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.
2 comments:
yeah i just finished the book and i that 1/2 -3/4 section was my favorite for sure. i havn't read anything else by murakami and i am intrigued. what else might you recommend david? which was your fav.
i did enjoy the book and i like how it reads in scenes and shots like a film. I'm not sure how i feel about how things were resolved and not at the end. It seems like you can fill in all the blanks as to what is going to happen in the imaginary future of the story... and kind of wrapped up in a tight vision, yet maybe not. whatever happens to the TV and that space in there? does it haunt the future?
The most lingering and intriguing part of this book is what it reveals about Japanese culture. like all movies, mostly horror even, is this crazy element of their culture that deals with the past and the present, how the two are always in conversation with each other.
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