'Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage' by Haruki Murakami translated by Philip Gabriel

New books by Haruki Murakami get me excited.

I look forward to them like Christmas.  I wait for months, curse the slow pace of the translators and wonder why they don't get on with it... Poor Philip Gabriel, I bet he doesn't deserve it.  To make up for all those bad, impatient vibes, I am utterly grateful to the talented translator when I finally get my hands on the book.  Without translators I would miss many sources of joy in my life, like Murakami's next book.

For those of you who have never read Murakami let me say that he is the master of what my teens call "random".  Many things happen to children and teens that in their world have no explanations and no resolutions.  From a comment uttered in the school hallway, to a song on the radio at just the correct moment for a cry, to a divorce.  My teens will label great and small as random...  As an adult I like to imagine that random does not happen to me.  I know why things happen, I know that I happen to others (I am a happening woman) and I often know the consequences...yeah right.  Murakami says yeah right too but with a lot more style.

Sometimes what I would describe as magic happens and suddenly the character is in an alternate world. Sometimes a character has an unexplained talent, like the ability to talk to cats (which in another format would qualify as a mutant but I am not going to get into my cross novel cross character fantasies).  And sometimes all your friends in the world abandon you without explanation at the same time, as is what happens to Tsukuru Tazaki.  Most of us have the fear of losing someone or something, even if it is only the fear of losing the cat.  So Tsukuru is left in a cloud of fear, despair, confusion and deep sadness.  He is certain that there must be something wrong with him.  My sympathy for Tsukuru is sincere, I wonder as much as he does what happened; I admire what he makes of his life and of his emotional life.  So the courage he shows to resolve his personal mystery and eventually to face so many uncertainties in his life like the uncertainty of love (one of the worst in my opinion) is exhilarating and absorbing.

In spite of being a big fan of fantasy and the convoluted solution to a complex problem, this time I am reminded of the fact that true courage is the courage to identify a problem and face it without magical swords.  I would rather face a dragon than face what Tsukuru faced when he identified his problem.  With a dragon, you are quite certain of your enemy.  In Tsukuru's case the enemy could very well be himself.

For those of you who read '1Q84' and are worried, this book has a different tone, pace and environment.  '1Q84' is challenging in its premise, characters and setting.  Tsukuru Tazaki is more a straight forward problem and a terrifying solution.  Read it  and let me know what you think.  My favourite is still 'Kafka on the Shore', but I think this one is number 2.


@harukimurakami_
Haruki Murakami  
ISBN: 9781846558337 

A Family Amongst Books

I feel privileged to live in a home where everyone likes to read.  My husband and both my children usually have a book going that is not tied to school or work.  There are books in every room in the house and next to every bed.  And all this within sight of Mac, iPad, and iPhones.  I am a sceptic of people who assert that modern technology discourages people from reading attentively and for pleasure... Good, I have all that out of my system...

My personal irritation is book choice and recommendations.  It is rare that any of us read the same books.  The exceptions being His Dark Materials, Harry Potter and Harry Dresden... Strange but true.  You see with everything else we differ.  Maximum one other person will pick up the same book.  BPR (Beloved Proof Reader) can occasionally be bullied into taking a book with him but won't finish it.  My son will a. ignore me; b. read and groan about it; c. distract me by pointing out a different book he is reading already.  My daughter is much more straight forward, she ignores me and reads what she pleases.

Curse them!

I want to share, talk, gush about books.  My view of ideal family life is to sit around the dinner table harmoniously talking about books... cue my son... "Mom, you're such a nerd".  Book or reading clubs are out of the question.  Reading choices are not my own, or heaven help me, picked by Oprah.  Then we have to discuss.  Some people enjoy the direction and format of the discussion.  Others point out that they get to read books they would not have otherwise read.  I do not like polite book dissections.  I studied English Lit. and have become allergic to reading circles.  As for reading choices, I pride myself on reading pretty much anything and everything.  There is no such a thing as a topic or genre that I would not have read.  There is merely opportunity, mood and money.

So here I am begging my family to read a book I have enjoyed.  My results are mixed:

Neil Gaiman - success
Jasper Fforde - fail
Terry Pratchett - both
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - success
Jane Austen - fail

I could keep going and I do, much to the irritation of my son who feels compelled to at least reply.  This is how he found himself reading 'Kafka on the Shore' by Murakami this past Summer.  My daughter continues to ignore me...  But all is not as pathetic as it seems.

You see there is magic in discussing books with family members, especially if our tastes are so different.  There is no need for formal statements, logic or even politeness.  They already know how smart or stupid I am and can grasp any idea in flight rather than me having to explain myself in detail with impressive vocabulary.  Whether they like the idea or not is an entirely different matter.  The discussions are honest with no need to be politically correct.  There is passion and frustration and love and maybe a good bottle of wine and loads of treats.  Maybe it is a good thing these family talks don't happen often, we'd all be exhausted.  Nevertheless, books or films shared let me learn about unknown sides of my family.  We invent a family language together.  Inside jokes are created and key words or terms can bring smiles to all our faces weeks later.  Yes, I wish it happened more often, but I am grateful it happens at all.

'1Q84' Books 1, 2, 3 by Haruki Murakami

Sex, violence, unpredictability, a keen awareness of the unknowable, perception of reality, love, indifference, happiness and secrets

Finally, I finished reading them as one book!  It has been ages since 'Kafka on the Shore'.  In the mean time, I read several of Murakami's other books.  The length of 1Q84 made me salivate (mentally, of course, it's been years since I drooled on my books).  It was so much more than I had hoped.  Murakami and his surreal worlds are imaginative, completely subjective yet believable.

This time his story has an under current of menace.  It is a faceless sense of danger that I could not relieve.  Every now and again I would put the book down to catch my breath.  Of course, it would not be long before I picked it back up and got that creepy feeling again.  The book covers just too many topics to discuss here; sex, violence, unpredictability, a keen awareness of the unknowable, perception of reality, love, indifference, happiness and secrets.  Each one of these themes are worthy of independent essays.

Murakami must be a firm believer in individuality and independence, especially when in love.  Live your life based on who you are not who you think you should be or who people tell you to be.  The key, according to this book, ( I think) is to act on that 'belief in yourself'.  You must live according to your principals without the need for a uniform to give you authority and respect.  You also do not need an overbearing, ill-tempered god to give you comfort and security provided you follow a set of arbitrary rules.  Would you act on your belief to protect the weak and innocent if it meant you had to murder one man?  The key is belief in yourself and when in love... belief in each other.  The story uses love in such strange ways that surreal is once again the only way I could describe it.  Reading what I just wrote I realize that this theme of belief and love may not be new but it felt fresh and unique in this book.

1Q84 is a surreal world being subtly contrasted to 1984.  Several of the protagonists realize that they have entered a surreal (alternate) world.  They become aware of the power of narrative and belief.  Religion as the focus of belief is treated as a prop and dismissed as unyielding and cruel.  If you believe in yourself strongly enough God comes to exist, but not in a religious sense.  She becomes a partner, who helps at your request.  Belief in yourself, respect and the willingness to act become the miraculous tools that can change your reality in tangible ways.

The lives of the protagonists down to their most personal relationships change radically in 1Q84 without reason or logic.  1Q84 does not follow the same rules as 1984.  Perhaps the mysterious 'little people' know the rules?  Our protagonists are vulnerable and at the same time powerful because they have patience and a growing belief in their own narrative as opposed to a tale handed to them by family, religion or 'little people'.

By the way, secrets and the unknowable are very different.  A secret is or was known, understood, even if the secret went with someone to the grave.  The unknowable is just that... no beginning, no end, no answers and no apologies.  The protagonists enter 1Q84 without knowing why and must make up their own answers as they go along.  Then they have to believe in those answers.  Just like you and me, perhaps we live life a little more blindly and don't often notice how much we warp reality and create little 2Q12s of our own.


@harukimurakami_
Haruki Murakami 
ISBN: 9781846555497