Joe Murphy on Haruki Murakami
Hi Everyone-
Summer is truly winding down; it's rather sad to get up in the dark in the morning these days. But: the end of summer prefigures a battery of tremendous fall books. The other book buyers and I had our first meeting to discuss titles for this year's Holiday Gift Guide (yes, we start this early). Having reviewed the upcoming season's titles, I can safely say that the key phase for the autumn is : embarassment of riches.
One book that just hit the stores is particularly worth mentioning: Japanese author Haruki Murakami's new book of short stories, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. Murakami is like no other writer I've read: his fiction makes the strange seem familiar and the familiar seem strange. It's the best approach to surreal writing possible: Murakami's work reads much like a mystery, convincing you that the very, very odd plot points are leading you to a cohesive revelation. It never works out that way, but you never mind, because the journey through Murakami's world is so compelling. It casts a spell all its own. His short stories are a great place to start, and this is an especially worthy collection. And one odd note I'd like to add: the stories in the book are by two different translators, and I've read a novel translated by a third. It's astonishing how consistent these works are in their tone and even syntax. Murakami's style in Japanese must be so distinctive that multiple translators have very similar results. It gives you a sense of confidence that you're getting something very close to Murakami's true voice.
Don't forget: the Harcourt Brace-Mariner-W.W. Norton buy-two-get-one-free sale continues at all stores! Stop in and check out these indispensible titles for your collection, and gather them up three (or six or nine) at a time!
See you in the stores,
Joe Murphy
Head Book Buyer
Summer is truly winding down; it's rather sad to get up in the dark in the morning these days. But: the end of summer prefigures a battery of tremendous fall books. The other book buyers and I had our first meeting to discuss titles for this year's Holiday Gift Guide (yes, we start this early). Having reviewed the upcoming season's titles, I can safely say that the key phase for the autumn is : embarassment of riches.
One book that just hit the stores is particularly worth mentioning: Japanese author Haruki Murakami's new book of short stories, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. Murakami is like no other writer I've read: his fiction makes the strange seem familiar and the familiar seem strange. It's the best approach to surreal writing possible: Murakami's work reads much like a mystery, convincing you that the very, very odd plot points are leading you to a cohesive revelation. It never works out that way, but you never mind, because the journey through Murakami's world is so compelling. It casts a spell all its own. His short stories are a great place to start, and this is an especially worthy collection. And one odd note I'd like to add: the stories in the book are by two different translators, and I've read a novel translated by a third. It's astonishing how consistent these works are in their tone and even syntax. Murakami's style in Japanese must be so distinctive that multiple translators have very similar results. It gives you a sense of confidence that you're getting something very close to Murakami's true voice.Don't forget: the Harcourt Brace-Mariner-W.W. Norton buy-two-get-one-free sale continues at all stores! Stop in and check out these indispensible titles for your collection, and gather them up three (or six or nine) at a time!See you in the stores,
Joe Murphy
Head Book Buyer
The second volume, just published, is Orson Welles: Hello Americans, and it covers the crucial period from the premeire of Kane to 1947 and MacBeth. Perhaps the most oddly fascinating aspect of this amazing genius is the most tragic one: that Welles essentially became Charles Foster Kane, never again demonstrating quite the level of promise he showed in Kane's making and before. Callow focuses on this crucial period, which included one of the moments most lamented by cinema buffs: RKO studio taking The Magnificent Ambersons away from Welles for re-editing (perhaps a better word would be desecration). It's an incredibly important period in the life of one of cinema's (and theatre's) greatest artists, and Callow's biography is sure to prove the definitive life of Welles. The new volume is featured as a Buyer's Choice, 20% off at all stores. Come in and get a jump on the fall season with this well-wrought and always intriguing portrait of a genius.
Hope all is well with you; speaking for myself, I was certainly relieved at last weekend's cool pleasant weather. It more than made up for the previous week's scorchfest.
I'm nearly through T.C. Boyle's new book Talk Talk, the first of his I've read since Riven Rock (I know, Boyle fans; I've been missing out!). It's quite riveting, and it works as a thriller, a Rashomon-like exchange of alternating viewpoints, a case study on identity theft, and an examination of what communication really means in relationships of all kinds. The plot: Dana Halter, a deaf teacher of English, has her identity stolen, leading to mistaken arrest, the loss of her job, and serious financial trouble. She enlists her boyfriend on a cross country journey to track down the man who has taken her life, and the chase is on. It's a great portrayal of Dana's alienation from the hearing world, particularly in the face of this crisis. Boyle also convincingly draws Dana's bewildered boyfriend, Bridger, and William "Peck" Wilson (nice Poe reference, T.C.!), the identity thief with the easy sense of entitlement and a feeling of outrage that his victims are pestering him. It's a well done, fun-yet-serious, breezy summer read. And it's a Buyer's Choice, on sale for 20% off at all our stores.
I also just finished David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, which was a highly entertaining postmodern puzzle. It's a number of linked stories, structured like a Russian nesting doll, so that the first chapter is concluded in the last, the second in the next to last, etc. The conceit works rather nicely (although it does require a little momentum), and the stories, which range from sea tale to memoir to mystery to dystopia story to post-apocalyptic account (and back again!) are highly involving, often suspenseful, touching, and curiously philosophical. This is the second Mitchell book I've read, after the delightful Black Swan Green (I seem, appropriately enough, to be reading him backward), and I highly recommend his work.