(no subject)

[proximoception]

Murakami's the heavy favorite (over Munro) to win this year's Nobel.

On the strength of 1Q84.

What the fuck?

Seriously - while I'm eternally mad at people who make high claims for There Will Be Blood or Donnie Darko these make perfect sense next to the total madness of even a vaguely positive assessment of that book.

Comments

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's the "on the strength of" part that's the trouble. 1Q84 isn't his typical book - he decided to proceed completely on is-inspiration, refused to rewrite, refused editing or had a completely cowed editor. There's aspects of Kafka on the Shore that gesture at this level of badness, but no other hints in his other books that this could ever have happened.

I hate Kill Bill but it's novelization would be light years better than 1Q84.

Wind Up Bird Chronicle has some really good stuff in it, Norwegian Wood is a fun pop novel. I'm neither a Murakami lover nor hater. But 1Q84 needs to be famous for its astonishing terribleness. That the opposite is true genuinely frightens and confuses me.

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

Geez, you almost make me want to read more Murakami! Lots of transport space, though (as I remember it) but look who´s talking: "Kill Bill" had it´s five minutes of fun (though I hate being addressed that way just because I happen to be a femelle of the species and host estrogen) but it was the other five hours or so that got at me and I was in good company at my fav. crazy neighbour´s, drinking Osborne while husband was at work; time was on my bloody hands. So, when I pick up a Murakami sometime between now and World´s End, it won´t be 1Q84 and it´s your fault, too.

[tdaschel.livejournal.com]

Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.