Published: 1999 (Kodansha) Setting: Tokyo, Greece Summary: This short novel packs a powerful punch of longing and desperation. The narrator “K” chronicles the torrid and star-crossed love affair between Miu, a 40-year-old Korean woman who has pure white hair, and Sumire, the woman he loves. K’s backstory isn’t so important, this novel is about Sumire and Miu. SumireContinue reading “Sputnik Sweetheart-Haruki Murakami”
Category Archives: Literature
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle-Haruki Murakami
Published: 1994 (Shinchosha) Setting: Manchuria, Tokyo Summary: Toru Okada has a serene marriage with his wife, Kumiko, and their cat Noburu Wataya. Toru is unemployed and unaware that he out of touch with his wife. He meets a teenage girl, May Kasahara, who is obsessed with death but has an interest in Toru that takes center stage overContinue reading “The Wind-up Bird Chronicle-Haruki Murakami”
Fargo Rock City-Chuck Klosterman
Published: 2001 (Scribner) Setting: The North Dakota in Klosterman’s Mind Summary: Chuck Klosterman’s s debut book prompts the reader to journey back to the 1980’s, a time where Klosterman was obsessed with hair metal and everything that came with it (boozing, virginity, aimless drives). Klosterman is both sharp and vulnerable when he ponders the artistic, commercial,Continue reading “Fargo Rock City-Chuck Klosterman”
The Tipping Point-Malcolm Gladwell
Published: 2000 (Little, Brown) Setting: Malcolm Gladwell’s Brain Summary: Malcolm Gladwell’s debut book is a thought experiment about how we can change our world, and a treatise on how we need to change how we think about solutions to these problems. Malcolm Gladwell shows us why Blue’s Clues was the evolutionary Sesame Street, and whyContinue reading “The Tipping Point-Malcolm Gladwell”
South of the Border, West of the Sun-Haruki Murakami
Published: 1992 (Kodansha) Setting: Tokyo, Hakone Summary: An only-child, Hajime, is a 12-year-old boy who falls in love with a girl named Shimamoto at the age of twelve. Shimamoto, who also an only child, is he first love. They separate before high school and eventually find their way back to each other through their love of jazz andContinue reading “South of the Border, West of the Sun-Haruki Murakami”
Norwegian Wood-Haruki Murakami
Published: 1987 (Kodansha) Setting: Tokyo, Kyoto Summary: The domestic reception to Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood propelled the author to literary super stardom seemingly overnight. This novel, nostalgic and deeply feeling, is as much a period piece as it is a coming-of-age story set in Japan’s post-war coming-of-age. Toru Watanabe floats in and out of the lives of hisContinue reading “Norwegian Wood-Haruki Murakami”
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World-Haruki Murakami
Published: 1985 (Shinchosha) Setting: Tokyo, “The Town” Summary: In Murakami’s favorite novel, our main characters shuffles information as he shuffles around the Tokyo underground. In alternating chapters, Murakami builds a Tokyo city-scape full of data inquirers professors, and Inklings (based on kappa), while also building an imaginary town within the mind of our main character. Our main character,Continue reading “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World-Haruki Murakami”
Tokyo Vice-Jake Adelstein
Published: 2009 (Random House and Pantheon) Setting: Saitama and Tokyo, Japan Summary: Jake Adelstein is a reporter, one with a code and a conscience and eventually an axe to grind. Through his various run-ins with cops, sex workers, other reporters, and the yakuza Adelstein learned that the underbelly of Japan is ultimately as dark andContinue reading “Tokyo Vice-Jake Adelstein”
First Person Singular-Haruki Murakami
Published: 2020 (Bungeishunju) Summary (of each story): Cream: A young man gets stood up by an old piano partner and decides to sit on a park bench. He has a panic or stress-induced attack and hallucinates. His hallucinations bring him a form of reprieve he can come back to that allows him to forget momentsContinue reading “First Person Singular-Haruki Murakami”
Dance Dance Dance-Haruki Murakami
Published: 1994 (Kodansha) Setting: Tokyo, Hokkaido, Honolulu, Hakone Summary: In the fourth and final installment of the “Trilogy of the Rat”, Murakami answers the question, what happens after you lose everything? He answers this by positing that all you need to do is dance in step with what is going on around you. I, theContinue reading “Dance Dance Dance-Haruki Murakami”
Will Reviews Things 