Image and topic say it all, I have all three and debating which to read to kick off the new year. I wish I could do wild sheep chase or south of the border again but Ive read them both.Also I have the missing chapters downloaded and annotated WUBC but is it really necessary to read it this way or can I just read what’s in the shitty translation?General Murakami thread if you like.
>>24983314IQ84 is garbage. Maybe I'm just aged out from enjoying Murkami.
>>24983343How old are you?
>>24983314the only somewhat good murakami is norwegian wood everything else is garbage.
>>24983314Pic related
>>24983377His short stories are great and A Wild Sheep Chase/Dance Dance Dance are good. The only book I've read by him that I'd consider trash is Sputnik Sweetheart.
>>2498334687
>>24983377(You)>>24983410>Sputnik SweetheartOne of my favorites lol
I really liked WUBC. The war arc stuff really appealed to the history nerd in me. I’m a simp for murakami though, so I’m biased. But I think it was one of his best. Honorable mention for Hardboiled Wonderland.
do you think i'll get arthoes on my dick if i 5 stars every book of his on goodreads?
>>24983427Not six7?
>>24983471Read that last year and didnt really click with it but after reading The City and Its Uncertain Walls this year I kinda want to revisit it. I loved the latter after expecting it to drag since I had weird feelings about the former.
>>24983475Give the short story collections 3 stars and say they insist upon themselves and your dick is basically already moist from their pheromones
>>24983314Men without women, specifically a short story called 'kino'. Commendatore is garbage, I donated two part of commendatore book to my local library lol>>249834796 7
>>24983314I enjoyed part 1 of commendatore, but by the end of part 2 I was so annoyed, that I swore I will never read murakami again. The story was interesting at first but stretching it across two volumes just killed it. If he had comprised the story in one volume under 300 pages it might have been a banger.
>>24983377Pleb, his short stories are the best thing he writes by far. Makes sense considering he got his start translating Raymond Carver
>>24983314Skip Muracummi and read Mishima. Start with Spring Snow.
>>24983314Im kicking 2026 off with Norweigan wood
>>24983718I found men without women underwhelming on the whole.
The most overrated writer ever, if you read him in Japanese he sounds exactly like a hafu; his prose and use of words are like that of an infant when you compare him to, for an example, Mishima
>>24983938I start every morning the same way
>>24984027>>24983925(You)>>24983907Carver sucks though, not even baiting. His characters are presented in a comically unsubtle and over the top manner yet supposed to be taken as genuine and realistic. It’s like watching a sitcom when it tries to get serious only without the crutch of being a low brow comedy punching above it’s typical intellectual weight.His only short story I find compelling is the birthday cake one and that’s wholly because of the plot and inherent emotion of the situation. Cathedral, the story not the collection, is decent enough too. Richards Yates is a far better writer of Americana both in short story format and novel length.
>>24984110I've only read the story Cathedral by Carver and it was pretty great. I still think Murakami's Barn Burning started off as an homage to Cathedral. They have similar set-upsBut I still think Murakami is my favorite short story writer in the modern era by a longshot and ironically what makes them great is the same thing that makes his novel trash. His ideas work best in small contained stories. When they get drawn out to novel length it loses the charm. You can find almost any of his short stories hosted online on various edu websites if you Google so keep that in mind if you'd like to check out some of my favorites. Favorite Murakami short stories are - The Second Bakery Attack (this is just pure fun, go read it now and have your day brightened)Barn Burning On Seeing a 100% Perfect Girl (I think that's the title)It's been years since I've opened a collection of his, I know I'm forgetting some I enjoyed. I remember my favorite collection was "The Elephant Vanishes"
>>24984162>makes his novels trashWe have no middle ground to discuss anything. My only question is why enter this thread?
>>249833141Q84 begins, in story, in April so I’d hold off. But it does end in November/December iirc
I really liked Killing Commendatore.It's full of reused themes from earlier books, but somehow I didn't mind.
