村上龍 Ryu Murakami

Ryu Murakami is a Japanese writer and movie director. His writing style is really impressive, it really makes an impact on you. He talks about really harsh topics (extreme sexual violence, drugs, chaos...) and makes you feel unconfortable many times. But the way he writes it is what makes a difference. He can find beauty even in the deepest of human misery. That's remarkable.

I am writing about him, because I just finished reading "Almost transparent blue", his first novel. This novel won the Akutagawa prize, the most prestigious prize in Japan for new writers. He wrote this book when he was just 23 and the result is shocking.

So far, I have read three of his novels and I have liked all of them. My ranking for his novels so far is as follows (in case you want to give it a try!): 1. Coin Locker Babies; 2. Almost Transparent Blue; 3. In the Miso Soup.

Kokoro 夏目 漱石- こゝろ

Last weekend, I finished reading "Kokoro" by Natsume Sōseki (夏目 漱石), a Japanese writer from the Meiji era (aka when Japan opened its borders to the world). I had had that novel in my bookshelf for several months now, just accumulating dust and I decided to give it a chance on Saturday. The result is I have discovered a great work. From the moment I started reading the first page, it was difficult to part with this book. I'd put it down and take it again immediately.

The novel is not long, around 250 pages in my English translation, but it is one of those books very close to philosophy which requres some time to be fully enjoyed. You should not rush through it.

It analyzes human nature from a very deep point of view and there are quotes worth remembering in almost every single page. Highly recommended!!

Besides, I found the author was living for one year very near where I live now and I could pass by his house a couple times this weekend. Also, most of the areas he describes are around my neighborhood!! Pretty cool ;)

Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words

Today I have been reading "Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words" by Jay Rubin, one of Murakami's translators. I will finish it before sleeping.

The book is really good and interesting provided you have read all of Murakami's work. I have read all his novels and short stories translated into English (and some in Spanish), so I did not have much problems following the book. Besides, to know what we were talking about was very important to understand Murakami's evolution as a writer and how the different novels and collections of short stories fit in his life.

If you have not read most of Murakami's books, DO NOT READ this book!! It is too early for you. It will spoil many of the stories and books you still have to discover by yourself and you probably cannot grasp "the big picture" the author is trying to put across.

If you have read all of Murakami's books and consider yourself a fan, as I do, you have to read this book! It will throw a lot of light in future readings and will teach you many aspects you just read past in previous readings.

In short, it is a very nice book for those who admire Haruki Murakami's work and want to know and understand more about him and his work.

Last week's readings

Last week, since I came back from my road trip, I have been reading like crazy. I actually was craving for some good old crazy reading time. That means devoting all your time to reading (apart from work, food and a few hours sleep). The result is I have read to amazing books which I recommend to you all.

1. First I read "The Road", by Cormac McCarthy and my friend Havard's recommendation. Great book. It is utterly dark and hopeless. You kind of know the ending since the beginning but the struggle of the main characters is overwhelming. You really feel sympathy for them. And the vocabulary the author displays is simply amazing.

2. Yesterday, I started reading "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson, the first book in the Millennium trilogy. I finished it one hour ago. I literally could not put it down. The plot is complex and thorough and really interesting. The moment you read a couple chapters you cannot stop reading. I just ordered the second part, "The Girl Who Played With Fire". It has just been released in English. I was surprised when I found out even the third book is available in Spanish!! English translators have been pretty lazy apparently... Si podeis enviarme una copia del tercer libro os lo agradeceria mucho! No sale en Ingles hasta Octubre/Noviembre!!!

Last books I have read

These last weeks, I have been reading quite a lot. All the books I have read are great and that has helped me continue reading more and more! ;) This is the list of books I have read since June:

- On the Road, by Jack Kerouac
- The Great Gatsby, by Scott Fidgerald
- No Longer Human, by Osamu Dazai
- The Elephant Vanishes, by Haruki Murakami
- Pinball 1973, by Haruki Murakami
- Cien Años de Soledad, by Gabriel García Márquez

And many more to come in the next months!! :)

Reading is a good habit and a passion that cannot be stopped if started again!! ;)

Los Angeles according to Jack Kerouac

Last night, when I was flying from Washington to LA, I experienced a feeling that repeats quite often when I am arriving at Los Angeles... It is becoming familiar by now... and that is kind of scary!

The first time I experienced this feeling was when I came back from Mexico last Thanksgiving vacation. I was in an airport shuttle coming back home and Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under the Bridge" started playing in the radio. We were almost 10 people in the van and nobody talking to each other... I looked around and we were in a huge traffic jam... then, I noticed every car stuck in it had only one person inside, which I assumed was driving in absolute silence (except by the music they were listening to). That made me feel something like utter loneliness. I don't know how to put it into words, but you can figure it out from my description.

Yesterday, I was reading "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac, one of the most important novels in English in the 20th century and I read the following sentence. Wait... before writing it down, I should maybe explain the book is about a guy from New York who decides to travel West (such a simplification!! hahaha). Ok, now I must say the guy just got to LA and this is the feeling the city creates in him:

"LA is the loneliest and brutal of the American cities; New York gets god-awful cold in the winter but there is a feeling of wacky comradeship somewhere in the streets. LA is a jungle."

Wow. Wordless... ;)

Two novels by Bryce Echenique

The last two books I have read have been two good novels by the Peruvian writer Alfredo Bryce Echenique. These novels are: "La Vida Exagerada de Martín Romaña" and "El Hombre que hablaba de Octavia de Cádiz".

One book is the continuation of the other one and together, they narrate the story of Martín Romaña, a Peruvian wannabe writer in Paris around 1958. Both books are about love, but also frustration and personal relationships. The situations Martín lives are is he says exaggerated, which makes the story comical at many points. However comical it is, there is a background sadness or melancholy that covers everything. No matter how hard he tries, he can't do anything to improve his situation. And when it looks like nothing can go worse, the situation worsens...

The writer's style is also quite interesting. He writes in quite a messy way, you could ever say he writes whatever he thinks! And he plays with the language quite a lot. So, you have to read the original version in Spanish to catch everything. And it is quite hard if Spanish is not your native language or you are not fluent... but anyway, you can always try! Apart from the special way of writing, the author usually uses flashbacks and flash-forwards which make the novel even messier. He tells you about things that will happen and continuously references what happened in the past.

Overall, these books give you some material to think about and are a nice read.

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is the last book I have read. And again, it is Haruki Murakami's. The book is around 900 pages and it is divided in 3 parts.



I must say I have really enjoyed this book. Actually, I have read it in around 5 days. This novel is composed of many stories around the main character, Tooru Okada, and there are always links among the stories. The book is full of fantasy and there are many examples of strange dreaming phenomena: false awakening, reality and dreams mixing up, lucid dreams...

It reminded me a bit about "Kafka on the Shore" in the sense that both are strongly dependent on fantasy and strange situations. Of course, both books are highly recommendable!!

Update on my read books

My hardcore travelling period has arrived to its end and now it is time to check how well headed I am for my 50-books/year challenge. My reading pace has been greatly affected, but I have managed to read 4 books in 5-6 these weeks. The books I read are:

- Sputnik Sweetheart, by Haruki Murakami

- In the Miso Soup, by Ryu Murakami



- Egypt, an approach to Egyptian history and culture; very useful for my visit to that country

- A Wild Sheep Chase, by Haruki Murakami



That makes 10 books so far this year (12 weeks)!

More books read...

In the last weeks, I have read some more books; 3 books in 3 different languages:

- Lo mejor que le puede pasar a un cruasan, Pablo Tusset (in Spanish)

- O sorriso aos pés da escada, Henry Miller (in Portuguese)



- Blind willow, sleeping woman, Haruki Murakami (in English)



At the same time, I am reading other books, but I will comment on them once I am done with them. Of the previous three, the first one was just ok, although the story didn't completely get me, the second was interesting and the third one was without any doubt the best one of the three.

That book in Portuguese was an experiment. I was sure I could read Portuguese... During my visit to Porto I developed the theory that Portuguese is almost the same language as Spanish and if you have read something in old Spanish, you can even understand it better. Of course, some words are really different. But anyway, the whole context and meaning is perfectly understandable.

Murakami's book was as good as usual. In only 4 books, this guy is becoming one of my favourite writers ever. This volume was a collection of short stories. Some of them were just ok, but most were really good. I am still fascinated by the way he writes. This weekend, I am making for Spain. I think I will buy some of his books there. The price is quite lower than here! and I can buy them in English as well!

In total, that makes 6 books in 6 weeks! I am reading at a good pace for the challenge of the 50 books in a year! Let's see what happens when I start travelling.

By the way, I think I didn't tell you, but next week's weekend I will go to Istambul to meet Naoko!! That adds another country to my visited countries list ;-)

Frase del dia

"Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it"

"La muerte no es lo contrario de la vida, sino parte de ella"

Haruki Murakami

One book and one movie

Today I finished reading a great book by the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. This book was "Kafka on the Shore". So far, I had read two books by this author, as I told you in a previous post. Both were very nice intimist novels with high doses of melancholy... what made them even nicer to me... This guy has a peculiar way of writing: he sounds familiar, with lots of popular references, but his writing is sheer intelligent. "Kafka on the Shore" has been a bit different but I still noticed his personal style all over. It is a fantastic novel with a wonderful plot which makes you cannot stop reading. The novel is a bit longer than 600 pages, but it is so addictive you can read it in a few days. I read the English version this time. This books makes 3 in my account this year; still a long way to go before I get those 50 books! ;-)



That was the book... and now it is the turn for the movie. I have just finished watching "No country for old men" by the Coen brothers and with Javier Bardem in one of his finest works. In one word, SUPERB. The movie is really good, but his performance is amazing... I would be scared of bumping into somebody looking like him in the street, he looks like the worst of your nightmares... and what about the dialogues along the movie, just great. Conversations do not play such an important role as in Tarantino films, but almost. By the way, Bardem has won the Golden Globe with this character and he is on his way to the Oscar. He has been officially nominated today. Best Luck!

三島 由紀夫. Yukio Mishima

Yukio Mishima is considered one of the finest Japanese writers in the 20th century. He was about to obtain the literature Nobel Prize several times, and it was assumed it was a matter of time he received it, but commited suicide before. He was a very controversial person with very strong nationalistic ideas.



Last year I read his most famous work, a tetralogy called "The Sea of Fertility". In these 4 books, it is possible to see the evolution of Japan from the beginning of the 20th century until around 1970: from a feudal state based on respect to the divine figure of the Emperor, to a country opened to foreign influences and integrated in the modern world. Besides, Mishima expresses his ideas by means of several of his characters.

The names of the books are:
- Spring Snow (春の雪, Nieve de Primavera)
- Runaway Horses (奔馬, Caballos Desbocados)
- The Temple of Dawn (暁の寺, El templo del Alba)
- The Decay of the Angel (天人五衰, La Corrupcion de un Angel)

*Maybe a SPOILER*

The four books share two main characters and a main story behind the individual plot of each work. The character who is present in all the 4 books is Shigekuni Honda. The first book tells an impossible love story to which he is a mere witness, it is the story of Kiyoaki Matsugae, who dies trying to make his love come true. In the second book, Honda finds the reincarnation of his friend in the figure of a teenager with strong nationalist and traditionalist ideas. This book shows Mishima's ideas about ritual suicide (seppuku) and how to die with dignity. Many ideas about reincarnation, samurais and Japanese recent history can be learnt through this book. The third one deals with the urge of sexual desire. This desire is inspired by the means of a Thailandese princess which is supposed to be Kiyoaki's second reincarnation. The books topics are more decadent as time passes by and Japan turns its back on its history. The fourth book is highly decadent and shows the life of Kiyoaki's third reincarnation. Honda is already very old and tries to help his old friend in the best way he can, but everything ends badly.

*End of SPOILER*


After writing the last pages of the fourth book, he gathered some of the men of his personal army (yes, he had a personal army!) and tried to unleash a coup by means of a speech at a militaty base. He wanted the emperor to recover all the power he had in ancient times. After that, he committed suicide following the seppuku ritual (harakiri).

After this tetralogy, I also read "The sound of Waves"(潮騷 Shiosai, El Rumor del Oleaje), a beautiful love story in a small and isolated Japanese island. I found this book in a second-hand shop in Ochanomizu (Tokyo), in Spanish and for only 300 yens (less than 2 euros)!

What I liked the most of Mishima's style was the extremely vivid and detailed descriptions. They are very colourful and evoke bucolic feelings when read. I felt like reading poetry at some point. Mishima is thus highly recommendable in spite of his personal radical ideas. Well, maybe that makes his story and life more interesting! and backs up their novels with a genuine coherence!

Something about books

As I have mentioned some times before, I do not want this blog to become a blog only about travelling... and the last posts are pretty much about that though. Therefore, now I will talk a bit about miscellaneous things.

The first one is about reading. Rikel has talked several times in his blog about the 50 books in a year challenge. That means reading a book every week (more or less), which is quite ambitious! However, since mid August I have been reading at that rhythm. I have read many books recently. Therefore, I have decided I am going to keep a record of the books I have been reading from the beginning of the year. For the moment, I have already read 2 books, even though I was travelling until 4th January. The books I have read are:
- "South of the Border, West of the Sun" by Haruki Murakami (in Spanish)
- "The trial" by Franz Kafka (in Spanish)



The first of the two books was superb. I read my first book by Murakami last year (it was "Tokyo Blues. Norwegian Wood") and I got completely hypnothized by it until I finished it. Really good! His language is fluent and not too complex, but some sentences and reflexions are simply so good, so clever. It makes your feelings arise and your wits be alert for the next big statement!

The second book is a classic among classics I had been wanting to read for a very long time. It is one of Kafka's most famous books. It is a posthumous novel and therefore, unfinished. It looks like a collection of chapters not properly linked. And the final chapter is too short, like if it had been written on a rush. It is necessary to know Kafka's biography to understand it properly. The book is fantastic. It is about a man who is arrested and who has a process started against him. However, he is not aware of anything he has done wrongly... and nobody can tell him why he is being processed! The whole situation is so absurd. Besides, the precision in his language makes the situations are grotesque at some point. It reminded me of the "esperpento" by the Spanish writer Valle-Inclan (in "Luces de Bohemia" for instance). The whole situation seems strange but the poor man cannot do anything to stop the on-going process. Finally, he ends up giving up. It is a really strong critism about bureaucracy and law. Fantastic. It is a pitty this guy died so soon. When I was at high school, I read "Methamorphosis", and it looked to me as a very strange book. I should read it again soon to compare what is my feeling towards it at the moment. It is interesting to check how the meaning and significance of a book can change when read at different points of your life.

The next book I will read is "Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami again (in English). I will keep you informed. Good night out there!

Frase del dia

"Los bosques serían muy silenciosos si en ellos sólo cantaran pájaros de canto hermoso."

Ayer, Los de Marras

English Translation: "Forests would be very silent if only lovely-singing birds sang in them"

Books

Well, with this post I will try to make this more interactive. Basically, I will tell you the last books I have read and my plans for the future and you will tell me yours (if you feel like that XD).

Well, let's go...

My last books:

- 1984, George Orwell (English). I read this book some months ago and it is one of the best I have ever read. Who is Big Brother? What would our world be like if World War II had ended up differently? This book gives a possible scary possibility... Great Classic!! Strongly recommended!!

- La Tregua, Mario Benedetti (Spanish). Impressive novel by one of the best writers in Spanish of the last half century.

- El Guardian entre el Centeno, J.D. Salinger (Spanish). The original name is The Catcher in the Rye. I re-read this classic last January. I read it at once... so addictive!

- An English Guide to History of Japan (English). This book was useful to learn more about Japanese history. I think the history we are taught at school is very western biased. Therefore, I wanted to know more about Asian history (Japanese history in concrete)

- Japanese Children's Favorite Stories (English). This one has been good to get some background on Japanese culture. Did you know Japanese kids think there is a rabbit on the Moon?

Currently being read:

- For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway (English). I am about to finish this book and I am quite happy I chose it. A great story within a milicia in the Spanish Civil War.

- The Undutchables (English). To learn a bit more and in a funny way about this strange people called Dutch ;-)

Future Projects (already in my bedroom):
- Ensayo sobre la Lucidez, Jose Saramago (Spanish)
- Tokio Blues, Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami (Spanish)
- Nieve de Primavera, El Mar de la Fertilidad(I), Yukio Mishima (Spanish)

As you can notice, I have been reading too much in English and now I feel like reading some books in Spanish for a change ;-)

Now it is your turn! Thanx!

El Roto

One of the things I first do when I wake up is checking up the website of the Spanish newspaper El Pais to check El Roto's daily cartoon. This guy is one of the best cartoonist I have ever read. He is always very critical and in some cases extreme... but his cartoons have something which is priceless: they make you think. He comments reality from his point of view and tries to point out the main problems of our society and our world with very sharp intelligence and humour. For the Spanish speakers, here you are some samples of his great work. For the rest, I try to translate what is written in the cartoon. Keep on like that, el Roto!!

I don't know if I see everything more clear or just I am confused at a higher level.

Call destruction "PROGRESS" and nobody will oppose you

Bad news for patriots: all flags are made in China


But why do you vaccinate us dogs if hatred and rage are spread by humans?

What a mess! I have relocated my company and now I don't know where I've put it!!