i read kafka and 1q74, colourless tsukuru tazaki, and wind up bird chronicle but put hbw/eow down halfway thru and got too busy to finish it. maybe this is a sign to do so
Don't overlook the earlier books like Norwegian Wood, Wild Sheep Chase, and The Elephant Vanishes. Easier reading than the thick books and fun and beautiful.
A fun bit of trivia about Norwegian Wood: for some unfathomable reason, the French translator decided to translate it as "La Ballade de l'Impossible" (The Ballad of the Impossible). The one Murakami novel named after a universally famous song was translated to... That.
In Spain it became "Tokyo Blues". I think probably the reason was that Norwegian Wood was not a so so so popular song over here for the mainstream public (excluding Beatles fans). It was not "Yellow Submarine" or "Hey Jude" level. I am pretty sure if the song from the novel was "Hey Jude" or even "Eleanor Rigby" they would have kept it.
Sure, it's not their biggest song. But from what I've seen, most of his novels have been translated with a relatively faithful title (say, "Kafka sur le rivage" for Kafka on the shore). It's only this one which gets a completely new title.
And I don't think it's even some bizarre copyright issue, as it could easily be translated in Spanish as "Bosque noruego", while the original song title, if translated, would be closer to "Madera de Noruga". It's not like he titled directly after the song in Japanese either...
Dance, Dance, Dance which is a “sequel” to Wild Sheep Chase is my favorite, followed by WUNC and then HBW/EOW.
Total aside but has anyone found good Murakami-esque movies or TV Shows? Parts of The Leftovers actually gave me the same feeling, especially “International Assassin” and the surrounding episodes but am happy to hear others.
There's quite a few directors who credit Murakami as an influence on their works.
Rian Johnson credits HBW+EOW as an influence on Looper.
Wong Kar-wai says he took inspiration from Murakami in Chunking Express.
David Mitchell is clearly influenced by his works (worth reading if you're a Murakami fan). His novel Cloud Atlas got a film adaptation with Tom Hanks and some other big names.
In anime, Satoshi Kon and Makoto Shinkai have said Murakami was a big influence on them. There's also Haibane Renmei which was influenced by HBW+EOW (IMO not worth watching). Probably plenty more anime with similar styles because it's a more suitable medium for the kind of surrealism in Murakami's novels. You might like Psycho-Pass, GITS, Lain which share some of the same elements of Murakami's works.
