Murakami and All That Jazz

Each time I finish reading a book by Haruki Murakami I swear that I am not going to fall for his formula again. Just like Bollywood script-writers, Murakami too has a set of predictable ingredients in his books - a protagonist who loves eating / cooking, a least one cat, cocktails, jazz music, and a storyline that borders between the vague, the mysterious and the paranormal.

Men Without Women is not a full blown novel but a collection of short stories. It is, as the blurb, says pithily - "...about the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are lovesick doctors, students, ex-boyfriends, actors, bartenders, and even Kafka’s Gregor Samsa, brought together to tell stories that speak to us all."

Stories that speak to us all? I am not so sure about that, but then maybe I am just an outlier, a literary junkie who returns returns every now and then for his Murakami fix, to escape the dreary world of non-fiction.

What I love about Murakami's writing is the way it seems to anticipate and guide a readers sense of curiosity. I like the way it describes the familiar cityscapes of Japan - especially Tokyo, and most of all I enjoy the way it introduces you to music - especially jazz classics. As in - “His voice was low and smooth and reminded me of Barry White’s music...” At this point I can read no further until I have searched the net and found out what is so 'low and smooth' about Barry White's music!

In this collection of seven short-stories, I liked "Kino" the best. This one follows the oft repeated, semi-biographical theme of a guy who tries to reboot his life by setting up a bar, on a street behind the Nezu Museum. It is also the story with the largest collection of jazz classics.

Once again I have finished reading the book by telling myself that I am not going to touch another Murakami. It is a promise I am bound to break in a few months.

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LINKS

* Music from the book "Men Without Women":

> Barry White - Greatest Hits - https://youtu.be/Re_f1UOWyNg

> Coleman Hawkins - "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" - amazing bass solo by Major Holley - https://youtu.be/Ylf7s2_tOxo

> Billie Holiday - "Georgia on my mind" -- https://youtu.be/QkYt9r_B8Qw

> Erroll Gardner-  "Moonglow" -- https://youtu.be/yLWbuDFSZ58

> Buddy DeFranco - "I Can't Get Started" -- https://youtu.be/AiqLALvz8Sc

> Teddy Wilson

> Vic Dickenson

> Buck Clayton

> Ben Webster - solo " My Romance" -- https://youtu.be/mgBdid4aFgI

> Rock or Blues - Derek and the Dominos, Otis Reading, The Doors

> Clifford Brown's solos (jazz)

> Percy Faith - "A Summer Place" --(Greatest Hits) - https://youtu.be/DOko--B4CNo

> Francis Lai - "13 Jours en France" -- https://youtu.be/Qz6R9zEfzd0

> 101 Strings - All tracks - https://youtu.be/4Yd2PzoF1y8

> Paul Mauriat - Greatst hits - https://youtu.be/vEAiwmVkL-U

> Billy Vaughan - https://youtu.be/tUJPg3wa1LU

> Frank Chacksfield - Top tracks - https://youtu.be/VATF93NMujk

> Raymond Lefévre - https://youtu.be/B2M6FYWkB8A

> Montovani - https://youtu.be/e7gMxhVPgCs

> Henry Mancini - "Moon River"  - waiting around the bend, my Huckleberry friend... https://youtu.be/WZ8j-X1hq1I

> New -- Gorillaz https://youtu.be/uAOR6ib95kQ of Black Eyed Peas - https://youtu.be/vMLk_T0PPbk

* 2009 post - "Music and Murakami" - https://dinakarr.blogspot.com/2009/07/music-murakami.html

Listen Up!

I just discovered an entirely new dimension to "reading books".

You can be washing the dishes, ironing the clothes or just pacing up and down on the terrace, while your mind is far-far away -- on a steamer chugging down the Congo river in Africa, or a strange hotel room in Sapporo-Japan or on a chilled pina-colada on the sun-kissed beaches of Hawaii. Audio books are just amazing.

All you have to do is to download the MP3 files on to your mobile phone, keep a set of earphones handy, and plug in whenever you have a few minutes to spare during the day.

My first audio book "Arabian Days and Nights" by Naguib Mahfouz,  the second, VS Napaul's "A Bend in the River". Today I finished my third book - Haruki Murakami's "Dance, Dance, Dance".

The two were quite distinct from each other. Naipaul's book was set in Africa and narrated by a person who seem to have really put himself into the shoes of Salim, the main protagonist, an ethnic Indian trader trying to make a name for himself in the dark interiors of Africa, at a town located at the 'bend of a river'. The book was fairly straightforward and so was the narrative.

Murakami's book was far more complex. It had almost all the usual ingredients - complex emotions, gourmet food, wine, sex, music, mysterious women, and surreal experiences. Cats were conspicuously absent. However, in narrator here is just not able to do justice to the women characters, all of whom uniformly sounded like transvestites.

Yet, this is just a minor quibble.

The convenience - and the advantages - of having interesting books readily available in your mobile helps you squeeze out much more out of your 24-hours, than ever before. You can give your eyes too some rest, for good measure!

Murakami - Lost in Translation

This observation struck a chord:

The Japanese language acquires much of its beauty and strength from indirectness—or what English-speakers call vagueness, obscurity, or implied meaning. Subjects are often left unmentioned in Japanese sentences, and onomatopoeia, with vernacular sounds suggesting meaning, is a virtue often difficult if not impossible to replicate in English.

Is there any other language that uses onomatopoeia so extensively?

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LINKS:

Kelts, Roland (2013): LOST IN TRANSLATION?  The New Yorker, 9 May 2013 --- url -- http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/05/lost-in-translation.html

Japanese Onomatopoeia -- http://www.tofugu.com/guides/japanese-onomatopoeia-guide/