#harukimurakami — Public Fediverse posts

End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland review – Murakami’s marvel brilliantly brought to life
By Arifa Akbar

Barbican theatre, LondonWith a dual narrative set in Tokyo and a world of dreams, Philippe Decouflé’s epic production is as bewitching as its balletic unicorns

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/oct/09/end-of-the-world-and-hard-boiled-wonderland-review-haruki-murakami-barbican-theatre-london

#Theatre #Stage #Culture #HarukiMurakami #Books #TheGuardian #ArifaAkbar

https://www.europesays.com/cz/237108/ Kdo získá Nobelovku za literaturu? Favoritkou je Číňanka, která přežila brutální komunistické represe #Chudoba #Čína #Entertainment #HarukiMurakami #historie #Hladomor #Japonsko #komunisté #Literatura #NobelovaCena #NobelovaCenaZaLiteraturu #Zábava

https://www.europesays.com/se/407995/ FT om Nobelpriset: ”Blir ofta hånat” #AnneCarson #CanXue #Entertainment #GeraldMurnane #HarukiMurakami #IngridCarlberg #Litteratur #Nobelpriset #NobelprisetILitteratur #SE #SimonKuper #Svenska #SvenskaAkademien #Sverige #Sweden #Swedish #ThomasPynchon #Underhållning

#VendrediLecture (du samedi) 📚️ 'All I did was go to the library to borrow some books': another #HarukiMurakami to my marathon, this one reminded me of 'Història de la lectura' amb el #JaumeSubirana…

El mono de Shinagawa, de Murakami: la mujer que no podía decir su nombre

Retomo la serie que tenía parada desde agosto: ir comentando por aquí, de vez en cuando, los relatos de Sauce ciego, mujer dormida, de Haruki Murakami. He leído el libro entero, así que voy eligiendo los que más me piden que escriba sobre ellos.

Después del hombre que desaparece en una escalera, de Tony Takitani y de El séptimo hombre, toca el más raro de todos. Y es el que más tiene que ver con lo que hago cuando no estoy leyendo.

Una mujer que no consigue decir su nombre

Mizuki Ando lleva casi un año con un problema que no sabe cómo contar. De vez en cuando, cuando alguien le pregunta cómo se llama, no se acuerda. No es que dude ni que se trabuque: es que su propio nombre desaparece.

Ha buscado apaños. Se ha escrito el nombre en cosas que lleva encima, ha aprendido a ganar tiempo mientras lo recuerda. Pero el problema vuelve, y empieza a temer lo que teme cualquiera: que sea el principio de algo peor, una enfermedad que se lleve todo lo demás.

Así que hace lo razonable, que es pedir ayuda. Y ahí es donde el relato se tuerce, porque la explicación que encuentra no está en ningún manual de medicina: hay un mono que roba nombres.

No voy a contar cómo termina. Merece la pena llegar ahí sin saberlo.

Por qué este relato me toca de cerca

Investigo cómo se habla de las personas migrantes en internet, y una de las primeras cosas que aprendes cuando te metes en esto es que nombrar no es describir, es decidir.

La misma persona puede ser un inmigrante, un extranjero, un recién llegado, un ilegal o un menor no acompañado. Ninguna de esas palabras nombra a alguien distinto: nombran al mismo señor de manera que pienses una cosa u otra sobre él. Elegir una es tomar partido, aunque quien la usa jure que solo está describiendo la realidad.

Y hay un escalón más: a veces directamente no se nombra a nadie. Se habla de la avalancha, de la oleada, del problema. Ahí ya no hay personas, hay un fenómeno meteorológico. Quien desaparece del texto también desaparece un poco de la conversación.

Por eso este cuento se me quedó marcado. Murakami convierte en literal algo que en el mundo real pasa de forma mucho más sutil: quitarle el nombre a alguien es quitarle parte de lo que es. En el relato lo hace un mono. Fuera de la ficción lo hacemos nosotros, con las palabras que elegimos, casi siempre sin darnos cuenta.

El Murakami que a mí me gusta

Este relato es la mejor muestra de lo que hace bien Murakami. Empieza en el mundo más corriente que existe: una mujer con un problema de salud que pide cita. Todo es gris y creíble. Y en algún punto, sin aviso ni fanfarria, aparece algo imposible y nadie se escandaliza demasiado.

Es lo mismo que pasaba con el hombre que se esfumaba en un tramo de escaleras. Lo fantástico no llega como un golpe de efecto, llega como quien viene a arreglar la caldera.

Y funciona porque el elemento raro nunca está ahí para sorprender. Está para nombrar algo que sin él no se podría decir: la soledad heredada en Tony Takitani, la culpa de sobrevivir en El séptimo hombre, y aquí la sensación de no saber muy bien quién eres cuando llevas años sin mirar hacia dentro.

Por dónde entrar, si no lo has leído

Si nunca has leído a Murakami, este no es el mejor sitio para empezar, aunque sea el más llamativo. Yo empezaría por el relato que da título al libro, que es más sereno, y dejaría este para cuando ya te hayas acostumbrado a su manera de colar lo imposible dentro de lo cotidiano.

Y si vienes de leer cuento realista, del tipo del que vengo hablando estas semanas con Carver, el salto es grande pero menos de lo que parece. Los dos escriben sobre gente corriente a la que le falta algo. Carver deja ese hueco en silencio. Murakami mete un mono dentro.

Os pregunto, que me interesa: ¿os ha pasado alguna vez que un cuento con un elemento imposible os haya explicado algo real mejor que uno realista? A mí con este me ocurrió, y sigo pensando en ello cada vez que leo comentarios de mi corpus. Contádmelo en los comentarios.

Si os gustan estas lecturas, escribo también en mi Substack, donde voy dejando notas de lo que leo entre entrada y entrada. Y para no perderos las próximas, podéis suscribiros al blog aquí abajo.

"Pellizqué un pedazo de muffin que me sirvió, recién pasado por el horno y lo engullí.Me acerqué la taza a los labios y sorbí el café caliente.Qué música tan maravillosa; qué lujo escuchar a #PaulDesmond mientras la nieve caía al otro lado de la ventana"
#AprendiendoJazz con #HarukiMurakami
#JimHall
https://youtu.be/wL03GKD5K5s?is=NeP1F4ovVwazKvbU

“The Tale of KAHO” appears at Iranian bookstores

TEHRAN- “The Tale of KAHO,” Japanese writer Haruki Murakami’s latest novel, has recently been translated into Persian.  Araz Barseqian…
#Conflict #Conflicts #War #“TheTaleofKAHO” #ArazBarseqian #HarukiMurakami #Iran #Iranianbookstores #middleeast #middleeastcrisis #Tehran
https://www.europesays.com/3198478/

“The Tale of KAHO” appears at Iranian bookstores

TEHRAN- “The Tale of KAHO,” Japanese writer Haruki Murakami’s latest novel, has recently been translated into Persian.  Araz Barseqian…
#EuropeSays #Headlines #News #Europe #Europa #EU #Tehran #“TheTaleofKAHO” #ArazBarseqian #HarukiMurakami #Iran #Iranianbookstores
https://www.europesays.com/iran/251737/

https://www.europesays.com/iran/251737/ “The Tale of KAHO” appears at Iranian bookstores #“TheTaleOfKAHO” #ArazBarseqian #HarukiMurakami #Iran #IranianBookstores #Tehran

𝗪𝗮𝘆𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗟𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲𝗿: "𝗠𝗲𝗻 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻" 𝗯𝘆 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝘂𝗸𝗶 𝗠𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗸𝗮𝗺𝗶 -

3-Word Review:

- Quiet
- Self-Deluded
- Poignant

Frictional Posture:

- Across the stories, to what degree are Murakami's narrators blame-worthy for their alienation?

#bookreview #bookrecommendations #readinglist #literature #books #book #reading #bookstagram #frictionalreading #3words #harukimurakami #menwithoutwomen #shortstories #japaneseliterature

Barbican to Celebrate Haruki Murakami with European Premiere

The Barbican is to celebrate Haruki Murakami this October with the European premiere of the first-ever stage adaptation…
#London #Britain #UnitedKingdom #UK #GB #England #Headlines #News #Europe #EU #CityofLondon #Barbican #BattleRoyale #HarukiMurakami #japaneseculture #JapaneseTheatre #Londonevents #PhilippeDecouflé #SimonMcBurney #TatsuyaFujiwara #Theatre
https://www.europesays.com/gbr/london/11439/

Ressenyes: Haruki Murakami. El setè home i altres contes, de Jean-Christophe Deveney (guió) i Pierre-Marie Grille-Liou "PMGL" (dibuix i color), adaptant nou contes de Haruki Murakami, amb traducció d'Albert Nolla, Marina Bornas i Jordi Mas López, i publicat per #EditorialEmpúries #Grup62

https://www.comicat.cat/2026/08/ressenyes-haruki-murakami-el-sete-home.html

#HarukiMurakami
#HarukiMurakami9Stories
#CòmicEnCatalà

Prototyping a Haruki Murakami based #DMG-01 game. I will probably never finish it. But I need it. #gameboy #harukimurakami #theLibrary #theWorkshop

Tokyo Composer Bajune Tobeta Shares New Single “Memories” From ‘Anechoic’

Photo Credit: Eri Inoue Bajune Tobeta is turning silence into a compositional tool. The Tokyo-based composer, producer and…
#EuropeSays #Japan #JP #Tokyo #ANA #AOKItakamasa #BajuneTobeta #BANDAINAMCO #ChristianFennesz #CROIXCo. #DenisBlackham #electricsheep #ErikSatie #Fitbit #harukimurakami #HoshinoResorts #Ltd. #RyuichiSakamoto #StationaryTravels #TheOrchard
https://www.europesays.com/japan/62969/

‘One-Punch Man’ Vol. 37 Rises to No. 1 on Japan Book Hot 100

ONE and Yusuke Murata’s One-Punch Man Vol. 37 climbs from No. 7 to No. 1 on the Billboard…
#EuropeSays #Japan #JP #harukimurakami #HiromuArakawa #Nihon #socialmedia #YusukeMurata
https://www.europesays.com/japan/62947/

Eiichiro Oda’s ‘ONE PIECE’ Vol. 115 Rises to No. 1 on Japan Book Hot 100

Eiichiro Oda’s ONE PIECE Vol. 115 climbs 2-1 on the Billboard Japan Book Hot 100, on the chart…
#EuropeSays #Japan #JP #EiichiroOda #harukimurakami #HiromuArakawa #socialmedia #YoshihiroTogashi
https://www.europesays.com/japan/61359/

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.
-- Haruki Murakami

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #HarukiMurakami #Books #Nature

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Panopainting #Seashells #Everglades #Florida

“Forse per il fatto che ho aspettato tanto a lungo, io cerco qualcosa di assolutamente perfetto. Perciò non è facile”.
“Un amore perfetto?”
“No, nemmeno io aspiro a tanto ... https://cctm.website/haruki-murakami-un-amore-perfetto/

Haruki Murakami

da Norwegian Wood, Einaudi, 1987

#harukimurakami #libri #amore #cctmwebsite #anoipiaceleggere #leggere

Yoshihiro Togashi’s ‘HUNTER×HUNTER’ Vol. 39 Debuts at No. 1 on Japan Book Hot 100

Yoshihiro Togashi’s HUNTER×HUNTER Vol. 39 bows at No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Book Hot 100 chart released…
#EuropeSays #Japan #JP #EiichiroOda #harukimurakami #Nihon #socialmedia #YoshihiroTogashi
https://www.europesays.com/japan/55936/

‘The tale of KAHO,’ a Haruki Murakami novel with a female protagonist, goes on sale

TOKYO – Haruki Murakami’s new book went on sale in Japan on Friday, but dozens of enthusiastic fans…
#EuropeSays #Japan #JP #Tokyo #Entertainment #harukimurakami #ScarlettJohansson #WorldNews
https://www.europesays.com/japan/52660/

Murakami says his novels are ‘different’ from AI literature

Haruki Murakami has said that he writes novels that are “completely different” from what artificial intelligence can create,…
#EuropeSays #Japan #JP #books #harukimurakami #literature #Nihon
https://www.europesays.com/japan/52580/

Haruki Murakami has said that he writes novels that are "completely different" from what artificial intelligence can create, as his first book in three years hit shelves in Japan. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2026/07/03/books/haruki-murakami-new-book/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #culture #books #harukimurakami #books #literature

https://www.europesays.com/cz/137334/ Mladé ženě se začnou dít podivné věci. Murakami napsal první román s hrdinkou #Entertainment #HarukiMurakami #Japonsko #Literatura #SvětováLiteratura #Zábava

Haruki Murakami’s first novel with female protagonist released at midnight launch in Tokyo

Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…
#EuropeSays #Japan #JP #Tokyo #harukimurakami #JapanMurakamiNewBook
https://www.europesays.com/japan/52410/

Fans mark the release of new Haruki Murakami novel at a midnight event in Tokyo

TOKYO – Hours before Haruki Murakami’s new book was set to go on sale in Japan on Friday,…
#EuropeSays #Japan #JP #Tokyo #Entertainment #harukimurakami #ScarlettJohansson #WorldNews
https://www.europesays.com/japan/52158/

Haruki Murakami fans gather in Tokyo for the release of his new novel ‘The tale of KAHO’

TOKYO (AP) — Hours before Haruki Murakami’s new book was set to go on sale in Japan on…
#EuropeSays #Japan #JP #Tokyo #BooksandLiterature #Entertainment #Fiction #Generalnews #harukimurakami #MizukiShirota #ScarlettJohansson #WorldNews
https://www.europesays.com/japan/52146/

Fans mark the release of new Haruki Murakami novel at a midnight event in Tokyo

TOKYO – Hours before Haruki Murakami’s new book was set to go on sale in Japan on Friday,…
#EuropeSays #Japan #JP #Tokyo #Entertainment #harukimurakami #ScarlettJohansson #WorldNews
https://www.europesays.com/japan/52134/

Fans mark the release of new Haruki Murakami novel at a midnight event in Tokyo

TOKYO (AP) — Hours before Haruki Murakami’s new book was set to go on sale in Japan on…
#EuropeSays #Japan #JP #Tokyo #harukimurakami #picturebookauthor
https://www.europesays.com/japan/52120/

𝑻𝑩𝑹 𝑷𝒊𝒍𝒆: 𝑱𝒖𝒍𝒚 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒔 -

A wide range of stuff this month--a bit of shelf-clearing, a bit of the overdue, and some of the essential!

#books #literature #bookreviews #bookworm #tbrpile #tbrlist #geraldvizenor #theheirsofcolumbus #cheriedimaline #themarrowthieves #tommypico #irl #mattcardin #torouseleviathan #emilferris #myfavoritethingismonsters #monaawad #bunny #saulbellow #thebellarosaconnection #harukimurakami #menwithoutwomen #paulauster #timbuktu

Egal, wie weit du reist, du kannst dir selbst niemals entkommen.
(Haruki #Murakami)
#psychotHHerapie #Zitat #Zitate #Verantwortung #Leben #Schmerz #HarukiMurakami

https://www.jangoeritz.de/zitate

https://www.europesays.com/cz/132806/ Co čekat od nového Murakamiho románu? Máme pro vás exkluzivní ukázku – Aktuálně.cz #Entertainment #HarukiMurakami #kniha #Odeon #Ukázka #Zábava

Haruki Murakami und der Rhythmus des Schreibens

Ich zeige diese Woche, wie man beim Schreiben in den Rhythmus und damit in den Flow kommt. Dazu habe ich einen «Taktgeber» gebaut.
https://www.matthiaszehnder.ch/wochenkommentar/haruki-murakami-und-der-rhythmus-des-schreibens/
#Flow #HarukiMurakami #KünstlicheIntelligenz #Schreiben #Kreativität

Crítica: Sauce ciego, mujer dormida (Saules Aveugles Femme Endormie) | #RollingStoneES

https://es.rollingstone.com/critica-sauce-ciego-mujer-dormida-saules-aveugles-femme-endormie/

#animación #canadá #cineytv #crítica #francia #harukimurakami #reseña #reviews #sauceciegomujerdormida #saulesaveuglesfemmeendormie #thematchfactory

https://www.europesays.com/si/131129/ Haruki Murakami: Mesto in njegovo negotovo obzidje #DomenKavčič #Entertainment #HarukiMurakami #JaponskiRoman #KnjižnaRecenzija #MestoInNjegovoNegotovoObzidje #SI #Slovene #Slovenia #Slovenija #Slovenščina #Zabava

Haruki Murakami's upcoming "The Tale of Kaho" will be released this summer in Japanese (the English version won't be out until next year). Fans are looking forward to another game of Murakami bingo — cross off if you spot an empty well, missing cat or erotic ear. Thomas Caffrey writes for @TheConversationUS about why repetition isn't always a flaw, and how this book is likely to differ from Murakami's past 15 novels.

https://flip.it/OT8WqA

#HarukiMurakami #Literature #Writing

29 de mayo de 2009.Publicación de 1Q84 de Haruki Murakami #efemérides #mayo #harukimurakami #shorts #1q84 #novela #literatura

MIST0426/ATONALOSPREY-HARUKI_MURAKAMI-SPUTNIK_SWEETHEART

Mistigram: Literature! Now that I’ve got your attention, this monochrome #teletext adaptation of a cover art illustration to Japanese author #HarukiMurakami’s 1999 novel #SputnikSweetheart was drawn by @atonalosprey and included in last month’s books-themed MIST0426 artpack collection.

Mistodon: Literature! Now that I've got your attention, this monochrome #teletext adaptation of a cover art illustration to Japanese author #HarukiMurakami's 1999 novel #SputnikSweetheart was drawn by @atonalosprey and included in last month's books-themed MIST0426 artpack collection.

#VendrediLecture 📚️ Plongée dans le métro de Tokyo, durant l'attentat au gaz sarin en 1995 par la secte Aum Shinrikyo : 'Underground' (アンダーグラウンド · 1997–1998), écrit par #HarukiMurakami

#VendrediLecture 📚️ #HarukiMurakami to publish first novel to feature a woman as the lead character. The Tale of Kaho, out in July, will be 16th novel by Japanese author who has faced criticism for portrayal of women

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/apr/24/haruki-murakami-first-novel-to-feature-woman-sole-protagonist-the-tale-of-kaho

Haruki Murakami to publish first novel to feature woman as lead character https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/apr/24/haruki-murakami-first-novel-to-feature-woman-sole-protagonist-the-tale-of-kaho #HarukiMurakami #Books #Culture #Japan #WorldNews

Fans of Haruki Murakami, mark your calendars: The author's new novel, "The Tale of Kaho," arrives July 3 with a female protagonist navigating surreal encounters. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2026/04/24/books/haruki-murakami-novel-release-the-tale-of-kaho/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #culture #books #literature #books #harukimurakami

Japanese author Haruki Murakami returns: Why ‘The Tale of KAHO’ is special? https://english.mathrubhumi.com/features/books/haruki-murakami-new-novel-the-tale-of-kaho-july-release-pa81e1lj?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #HarukiMurakami #TheTaleOfKAHO #BookRelease #Literature

« Un relent de corps humain imprégnait toute la pièce. Non, ce n'était pas une odeur de corps, car au-delà d'un certain point, cette odeur avait renoncé à son origine et fusionné avec le temps, avec la lumière. Des piles de vieux livres et de documents encombraient la vaste pièce dont on ne voyait quasiment plus le plancher. »
#HarukiMurakami, La Course au Mouton Sauvage. #vendredilecture

Peanuts In Coke??? Netizens Try To Fathom The Flavor Of Viral Combo That Has A Haruki Murakami Connection

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://in.mashable.com/culture/107967/peanuts-in-coke-netizens-try-to-fathom-the-flavor-of-viral-combo-that-has-a-haruki-murakami-connecti

Peanuts In Coke??? Netizens Try To Fathom The Flavor Of Viral Combo That Has A Haruki Murakami Connection

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://in.mashable.com/culture/107967/peanuts-in-coke-netizens-try-to-fathom-the-flavor-of-viral-combo-that-has-a-haruki-murakami-connecti

Through Haruki Murakami and a Tokyo-to–New York performance, hints of how Japan reinterpreted jazz. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2026/03/29/music/haruki-murakami-jazz-japan/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #culture #music #jazz #harukimurakami #newyork

Not Quite Kafkaesque – All Atmosphere, No Gravity, All Symbol, No Substance: On Reading Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore

When Surrealism Forgets the Human Center

There is a peculiar kind of disappointment that arrives not with anger, but with a shrug. That was my experience reading Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, coming right after Norwegian Wood, which, for all its melancholy excesses, at least held together as a recognizably human story. Here, the seams are not just visible. They are the point. Or perhaps they are meant to dissolve altogether. I am not convinced they do.

The novel disperses itself almost immediately into two narrative streams. One follows Kafka Tamura, fifteen, self-exiled, self-mythologizing, carrying an Oedipal prophecy like a private curse. The other trails Nakata, an old man whose cognitive simplicity masks something like metaphysical permeability. Their paths gesture toward convergence, though not in any way that satisfies the ordinary appetite for causality. This is not negligence. It is design. Still, design does not always translate to engagement. I kept reading, yes. But often out of habit, or perhaps out of a faint hope that coherence would eventually coalesce from the fragments. It rarely did.

Kafka himself, for a protagonist, feels curiously sealed. He speaks with an interiority that seems pre-assembled, as though he has read too many books about alienated boys and decided to become one. That may well be the point. A constructed self, performing its own narrative. Yet even that awareness did not make him more interesting to me. He remains distant, almost airless, even in moments that should carry emotional charge. His flight from home is framed as a coming-of-age, but it is less a transformation than a prolonged suspension. Things happen around him, through him, sometimes to him, but seldom because of him in any psychologically persuasive way.

Nakata, on the other hand, is meant to charm, or at least to disarm. His conversations with cats should have delighted me. I love cats. I wanted to be delighted. Instead, those passages felt oddly inert, as though the whimsy were being insisted upon rather than discovered. And then there is that scene. The grotesque violence inflicted on the cats. It arrives with such lurid intensity that it fractures whatever fragile enchantment the novel had been attempting to build. I did not find it profound. I found it unbearable. Not in a way that deepens the work, but in a way that made me recoil from it. I nearly closed the book. I considered, briefly, not returning to it at all.

And yet I did return. Because Murakami can write. This is the maddening part. The prose is smooth, almost frictionless. Sentences carry you forward with a quiet insistence. Even when the content fails to grip, the texture of the writing persuades you to continue. There is a kind of narrative hypnosis at work. You keep turning the pages, not out of urgency, but out of rhythm. It is like listening to a piece of music that does not move you emotionally, yet is structured so elegantly that you cannot quite stop listening.

Speaking of music, the references scattered throughout the novel were among the few things that genuinely engaged me. Franz Schubert, Ludwig van Beethoven. These are not mere ornaments. They function as tonal anchors, moments where the novel briefly aligns with something outside itself, something I could latch onto. There is a certain pleasure in recognizing these names, in recalling the music, in letting it echo against the text. Perhaps that says more about me than about the book. An admission, maybe, that I was searching for footholds wherever I could find them.

Murakami’s narrative logic operates less like a chain and more like a constellation. Events do not follow one another so much as they resonate across distance. A raining of fish, a talking cat, a forest that feels less like a place than a threshold. These are not meant to be explained. They are meant to be accepted. Or, more precisely, they are meant to be lived through as one would live through a dream. The problem, for me, is that dreams are compelling when they carry an emotional truth that persists even after the details dissolve. Here, the details linger, but the emotional truth remains elusive.

Fatalism saturates the novel. Kafka’s prophecy, delivered by his father, hangs over everything with the weight of inevitability. You will kill your father. You will sleep with your mother. You will sleep with your sister. It is an inheritance of doom, a script that Kafka both resists and fulfills. Or believes he fulfills. The ambiguity is deliberate. Did he commit these acts, or did he merely dream them, imagine them, internalize them to the point where the distinction no longer matters? Murakami seems less interested in the factual answer than in the psychological condition of believing oneself bound by fate.

There is also the matter of the title, which invokes Franz Kafka and, with it, a very particular expectation. “Kafkaesque” is not merely a synonym for strange or surreal. It suggests a precise texture of experience: the claustrophobia of opaque systems, the slow suffocation of the individual under incomprehensible authority, a logic that is internally consistent yet fundamentally hostile to human understanding. It is dread sharpened by bureaucracy, anxiety given form through labyrinthine rules that cannot be mastered, only endured. Murakami’s novel, for all its dreamlike qualities, does not quite inhabit that space. Its surrealism is softer, more ambient, less punitive. The world of Kafka on the Shore does not trap its characters in the same merciless machinery; it lets them drift. Even its violence and its omens feel diffused, unmoored from the kind of existential pressure that makes something truly Kafkaesque. The title gestures toward that lineage, but the novel itself never fully delivers on it.

There is something almost Greek about it. Not in structure, but in sensibility. The idea that one cannot escape what has been foretold, that every attempt at avoidance becomes a step toward realization. Yet unlike Greek tragedy, where the machinery of fate is stark and inexorable, here it is diffuse, almost vaporous. Omens appear, but they do not compel. They suggest. They whisper. The characters move as though guided by an unseen current, yet they also drift, hesitate, double back. Fate, in this novel, is not a straight line. It is a fog.

The sexual elements complicate this further. They are not incidental. They are central. Kafka’s encounters with Miss Saeki, with Sakura, are charged not just with desire but with the possibility, or the fear, of incestuous fulfillment. Miss Saeki, in particular, exists in a kind of temporal dislocation. She is both the woman she is and the girl she once was. Kafka’s attraction to her is entangled with memory, with projection, with the spectral presence of a past he never lived. Their relationship resists easy categorization. It is tender, in moments. It is also deeply unsettling.

The age difference cannot be ignored. A fifteen-year-old boy and an older woman. There is a cultural and literary context in which such dynamics are often treated with a certain permissiveness, especially when filtered through a male gaze. But reverse the genders. Imagine Miss Saeki as the minor, Kafka as the adult. The reception would be entirely different. The discomfort would not be aesthetic. It would be immediate, moral, perhaps even outraged. This asymmetry reveals something about how we process narratives of desire, about whose vulnerability is foregrounded and whose is obscured.

Murakami does not sensationalize these scenes. That is to his credit. They are written with a kind of restraint, a quietness that avoids cheapness. But restraint does not neutralize implication. If anything, it intensifies it. The lack of explicit judgment leaves you alone with the material, forced to navigate it without guidance. I did not find clarity there. Only a lingering unease.

And perhaps that is the point. Not clarity, but unease. Not resolution, but suspension. The novel refuses to settle into a single mode. It is part coming-of-age, part metaphysical inquiry, part surrealist exercise. It gestures toward meaning without ever quite delivering it. For some readers, this is precisely its strength. The openness, the interpretive freedom, the invitation to construct one’s own coherence. For me, it felt less like freedom and more like absence. An emptiness where something should have been.

Still, I cannot dismiss it outright. There are passages of real beauty here. Moments where the language, the imagery, the rhythm align in a way that feels almost luminous. A sentence will catch you off guard. A description will linger. Murakami knows how to create atmosphere, how to sustain a mood, how to keep you inside a particular emotional register even when the narrative itself feels diffuse.

So I am left in a peculiar position. Admiring the craft, resisting the content. Turning the pages, yet rarely feeling compelled by what I find on them. It is one of those books where you acknowledge the author’s control, his precision, his ability to orchestrate a complex structure, and yet you remain unmoved by the experience as a whole. A kind of aesthetic respect, divorced from genuine engagement.

Maybe that is enough for some. It was not quite enough for me.

And yet, I read it to the end.

That, perhaps, is its own kind of testament.

Blinde Weide, schlafende Frau (2022)
verfügbar bis 09.04.2026

https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/116807-000-A/blinde-weide-schlafende-frau/

https://www.imdb.com/de/title/tt9320184

#BlindeWeideSchlafendeFrau #BlindWillowSleepingWoman #animation #Animationsfilm #film #arte #artetv #artemediathek #mediathek #PierreFöldes #HarukiMurakami #OmU #französisch

With its dreamlike style and piercing sense of solitude, Jun Ichikawa’s “Tony Takitani,” now in 4K, stands as one of the finest and most faithful Haruki Murakami adaptations https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2026/03/12/film/tony-takitani/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #culture #film #japanesefilm #harukimurakami #junichikawa

Harry Styles Gets Honest About His Struggles With Fame, and Making Electronic Music for New Album: ‘I Wanted It to Feel Like We’re in This Music Together’
#Variety #News #HarryStyles #HarukiMurakami

https://variety.com/2026/music/news/harry-styles-tour-electronic-music-runners-world-interview-1236678066/

"The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland” was created with an international tour in mind to capture rising interest in Japanese storytelling. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2026/02/07/stage/japanese-theater-haruki-murakami-play/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #culture #stage #harukimurakami #tatsuyafujiwara #deathnote #theater #musical

If I could choose the words to be engraved on my tombstone,
I think I’d like them to read something like this:

・・・

This time, I’d like to introduce Haruki Murakami.
I hope to share a perspective that’s a little more personal,
something unique to this blog.

Feel free to take a peek!
https://introvert-path.com/en/understanding-e/famous-person-e/20251116-1/

#HarukiMurakami #Reading #Introvert #Running #SelfReflection

"Severance" reminded me heavily of Haruki Murakami's "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World," and I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere, so let me fix that. The book was definitely one of the stranger and more original ones that I have ever read.

The resemblance is not only about having two sets of person in one, but the whole encrypting data feels similar to data refinement.

#Severance #HarukiMurakami

Vom Jazzbar-Besitzer zum Weltautor: Der Artikel des Tages zeichnet zum 77. Geburtstag #HarukiMurakami​s nach, was seine Romane so unverwechselbar macht: https://www.dwds.de/wb/surreal

Pain versus suffering

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Say you’re running and you think, “man, this hurts, I can’t take it anymore.” The “hurt” part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand anymore is up to the runner himself.

~ Haruki Murakami

slip:4a805.