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2dcozy
There's a very amusing review by Geoff Dyer, writing in the International Herald Tribune, at:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/14/arts/bookthu.php
Here's a bit of what Dyer has to say:
To characterize it as briefly as possible: easy on ear and mind alike, it's the type of prose I would call sort of pretty poor. Running is "sort of a vague theme" (i.e., not just vague but vaguely vague), and the book is "a kind of memoir." Murakami sort of likes this kind of thing, not just as an indistinct modifier but as a form of category-definition.
On Page 25 he tells us that the "kind of" jazz club he used to run was "pretty rare" and served "pretty decent food" and that he was "pretty naïve." Moving on, we learn that he was "pretty surprised" when his first novel was "fairly well received," that his Cambridge apartment was "pretty noisy," that his new running shoes have been "pretty well" broken in, that he is "pretty easygoing" and had "a pretty good feeling for the pace" he would need to maintain in the New York marathon.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/14/arts/bookthu.php
Here's a bit of what Dyer has to say:
To characterize it as briefly as possible: easy on ear and mind alike, it's the type of prose I would call sort of pretty poor. Running is "sort of a vague theme" (i.e., not just vague but vaguely vague), and the book is "a kind of memoir." Murakami sort of likes this kind of thing, not just as an indistinct modifier but as a form of category-definition.
On Page 25 he tells us that the "kind of" jazz club he used to run was "pretty rare" and served "pretty decent food" and that he was "pretty naïve." Moving on, we learn that he was "pretty surprised" when his first novel was "fairly well received," that his Cambridge apartment was "pretty noisy," that his new running shoes have been "pretty well" broken in, that he is "pretty easygoing" and had "a pretty good feeling for the pace" he would need to maintain in the New York marathon.
3nobooksnolife
>2 dcozy: Thanks for the link; I enjoyed Dyer's comments and agree with you about wanting to read more of Dyer (or perhaps anyone) and less of Kakutani. I also visited your blog and checked the link to Ben Yagoda's piece on Kakutani. Thanks again.
RE thread topic: Does anyone care to comment on A Wild Haruki Chase: Reading Murakami Around the World? I just bought it but haven't read it yet.
RE thread topic: Does anyone care to comment on A Wild Haruki Chase: Reading Murakami Around the World? I just bought it but haven't read it yet.
4dcozy
The running book is no longer Murakami's latest. Now it's a massive novel called 1Q84. Daniel Morales, whose Japanese, unlike mine, is good enough that he can read it in the original, is live-blogging the experience at:
http://howtojaponese.com/
http://howtojaponese.com/
5brianjungwi
A short piece by Murakami on literature
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/opinion/global/02iht-GA06-Murakami.html?_r=1&a...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/opinion/global/02iht-GA06-Murakami.html?_r=1&a...
6Trismegistus
Ironically, I disliked every Murakami book I'd read until I read Running. I found it to be relaxing in an "I don't have to expend much effort analyzing this" kind of way, and Murakami's tone to be much less egotistical and abrasive than was the case with his other novels, memoirs, and short story collections.
Incidentally, I think verbal tick that annoyed Dyer so much is much less obtrusive in Japanese, and it isn't limited to Murakami. Many authors whom I've enjoyed in the original (Yoshimoto Banana, Okuda Hideo) come across as flat and awkward in English translation.
Incidentally, I think verbal tick that annoyed Dyer so much is much less obtrusive in Japanese, and it isn't limited to Murakami. Many authors whom I've enjoyed in the original (Yoshimoto Banana, Okuda Hideo) come across as flat and awkward in English translation.
