Haruki Muracucki

Paulo Coelho of japan (lowercase intentional)

>>9667639
Only one way to find out.

>>9667686
More like
>Hideo Kojima of /lit/

>>9667738
which book is his best?

>>9667639
Yes. Don't listen to the people who are triggered by the fact that his stories are fun to read.

>>9667639
you should read something, man. Real life is underwhelming most of the time.
Murakami is great.

>>9667639
Depends on your background and expectations.

If you expect deep literature, no. If you want "airport literature" that's better than young adult fiction, but not as demanding as serious literature, maybe he's your man.

Murakami is the equivalent of some restaurant chain who serves traditional-looking food, with nothing too original or low-class. It's above a fast-food joint, but don't fool yourself by thinking this is a Michelin-starred restaurant.

>>9667783
I read the back of norweigian wood in waterstones, you guys said it was comfy. I got triggered by him saying his university days were filled with sex and love for this one girl, so I put it down and felt a bit sadder for the rest of the day

>>9667789
You forgot to warn him that everything on the menu will taste extremely similar so don't visit too often.

has anyone read 1Q84?

>>9667639
I am Japanese. I live in Japan.
Do you like this writor?
In Japan he is no person.
No one likes him.
This is means you American are bad
for buy so many his books

>>9667813
Indeed.

>>9667856
Shamefur post.

>>9667639
it took me 4 books to realize he was a hack
if you still want to read him read nowergian wood or kafka

>>9667686
why would you compare both?

i've read Norwegian Wood, Kafka On the Shore and Sputnik Sweetheart (the best for me) so far.
I really liked them, because they were easy to read and it is good if you want to get deeper in the habit of reading. Like a good start to literature.

Kurt Vonnegut of Japan?

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>>9667639
I read Kafka On The Shore earlier this summer. It was shit.

>>9667755
IMO, Wind-Up Bird is his best followed by Kafka on the Shore, Sputnik Sweetheart, and Hardboiled.

>>9668100
>>9667997
can you actually provide criticism as to why you don't like him
>>9667830
I have. If you like Murakami quite a bit, it's worth it but, despite starting strong, it completely falls apart and has no ending which is pretty awful considering the length. It was disappointing.

THIS MAN
IN MY COUNTRY
HE IS NOTHING

I enjoyed the part about the war in Manchuria in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, other than that it was entertaining, I guess, but I didn't really win much from it.

His books have this really good sustained tone, which comes across even in translation. I don't think a terrible writer could do that.
/lit/ mostly just reees at him because he's popular and his books are entertaining and not too difficult to understand. Also he's baby's first nipper author so there's always the guy who's like "well kobo abe did it better you fucking pseud"

>>9668256
>which comes across even in translation
Hilariously that tone only comes across in translation and doesn't exist in Japanese.

I respect Japan, but I don't really like Murakami. I started 1Q84 and it seemed like I'm watching Fringe all over again. I respect his reference to 1984, and I respect his reference to Kafka, but I don't think that he is that good of a writer. I've also read Norwegian Wood until the middle, it wasn't bad, but the romance and eroticism part was kinda like the trashy nicholas sparks novels.
And yeah, all of the people that I know that like him are just trash.

>>9668136
my problem is how every main character is basically the same person, which is basically an alter-ego for murakami, with little to no difference between them

Just finished Kafka on the shore. I have to admit that I only enjoyed the first hundred pages or so. I started to realize that nothing would make sense at the end, and that things were not going to be explained at any point. I hate the "reader gives sense to the story" meme. I wasted hours reading about people having lunch and listening to music while refusing to think or even question the fantastic events going on around them and destroying their world. It is a shane because when I first read Murakami (his collection of short stories) I really enjoyed how he created a suspensful mood, dreamy-like, with fantastic elements but pretty human characters. The stories would finidh somehow without answering many questions, but you felt you had experienced something like a glimpse into a diferent world. I guess this only works in short stories, because you can finish multiple in one sit. But when you take the same effect, creating this suspense in which you feel something big is going to happen at any time, and then it never happens it's really frustating.

I also enjoyed Afrer Dark (the same happens here) but only because it is really short, and Murakami has this prose that seems like he's moving a camera around the characters.

>>9669031
Nakata and Hoshino are the best

huh
first time I'm coming to this board because I'm trying to see if you guys have a sticky or something detailing how to find pdfs easily because I wanna start reading After Dark and make literature a hobby again and I see this

What a coincidence :o

>>9669104
Their relation is good, both are pretty open and sincere, but they are both stupid (Nakata has reasons for). They have charm, but that's all they got, they are just pawns in the story, they are kind of empty. They are not interesting. And as readers, we have to witness every meal and sleep they have. They move in a direction just hoping to be the right one (and it always is). I don't know, if Murakami had given background to all the creatures he created in this novel-world that would be really exciting. Instead these creatures that are semigods or something similar, spend most of their dialogues expressing that they (Hoshino and Nakata) would never understand, and that's why it is better not to try or ask about it. For me that's treating your readers as idiots too, as some people that would never understand what is going on and that's why it is better not to write about and intead write about food, masturbation and music.

He's a hack

>>9669104
Hoshino is literally anime.

>>9667758
>Murakami
>fun to read
pick one

>>9667789
best review, not too fag, not too hater

>>9667856
>he is no person
kek

>>9667789
I think this description fits perfectly.

>>9667639
Read his old books until 1995. Then choose one of these: "Sputnik" or "Kafka" or 1Q84". That's it.

>>9667789
>food analogy

>>9667639
Norwegian Wood was tolerable, however Kafka was full blown lmao random, weird sex, wanderlust and name dropping musicians - the novel. Don't understand why /lit/ like it so much.

He is good with storytelling though I gotta admit.

>>9669031
I like it but I overall had the same feelings when I finish it.
Also the sex scenes were weird and kind of unnecessary.

>>9667639
Yes, but dont expect a dense lifechanging paradigm shift experience. It's simple writing that is imaginative and entertaining.

Murakami is an okay writer. He's mainly famous because he's a non-white author who isn't total shit. That alone catapults a person into prominence. But there are better Japanese. Ishiguro is more accessible, Shusaku Endo more deep, Kawabata more poetic.

Contrary to the middlebrow aesthetes posting in this thread, yes, he's an amazing and universal writer and well worth reading. Start with his Trilogy of the Rat, so you can see the progression through the 3 phases of his career also don't neglect his short stories as a lot of times he'll experiment with stuff in them to prepare to write a novel along a similar theme. His two post-modern masterpieces however, are Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (sadly abridged in English but still worth reading.)

>>9669115
After Dark owns

>>9669146
I think their relations, dialogues were funny to read. Also some Oshima dialogues were cool. But at the end I found those relations and dialogues much more interesting than the plot/theme story in itself.
I don't know if you've read another book from Murakami, but for what I read, this is at the bottom.

>>9667639
Japanese John Green, really.

>>9667639
Ryu Murakami best Murakami

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>>9667856
Favourite pasta of mine

>>9667639
I really enjoy Murakami and his novels are strangely comforting. I would recommend Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Wild Sheep Chase, Dance Dance Dance (sort of follow up to Wild Sheep Chase) and 1Q84 (which is rather long though)

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>>9670631
Teruaki Murakami is best Murakami

>>9667830
First Murakami I read, starts amazing, ends meh

>>9669339
Murakami would enjoy this food analogy.

>>9669511
>middlebrow aesthetes
Lol, Murakami is the embodiment of anything middle-brow.

Murakami is comfy-tier tbqh. It's not amazing, but he writes well enough.

>>9667799
i can't enjoy murakami for this reason, too alienating ;-;

>>9667856
Worst haiku ever

>>9674234
>>9667799
Is Wind up Bird like this? About to start it.

Yeah, but you'll soon understand that he is writing one book over and over.

>>9674543
No, it's about a cat running away, a man who quit his job cooking spaghetti and phone sex