I'd intended to hold off on reading this until I'd tracked down South of the Border, West of the Sun, Sputnik Sweetheart, After The Quake and The Elephant Vanishes (the remaining substantial books of Murakami's work which I've not yet read and which seem to be widely available in translation), but that was always going to be a difficult one to hold to once trang went and lent it to me...so, a compromise - I read it, but skipped over the bits concerning the books I'm not yet familiar with.
Anyway, as anticipated, I enjoyed it. Rubin, being a translator and fan of Murakami's rather than a professional literary critic or academic, writes clearly and straightforwardly, and reading the book did make me feel that I was sharing the thoughts of a fellow fan. The level of analysis isn't particularly deep, meaning that I'd already worked out most of what Rubin had to say for myself, but the book does a good job of canvassing important themes and motifs, and there were a few 'ah' moments, as certain comments of Rubin's (or, in some cases, Murakami's) illuminated my own readings of the books (the major thing being the emphasis on Murakami as a Japanese author, with corresponding concerns - which in retrospect is certainly an important aspect of his writing, but one which I'd tended to gloss over).
