I've read The Elephant Vanishes (short stories) and his novels The Wind Up Bird Chronicle and Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World (just finished the latter yesterday).

Has anyone else read any of his stuff? Recommendations? Thoughts (especially on the nature of the mind stuff in Hardboiled Wonderland)?

Norwegan Wood (fantastic) Tthe Wind up Bird Chronicles and The Elephant Vanishes.

He has a great writing style

i've read the wind up bird, plan to read more

q.....

Interesting interview with him here.

My girlfriend forced Wind up Bird on me. I'll read it after I finish Oryx and Crake. Good to see it gets other recommendations.

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If Mary dropped my baby girl tonight, I would name her rock-n-roll.

Journal of Twilight Oncology

Whoa, weird to see this thread pop up again. Might as well take advantage of it, eh?

Anyway, in the last year and a half, i've added a few more of his books to the list of those that i've read. Here are some brief comments on each:

The Elephant Vanishes (short stories) - excellent overview of his style. Some of the stories are less accessible than others, but well worth the read.

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle - hands down, his best work. Very moving, gorgeous style, haunting.

Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - very much a work of fantasy and psychology, and very different from his other works. I remember feeling a little unsettled after finishing it.

A Wild Sheep Chase - this is probably the book i'd recommend as an introduction to his works. Weird but beautiful, very typical of his themes.

After the Quake (short stories) - a tighter collection than tEV, but with far less variation. Typical themes, but well-executed.

Sputnik Sweetheart - the closest thing to a love story i've ever seen from him. Very simple story, an excellent exploration of longing and desire. I finished it in a matter of days.

Eventually i'll read the rest of his stuff, though i'm waiting until i pare down to my to-read list substantially.

Has anyone read South of the Border, West of the Sun or Dance Dance Dance? If so, how are they?

Also, to anyone interested, he also has a nonfiction work out called Underground : The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche. I haven't read it yet, but i plan on it--it looks fascinating.

And for anyone looking for an introduction, Vintage has put out a compilation of first chapters and samples of his works called Vintage Murakami. I flipped through it at the store; it contained samples from the books i haven't read, so i can't comment on how good it is, though i trust it's interesting.

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Circus' Mask: a journal of sorts
The Twilight Cafe: a gathering place for artists, writers, and thinkers of all sorts
"Indeed, the Khazar jar serves to this day, although it has long since ceased to exist." --Milorad Pavic, Dictionary of the Khazars

I've always thought that the Tokyo subway book looked very interesting.

Just finished The Elephant Vanishes. I hated it. A complete disappointment.

IF your up for P.K. Dick meets W. Gibson meets
Kafka try Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World...great book..One of those sci fi books that breaks genre and becomes something more..

dance, dance, dance is a bit odd but still good

south of the border..... (i think) is very good. bad memory

write you bastard. I've run out of books...

do you guys have a prefered translator?

i started the elephant vanishes and i tend to enjoy one translator's style over the other...can't remember their names tho.

but maybe that's just me.

quote:

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Originally posted by G.:
I've always thought that the Tokyo subway book looked very interesting.

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I've just started reading it, and it's fascinating, disturbing and moving. So much so that I haven't been able to read more than three of four of the interviews at one go.

I've seen this thread so long ago but never actually posted. Murakami is my favorite autotor gether with Neil Gaiman.

I read Underground while commuting on NY subway right after 9-11. it made me a little paranoid but nonetheless I liked it a lot. i like that both the victims and the Aum's followers stories are told. it's a very touching book.

My favorite from Murakami's book though are:
1)Wind-up bird chronicle
2)Dance-dance-dance (it's the continuation of wild ship chese but can be read by it-self too, very good stuff)
3)Hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world.
I'm so struck by murakami's titles they are all so evocative and fascinating. And my dream it's one day to be able to have a drink in the jazz club he owns in Japan, must be a very cool place!

Anybody wanna trade a book for my (a little worn) copy of The Elephant Vanishes? I didn't like it, so don't really want to keep it. I have several other Murakami books (although TEV is the only one I've read), so I may be trading them in the future as well.

Hm. Now here I am nearly three years older, and I love Murakami almost as much as my dear Mishima. Maybe I wasn't sensitive enough to the very specific emotions conveyed by the surrealistic elements of Murakami's work.

I'm reading A Wild Sheep Chase right now.

Just read Sputnik Sweetheart. It was great.
Also read Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore, Hardboiled.... and the Elephant Vanishes. I think Sputnik may just be my favourite.

I confess I abandoned Norwegian Wood about two-thirds of the way through - and I hardly ever do that to a book.

Read "A Wild Sheep Chase" before "Dance, Dance, Dance." It'll make (a little) more sense.

I absolutely loved Norwegian Wood and I liked Sputnik Sweetheart. I really need to read more of his work. I'll probably pick up The Wind-up Bird Chronicle next.

I've read almost everything of his. Just one or two more to go. I read Hard-Boiled Wonderland first, and that remains my favorite. It really blew me away. My second-favorite is Wind-up Bird Chronicle.
Underground I thought was very interesting--he does nonfiction pretty well. Sadly, some of his most recent fiction has not interested me at all.