Every year I read at least one Haruki Murakami book, I really enjoy his writing style and the huge contrast between the protagonist's seemingly simple, contained and borderline anti-social existence and the bizarre quest they end up embarking on.
His non-fiction book Underground - The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche is one book I keep returning to, it's a fascinating and sometimes disturbing account of the Tokyo sarin gas attacks told in two parts. The first half of the book contains first person accounts of witnesses and victims who were caught up in the terrorist attacks across multiple train stations. The second half of the book contains interviews with former members of the Aum cult.
I was hunting through the Harper's Magazine website trying to find a different story that I wanted to share here (sadly it's not available online.. I might scan it!) and stumbled across 'Postcard - Nothing is strange, a trip to Haruki Murakami's jazz club'.
If you're a Murakami fan it's full of goodies, including links to his first non-fiction book on Jazz, which has never been fully translated into English (three chapters are available here). I also loved the details of the jazz club he ran with his wife, which they called Peter Cat after their pet, apparently there were lots of cat-themed items in the club.
Interestingly, this isn't the first article I've read where a reporter tries to follow the steps of Murakami. A few years ago, when his most recent (and epic) book IQ84 was published for Western audiences, this New York Times journo travelled to Japan and planned his trip around Murakami's Japan - including both fictitious and real places. This is another article with excellent links, including everything from a songs on the first record Murakami bought, to photos in his office and to the short story that inspired IQ84 (which incidentally was included in This American Life's Valentine's Day online feature this year - it's 'Perfect Girl')
There's one Murakami fan item that I've been dying to get my hands on - a copy of a book that lists all of the meals prepared across all of the novels. Unfortunately it's only available in Japanese. But I am not the only one interested in the meals described in the books - there are blogs that recreate the meals and post photos! Restaurants too!
The pic above is from his memoir What I talk about when I talk about running.
A festival of Murakami links, thanks SG. Love Murakami. I've had his tome IQ84 parked for some time to read. Daunting. Being a jazz fan, I especially like the jazz related links you've put up, I've never seen these articles before. Peter Cat is such a great (and 1970s Tokyo!) name for a jazz club. When I visited Japan in 1984, and again in 1989 and 91, I visited quite a few Jazz cafes, or Jazz Kissa as they're called over there. Most were left over from the 1970s, with brownish decor, the aroma of coffee, cigarettes, and the vaguely mouldy cardboard of LP sleeves. One place was the size of a small bedroom, but with walls lined floor to ceiling with shelves of 1000s of LPs. You could ask the cafe owner to play an LP, but unless your request was for an unusual or rare release he ignored you. Here's an article from BBC travel about Tokyo's remaining Jazz Kissa - http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20121203-tokyos-jazz-kissa-survive
ReplyDeleteJazz Kissa - I bet my brother is going to be so upset when he finds out about these, having just come back from a Tokyo trip. I love that they were borne out of a lack of jazz radio stations and gigs. When I visited Japan, I was pretty mesmerised by the size of their bars, many were mini 8-12 seaters and obscurely themed. Tony and I accidentally stumbled into a Frank Zappa tribute bar in Kyoto (the owner had Frank Zappa inspired hair and facial hair!!) and the owner insisted on giving us an education, starting with 'Let me take you to the beach'. How sad that Murakami's jazz kissa doesn't exist anymore! I wonder if any of the cat paraphernalia survived...
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