Hear the Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami (1979)

I was very glad to be given a review copy of the republication in translations of the first two novels Huraki   Murakami (1949).  I had previously read and posted on Pinball, 1973 but not his very first novel, Hear the Wind Sing.  Along with The Wild Sheep Chase, 1983, they make up The Rat Trilogy.  I believe I have now read and posted on all of the longer fiction of Murakami, plus a few of his short stories.   In the long ago, he was my first Japanese novelist.  

Murakami in his new preface does not hold these two works in high esteem.  I think readers of his oevere will be happy, as I was, to have access to both these works in translation.

The central character in Hear the Wind Sing is s young man on summer break from college.  He hangs out with his friend Rat.  A lot of the brief work is taken up with his memories of the three women he has slept with.  During the course of the work he begins an ill advised romance with a fourth woman. The work is erotically charged and fun to read.  

In a perfect reading life world, I would suggest those new to Murakami start with these two works and read all his novels in publication order.  

Mel u

Colorless Tsukuru and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami (trans. by Philip Gabriel, to be published August, 2014)

My Prior Posts on Murakami

I have read and posted on all of the published and in print novels of Huruki Murakami (1949, Kyoto).  I greatly admire his work (obviously otherwise I would not have read so much of his work) though I had at best mixed feelings about his last book, the massive 1Q84.  I was very happy when I was offered a review copy of his forthcoming Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.  Within a week of publication in Japan, it sold a million copies.  

My first reaction is that this will probably be considered one of his best works.    The central character, a man in his early thirties or so when we first meet him,designs railroad stations.  From youth he was fascinated by train stations and he studied this field under Japan's leading expert in this area.  After university graduation, he happily got a decent job doing work he loved.  In college he was part of a tightly knit social group of two other men and two women.  Everyone else in the group's name has a color connection but him.  Thus his nickname.  One day he is totally dropped from the group and he is not told why.  It takes him ten years to begin to understand why.  He has to go to Finland to learn the truth.  Even then there is a mystery.  He also does not know if he committed a homosexual act or just dreamed he did.  A big mystery is introduced at the end and not solved.  

There are numerous literary and classical music references.  Tazaki has an interesting relationship with another man and a woman.  He is intelligent, sensible, hardworking and a decent sort, at least on the surface.  As the book closed I wondered if he was a rapist and a murderer.  

I will be eager to see the reactions of others to  this book.

I know Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage will get a lot of book blog and literary review attention.  

Any one into Murakami will be happy with this book.