A Wild Sheep Chase was the first Murakami that I read, and it's a big one for me; I think of Hard-boiled Wonderland as my favourite, but it's A Wild Sheep Chase that, over time, came most iconically to symbolise his novels and general style and effect in my mind.
Actually, it's a lot to live up to. But, ten years on, it stands up. That interplay between his attention to the phenomena of the ordinary - the details of colours and weather, the mundane textures of individual moments, hours, days - and the way that the extraordinary intrudes through the very spaces that mark one's sense of alienation from the real, it still has its effect. Breeziness and weight, disconnection and sorrow.
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In part read last Saturday afternoon lying out in sunny Carlton Gardens, Beatles and then Coldplay.
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Also, having only very recently read Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973, his first two novels - and the other two in the so-called 'Rat trilogy' - before this one, I now have the chance to go through all of them in order - which I very well may.
Actually, it's a lot to live up to. But, ten years on, it stands up. That interplay between his attention to the phenomena of the ordinary - the details of colours and weather, the mundane textures of individual moments, hours, days - and the way that the extraordinary intrudes through the very spaces that mark one's sense of alienation from the real, it still has its effect. Breeziness and weight, disconnection and sorrow.
***
In part read last Saturday afternoon lying out in sunny Carlton Gardens, Beatles and then Coldplay.
***
Also, having only very recently read Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973, his first two novels - and the other two in the so-called 'Rat trilogy' - before this one, I now have the chance to go through all of them in order - which I very well may.
