Haruki Murakami fans discussion

In an homage to Murakami, I am currently reading the novella Slow Boat by Hideo Furukawa, eng tr by David Boyd.

In the liner notes Furukawai writes, “This book demands explanation. You open it up to find the title on the title page. Fair enough. But then there’s a subtitle under it. A strange subtitle—right? You keep going, but the Contents page is no less strange. Some readers might wonder: “Where have I seen these words before? They look kind of familiar.”
These chapter titles are borrowed. Phrases lifted from the work of another writer.”
…
“To take your love for the original and situate it in the present. Back to this book. To the subtitle: A Slow Boat to China RMX. A nod to Haruki Murakami’s unforgettable short story—“A Slow Boat to China”. The story where my story begins.
For me, Murakami is at the centre of it all—the roots of my soul.”

Excerpt From
Slow Boat
Hideo Furukawa
This material may be protected by copyright.

University of Michigan has a free open access book on Murakami:
Dances with Sheep: The Quest for Identity in the Fiction of Murakami Haruki by Matthew Carl Strecher. (a/o Nov 26)

You can access it here:
https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monog...

My last HM book for 2024 is the collection of essays What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. eng trs by Philip Gabriel. Covered is the time when he and his wife have a small jazz club and Harumi starts his writing career. This helped placed the mentioned workings in the context of his life at that time. The essays also discuss his personality and is insightful as to the themes of his (early) stories. I am only 1/3 way through so I will update this post upon completion.
I am looking forward to the Jan 2025 group read on The City and Its Uncertain Walls

I had started our group read for Jan 2025. The story seems similar to another by Murakami but I expected that. I have also started an audiobook of The Elephant Vanishes. The story is odd and I am not sure what I think about it yet. The MC reminds me of Felix Unger from the series The Odd Couple.

I am just starting the audiobook version of End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland: A New Translation. I have the printed copy also… somewhere in my stacks.

This will be my companion for the next week or two during morning walks. It has been on my wait list at the library for many weeks.

(Update) I found my copy of the new translation by Jay Rubin. Although the Library system had the new cover attached to the record of the audiobook, it is still the original translation by Alfred Birnbaum. What to do…. May listen to the audiobook and then read the new expanded translation.

The Japan Times had a good article on the new translation and some of the differences.
“Jay Rubin takes us back to Haruki Murakami's world”
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/...

I found a used copy, i.e. inexpensive, of Murakami’s Novelist as a Vocation today at the (somewhat) local book store.
I will slowly read through this. It is like a series of lectures to a small audience by HM.

I am waiting for copies of the two non-fiction books about HM and music. I will often play the music when it comes up in an HM work to “feel the scene” or, at least, get a sense of what HM is conveying with the music during the associated text.

One of the NF books is written with Seiji Ozawa, Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa. It is described as:
“
Haruki Murakami's passion for music runs deep. Before turning his hand to writing, he ran a jazz club in Tokyo, and from The Beatles' Norwegian Wood to Franz Liszt's Years of Pilgrimage, the aesthetic and emotional power of music permeates every one of his much-loved books. Now, in Absolutely on Music, Murakami fulfills a personal dream, sitting down with his friend, acclaimed conductor Seiji Ozawa, to talk, over a period of two years, about their shared interest. Transcribed from lengthy conversations about the nature of music and writing, here they discuss everything from Brahms to Beethoven, from Leonard Bernstein to Glenn Gould, from record collecting to pop-up orchestras, and much more. Ultimately this book gives readers an unprecedented glimpse into the minds of the two maestros. It is essential reading for book and music lovers everywhere.
“

The second book is by Jay Rubin, a long time translator of HM works, titled Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words.
“
As a young man, Haruki Murakami played records and mixed drinks at his Tokyo Jazz club, Peter Cat, then wrote at the kitchen table until the sun came up. He loves music of all kinds - jazz, classical, folk, rock - and has more than six thousand records at home. And when he writes, his words have a music all their own, much of it learned from jazz. Jay Rubin, a self-confessed fan, has written a book for other fans who want to know more about this reclusive writer. He reveals the autobiographical elements in Murakami's fiction, and explains how he developed a distinctive new style in Japanese writing. In tracing Murakami's career, he uses interviews he conducted with the author between 1993 and 2001, and draws on insights and observations gathered from over ten years of collaborating with Murakami on translations of his works.
“

I have not read either of these before but I though it would be interesting to take a more structured look into HM and his music references.

I am rereading the HM short story, “Abandoning a Cat: When Talking about My Father”. Originally read for the cat references, where cats are a recurring item in HM works. Now reading to explore the relationship with his father, especially the possibility of intergenerational trauma wrt WWII.

Super-Frog Saves Tokyo Is a Murakami short story, English version originally published June 1, 2002 by GQ Magazine, i think. It may be in one of the Murakami manga volumes.

The meaning of the story is murky and I think HM made up another Nietzsche quote like in Hear the Wing Sing, "the highest wisdom is to have no fear". I will need to search to see if the quote is real or not.

Beyond that, I liked the story and need to read it agai