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After Dark |
A beautiful young woman has announced to her family that she is going to go to bed early. Two months later she remains in a deep and peaceful sleep. Meanwhile, the unplugged television in her bedroom shows unexplainable images of her, both sleeping and awake. All of this 'unusualness' is woven through the rather ordinary daily life of her concerned younger sister. Very Haruki Murakami.
(Sharron Calkins - bwl 90 Autumn 2018) |
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Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman |
This translated collection of 26 short stories is an adventure in reading. Think of this book as a box of Japanese candy just waiting to be sampled. You suspect that they will be unlike a box of English candy, and you are pretty sure that many of the 'flavours' will be unfamiliar to you. Should you try them? Yes, definitely!!!!
(Sharron Calkins - bwl 89 Summer 2018) |
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Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage |
Once there were five inseparable school friends but one is cold-shouldered by the rest who each declare independently that they never want to see him again. Accepting this shattering rejection stoically he leaves his home town for a new life. Decades later he wonders exactly why he was ostracised and goes in search of answers. It's a melancholic and reflective novel which would have been much shorter if he'd asked them in the first place.
(Clive Yelf - bwl 87 Winter 2018) |
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Dance Dance Dance |
Here is your chance to sample the prose of Murakami without becoming totally lost in a surreal world. There IS a single recurring thread of a parallel world woven through it - just enough of the unexplainable to grab your interest, and to keep you turning the pages. In this off-the-beaten-path search for love and friendship, all roads lead back to the Dolphin Hotel. It is an unusual tale with unexpectedly touching interactions between the book's characters.
(Sharron Calkins - bwl 103 Winter 2022) |
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Kafka on the Shore |
Kafka on the Shore is a magical story about Kafka, a fifteen year old boy, who has the most extraordinary experiences - and it is also about ageing Nakata and his communion with cats. The book is enthralling and utterly different from others but it would be a pity to give the plot away . . . it just has to be read.
(Ange Guttierez Dewar - bwl 51 May 2009) |
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Kafka on the Shore |
If Alice in Wonderland delighted you as a child, it's time for your grown-up self to explore the surreal and addictive novels of Haruki Murakami. In Kafka on the Shore, Kafka Tamura runs away from home at the age of fifteen. He begins his journey in a plausible reality that quickly turns into a spellbinding tale of parellel worlds. The sense of disorientation created in the reader adds much to the magical and dreamlike quality of the story . . .
(Sharron Calkins - bwl 100 Spring 2021) |
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Men Without Women |
This book of short stories would be an excellent introduction to the works of Murakami. There are many moments to give you pause as you read these stories that mix humour, a philosophic view, and a touch of surrealism on the subject of modern loneliness. The book will not disappoint.
(Sharron Calkins - bwl 90 Autumn 2018) |
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