it during a cold, rainy week in early Spring. It is a book of short stories- all of which take place after the 1995 Kobe Earthquake- that vary in theme and degrees of introspection. In retrospect, this was a good stepping stone from Norwegian Wood into Murakami’s more surreal writing. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle was next to enter (take slight control of?) my life after my friend Madison, who was borrowing it from our friend Nathan, had finished reading it. It was early summer. It was a summer of change; moving and living in Denver with my best friend, moving again, looking for work, preparing to spend four months in Europe. This, I know, is the book that hooked me.

I learned just how keen Murakami is to some fundamental currents upon which our lives flow. I saw in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle that there are other people who understand certain concepts that I have felt, but never been able to describe with language. As a master of metaphor, Haruki Murakami is indirectly able to do just about that. Although he likewise presents a subtle understanding of the fact that some aspects of our worlds will never be fully relayed on a page, regardless of device. The perpetual dreamlike state I felt I was in while reading this book, the utter suspension of reality, the blatant disregard for story-lines neatly concluded and tied up by the final page. The book was not about the ending, as books tend to be. It was about everything else. I began loving that I learned about myself and others while reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

The flood gates had opened. I needed to read more Murakami.

Nathan suggested I read Kafka on the Shore next so, as I walked through the Denver International Airport, Europe bound, in late August, I popped into an over-priced bookstore and gladly surrendered $16 for a paper-back copy. I was already reading two books, and knew they would be put on hold if I cracked Kafka open, so I tucked it into my backpack and tested my will. That lasted almost a week. I have since finished reading Kafka on the Shore, but rereading it is the first thing I will do in 2019.

I’ll need to write a separate post about Kafka. There is too much to say and, weeks after finishing it, I am still digesting and haven’t quite yet the proper words to do so. Never have I related to a piece of literature more profoundly. And it’s not because the Oedipus Complex is employed as a central theme.

I love reading Murakami because, even if I forget the characters’ names or the exact progression of the plot, I always learn something new or find myself more firmly grasping those truths that seem to guide my life. I love reading Murakami because he is in complete control of his stories. His characters are reflections of himself and of me and of each of his readers. He takes his time, gives little explanation and invites us to explore our own inner-most worlds as we explore those he creates.

I am indebted to two of my best friends, Nathan Garrett and Madison Broader, for supporting and, quite frankly participating more than actively in, the fiendish addiction we have for Murakami’s work. I am conversely indebted to Murakami for (amongst many other things) being a source of enrichment and profound connection in the relationships I have with these two people.