The best summation of Murakami’s talents?
8/10
‘Dance Dance Dance‘ is probably the ideal place for any Murakami novice to start as it is a compelling summation of the author’s singular moods and preoccupations. It combines some of the themes of grief, loss and memory of novels like ‘Norweigan Wood‘, but less oppressively so, and the surreal metaphysical mysteries of ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle‘. The blurb quotes a reviewer from the Observer claiming similarities to Raymond Chandler and Blade Runner but this seems to be lazy journalistic shorthand. In reality, Murakami might be better described as a mish-mash of David Lynch’s metaphysical detective stories (particularly Twin Peaks, which this pre-dates slightly) and Bret Easton Ellis’ numbing vision of contemporary pop and consumer culture. Moreover, there is something unmistakably Murakami about his writing that makes him a singular reading experience. This is a sad, funny and at times frightening novel, not to mention a real page-turner. Recommended.
6 responses so far ↓
1 andrea // Apr 4, 2008 at 3:40 pm
This sounds really good, I’ll have to check if it’s translated into Spanish. I loved all the other Murakami books I read.
2 andrea // Apr 5, 2008 at 4:52 pm
The original is in Japanese, isn’t it? So if I’m going to read a translation I always go for my mother tongue. Well, not always, but I tend to do it. Apart from that, my mother loves Murakami too, so if we read his books in Spanish we only have to buy them once
3 Stewart // Aug 15, 2008 at 9:04 am
Dance Dance Dance was my starting point for Murakami and I can’t say I thought it the best place to start, especially with it being a sequel, as far as I’m aware, to A Wild Sheep Chase.
4 jamesd2 // Aug 15, 2008 at 10:12 am
Fair enough Stewart, but it didn’t spoil it really for me. I thought it was easier going than the labyrinthine metaphysical weirdness of ‘Wind Up Bird Chronicle’.
5 Stewart // Aug 15, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Amazingly, rather than buy ‘A Wild Sheep Chase’ in an effort to explain ‘Dance Dance Dance’, I chose ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle’ and have, about four years on, yet to read it.
6 James Dalrymple // Aug 16, 2008 at 9:48 am
‘… Chronicle’ is a very dark trip. Quite David Lynch in fact, but I couldn’t escape the feeling that it had been partly made up as it went along - anything could happen.
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