I'm am definitely enjoying the book so far, although I agree that it lacks some of the buildup that makes him such an addictive author. I think what Murakami does best is create and maintain tension in his narratives. He is great at creating a very cohesive, slightly-off world that is both familiar (probably because he uses a lot of pulpy, genre-specific characters and pop culture references) and completely surreal. I've found with a lot of his books that my favorite part is about 1/2-3/4 of the way through, and that I am sometimes less engaged by the end of the novel. That is not to say that I think his endings are particularly poorly written, but I think that once the suspense and mystery that drive his narratives have been resolved or revealed there is little else to go on besides his writing style alone, which is not enough to support the remainder of the book.

I also think he writes plot better than dialogue, and that this book might have benefited from a more outlandish and whimsical storyline, rather than the more terrestrial, conversation based scenes like all the stuff at Denny's.

I like it though.

and so on

ok so now i'm about 150 and like i have to totally agree with Em and david that the dialogue is really bugging me. there was this part when mari and the musician were talking and it became this kind of argument or at least mari was taking it really offensively and i think it was about if the musician brought eri to the love hotel or not or something.... but i was getting really thrown off by it. i mean it felt maybe real like i can see someone (like mari) being despondent and closed off kind of getting really strangely offensive and over-reacting....especially at the age of like 19. but i was kind of distraught by the whole convo. i wanted the musician to be pissed off too but he was so taking it and trying to be understood. i donno.... maybe its just my own frustration with the unreal dialogue... or is it too real somehow?

anyway also any predictions what will happen to the office man? who works at veritech? and why is his office so important?

and where is eri? does mari have the power to get her out with some kind of revelation or is eri all on her own? what is the significance of her disappearing in real life and waking up in the TV? i kinda think it has something to do with her snow white status.

i'mcannot decide if the whole story is just simple and or if murakami will surprise me. i hope he surprises me. on the back of my copy of the book it says something about receiving the Kafka award and i keep hoping that it ends without revelation like Kafka.


ps. i went to the murikami show at the MOCA and there is a louis vitton store in the museum... selling stuff to people who are buying it! craziness!

First Book, First Review, First Comment, WOO!

So you guys, I am beginning to think that nobody's heart is in this but mine, but I'm still going to go ahead and hope somebody else remembers to post too. Actually, I think I'll just send out en e-mail reminding you.

Anyhow, I don't have the book with me because its at my house, and the internet is not, so I'm just going from memory here. I didn't get a really strong impression from the first 50 pages, it just felt like set-up... not too exciting. The only thing I really took notice of was the way he writes the book like its a movie script. I don't particularly care for the way he literally directs the "camera", but I do think its sort of nice the way he begins each chapter by stating the location first, then giving a brief description of it, before moving on to the characters. I feel like the parts that have dialogue are taken up mostly with dialogue and only short indications of what the characters are doing, no feelings or inner thoughts or anything, so its just sort of very blunt.

Um, David and I were talking and we both think that his dialogue tends to be a little awkward, or false feeling. I am not sure if that is because he is not so good at writing dialogue, or if something gets lost in translation, but I have a feeling dialogue might not be his strong point. The major problem I have had with Murakami before is something to do with that I think. I am always really enthusiastic about his ideas and I really enjoy the writing, but I tend to get a little annoyed by the style about 3/4ths of the way through. I'm specifically thinking of Hard Boiled Wonderland right now, the bit where he is talking to the scientist and the girl underground, and the scientist is basically just explaining the whole thing, really ruined the effect the book had of really intriguing and engaging me, and the dialogue was just a little bit silly with all its out-dated slang and cheesy phrases.

So, that is basically my first impression. Hopefully you guys were a little more attentive than I was, because I haven't really come anywhere close to any idea of what this thing is about. I need to give it some thought, but maybe you guys have some ideas?

Oh I guess the only other comment, is that I like the image of the man in the TV with no face. Um, which is really a very helpful comment. Ok.