I really like Murakami. There's something about the way he writes and tells stories that really clicks with me. I've read two of his novels already (Norwegian Wood and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle; loved the former and liked the latter) and both flew by very quickly. I enjoyed them enough that I made it a point to read more Murakami, so I decided to start with Hear the Wind Sing—his very first novel—and make my way forward chronologically from there.
I've read quite a bit of internet discussion on Murakami and the general consensus is that he tends to burn you out after you've read just a few of his books since he reuses so many of the same themes and tropes. I started to worry that maybe I was making a mistake picking this up, like I was 'wasting' my 2-3 Murakami books I'd get to enjoy before I got tired of him and wouldn't be able to enjoy later favorites of his such as Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Sputnik Sweetheart, or Kafka on the Shore—all of which I've heard much praise for and am looking forward to laying into.
I'm happy to say that wasn't the case. I expected a really rough book with Wind, as reception isn't nearly as positive as his later work, and Murakami himself has stated that he's not happy with the book and considers it relatively poor when compared to his post-Sheep work. I ended up liking it more than I expected. I was surprised how developed Murakami's prose already was. I had expected much rougher, but it reads similarly to the later novels that clicked so well with me.
His narrative and characters are very bare, though. It starts strongly when the narrator has an awkward first encounter with a nine fingered girl in which we are placed in media res which immediately grabbed me, but fails to evolve from there and becomes more and more scattered as the novel continues. The characters lack depth, the themes present are weakly explored, and Murakami is prone to stylistic tangents such as odd radio host monologues that don't seem to have much to do with anything, or the portions in which the narrator describes a zany fictional science fiction writer he enjoys (someone had been reading Slaughterhouse-Five around 1979). You can tell Murakami had trouble finding something at the core of this story to write about; something to pull all of these disparate portions of the narrative together. But I suppose that comes with the territory of a first novel by an untrained writer.
I don't regret reading this, but I am looking forward to making my way onward to later novels. It's worth a pick-up for Murakami fans looking to do a full read of his entire body of work like I am, but it's a decidedly poor place to start for the uninitiated.
⭐⭐
I've read quite a bit of internet discussion on Murakami and the general consensus is that he tends to burn you out after you've read just a few of his books since he reuses so many of the same themes and tropes. I started to worry that maybe I was making a mistake picking this up, like I was 'wasting' my 2-3 Murakami books I'd get to enjoy before I got tired of him and wouldn't be able to enjoy later favorites of his such as Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Sputnik Sweetheart, or Kafka on the Shore—all of which I've heard much praise for and am looking forward to laying into.
I'm happy to say that wasn't the case. I expected a really rough book with Wind, as reception isn't nearly as positive as his later work, and Murakami himself has stated that he's not happy with the book and considers it relatively poor when compared to his post-Sheep work. I ended up liking it more than I expected. I was surprised how developed Murakami's prose already was. I had expected much rougher, but it reads similarly to the later novels that clicked so well with me.
His narrative and characters are very bare, though. It starts strongly when the narrator has an awkward first encounter with a nine fingered girl in which we are placed in media res which immediately grabbed me, but fails to evolve from there and becomes more and more scattered as the novel continues. The characters lack depth, the themes present are weakly explored, and Murakami is prone to stylistic tangents such as odd radio host monologues that don't seem to have much to do with anything, or the portions in which the narrator describes a zany fictional science fiction writer he enjoys (someone had been reading Slaughterhouse-Five around 1979). You can tell Murakami had trouble finding something at the core of this story to write about; something to pull all of these disparate portions of the narrative together. But I suppose that comes with the territory of a first novel by an untrained writer.
I don't regret reading this, but I am looking forward to making my way onward to later novels. It's worth a pick-up for Murakami fans looking to do a full read of his entire body of work like I am, but it's a decidedly poor place to start for the uninitiated.
⭐⭐
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