Who is haruki murakami ?

1. Who is harukimurakami? And what’s he all about anyway? And what’s this magical realism stuff?

2. Have you ever read a book… • That was better than going out with your friends? • That you couldn’t stop thinking about long after it finished? • That made you wish your world was THAT weird • That made you go an read everything else that author had ever written, but slowly so you wouldn’t be at the end of your discovery too soon?

4. Real Themes.. • Isolation, alienation and loneliness • Love and loss • Youth • Inability to know or relate to the world around you

5. Common motifs… • Music, often classical or The Beatles • Unnamed narrators • Parallel worlds • Prophecy

6. Magical realism… • A genre whereby magical elements are presented, as simply a part of the normal world. • Perhaps more accurately, the rules of the normal world are broken, often without explanation. • The real and the fantastic are blended together seamlessly. • Many argue that there are clear links to Fantasy fiction and Science Fiction.

7. Why do I love it? • Reading it, makes the world seem like a more interesting place, like the extraordinary is right around the corner just waiting to happen. • You never know what he is going to come up with • There is a quiet and elegant beauty to all his work • He explores some sophisticated themes in ways that are not obvious or “cookie cutter”

8. Some of his books

9. Norwegian wood “Our faces were no more than ten inches apart but she was light years away from me.” ― Haruki Murakami http://welloflostplots.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/norwegian-wood/

10. After dark… “Let me tell you something, Mari. The ground we stand on looks solid enough, but if something happens it can drop right out from under you. And once that happens, you've had it: things'll never be the same. All you can do is go on, living alone down there in the darkness...” ― Haruki Murakami, After Dark http://welloflostplots.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/after-dark/

11. Kafka on the shore “A certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect.” ― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore http://welloflostplots.wordpress.com/2008/08/12/kafka-on-the-shore/

12. The wind-up bird chronicle “But even so, every now and then I would feel a violent stab of loneliness. The very water I drink, the very air I breathe, would feel like long, sharp needles. The pages of a book in my hands would take on the threatening metallic gleam of razor blades. I could hear the roots of loneliness creeping through me when the world was hushed at four o'clock in the morning.” ― Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle http://welloflostplots.wordpress.com/2008/11/30/the-wind-up-bird-chronicle/

13. South of the border… “I think you still love me, but we can’t escape the fact that I’m not enough for you. I knew this was going to happen. So I’m not blaming you for falling in love with another woman. I’m not angry, either. I should be, but I’m not. I just feel pain. A lot of pain. I thought I could imagine how much this would hurt, but I was wrong.” ― Haruki Murakami, South of the Border, West of the Sun http://welloflostplots.wordpress.com/2008/12/31/south-of-the-border-west-of-the-sun/

14. Sputnik sweetheart “I have this strange feeling that I'm not myself anymore. It's hard to put into words, but I guess it's like I was fast asleep, and someone came, disassembled me, and hurriedly put me back together again. That sort of feeling.” ― Haruki Murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart http://welloflostplots.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/sputnik-sweetheart/

15. Hard-boiled wonderland… “Everyone may be ordinary, but they're not normal.” ― Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World http://welloflostplots.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/hard-boiled-wonderland-and-the-end-of-the-world/

16. A Wild sheep chase “Body cells replace themselves every month. Even at this very moment. Most everything you think you know about me is nothing more than memories.” ― Haruki Murakami, A Wild Sheep Chase http://welloflostplots.wordpress.com/2011/01/06/a-wild-sheep-chase/

17. Dance, dance, dance “As time goes on, you'll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn't, doesn't. Time solves most things. And what time can't solve, you have to solve yourself.” ― Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance http://welloflostplots.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/dance-dance-dance/

18. 1Q84 “It is not that the meaning cannot be explained. But there are certain meanings that are lost forever the moment they are explained in words.” ― Haruki Murakami http://welloflostplots.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/iq84/

19. After the quake • Murakami wrote this collection of short stories after an Earthquake hit Kobeon 2011 – ironically just after September 11th, so Americans found a lot to resonate with here too. There was also a gas bombing in the city. • The disaster creates a feeling of unease within the nation that is then reflected in his stories. Some mention the quake specifically. • Natural disasters lend themselves to Murakami’s themes of alienation and an inability to understand life itself.