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Title: The Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami, Alfred Birnbaum ISBN: 4-7700-1544-5 Publisher: Kodansha International Pub. Date: September, 1991 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.36 (75 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: My favorite novel--no reason it shouldn't be yours!
Comment: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is the most fantastically written, intriguing, meaningful, exciting, page-turner of a book that I have read in my eighteen years on this planet. It combines two stories (which are, in fact, one), both so intriguing that I couldn't put the book down. (Neither could my mother or older brother.) Murakami's prose is incredibly vivid and action-packed, like a well-filmed movie or a fantastic dream. This may sound artificial, but his writing, in content and style, completely sucked me in and immediately had me hooked and craving more. The characters are fascinating, from the brilliant, American pop-culture-oriented protagonist who also happens to be an extremely "hard-boiled," split-brained, logical thinker, to the young woman who smells of watermelon and whose specialty is a cucumber sandwich. This story has something for everyone. It has futuristic theories on the power of computers; mysterious men who smash pr! ivate property, make threats, and disappear; unicorns; spirituality; creepy underground scenes with creatures reminiscent of Gremlins or Golum; and discussion of American and Japanese popular cultures. There's something for the mystery-lover, the sci-fi- and fantasy-lover, the romantic, the thrill-seeker, and the anthropologist in everyone. More than that, it offers beauty and hope. I recommend it to all.
Rating: 4
Summary: Immensely rewarding, flawlessly written, tough to crack.
Comment:
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (hereinbelow
referred to as Wonderland, for obvious reasons) is a fantastic
story of a man who lives in two very different worlds. Murakami
is the kind of modern author most big-name reviewers refer to as
"hip", "jazzy" and "dazzling," but for the rest of us, he just
speaks in a say-it-like-you-mean-it language that communicates
directly with your spinal cord. He's always up to something in
Wonderland, and yet it's never quite clear what. His main
character, as in his other novels A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance,
Dance, Dance, is an outsider who lets the world go by with only
the odd blip on his otherwise quiescent radar screen. He's easy
to identify with, and lets you see Murakami's two worlds through
perfectly "him"-colored glasses.
Alfred Birnbaum's translation (Murakami writes only in Japanese) is nothing short of perfect. The prose reads as though it came from an American pen, which, paradoxically, is one of the elements which has made Murakami a multi-million-book bestseller in Japan.
Wonderland is by turns a page-turner, an escapist fantasy, a biting
social commentary, and a serene meditation; all of these are testaments
to Murakami's clever (and at times inscrutable) pacing, and also a
nod toward his high regard for the entertainment value of literature.
Of the three books mentioned above, it is by far my favorite, though
it's perhaps less accessible than A Wild Sheep Chase. Give Murakami
a chance. He knows what he's doing, and he has fashioned a
a pair of worlds that you appreciate more and more as you live in them.
Rating: 2
Summary: Last Time I Buy a Book Based on Other People's Opinions...
Comment: Okay, I listened to all the hype and bought the book. And I'm not even half-way through but feel compelled to write a review. The book is a severe disappointment. Now, mind you, I'm one of those who looooves "twisted, dark and outrageous" stories, but this is NOT one of them. It barely even earns the title, "mildly entertaining." In fact, I hasten to say that if it wasn't for a Japanese having written this book (thus serving as a kind of cultural comment), it would never have been published. Much of the "Hard-Boiled" scenes reads like a very bad imitation of Hammet or Chandler, full of every detective cliche and stilted piece of dialogue you can imagine -- case in point is the Junior/Big Boy scene (Chapter 13) which is so deriative and stereotypical that it's a wonder it got past an editor's nose. I could go on about pratically every page -- all the bad, bad, incredibly boring dialogue (didn't Murakami ever learn to "show, not tell"?), all the trite, banal so-called "humor" which only reminded me of a dim-witted high-schooler. Now and again there is a clever little description, but it's simply not enough to offset all the prosaic moments. I give this two stars for its premise -- the idea of a split-narrative. Unfortunately, idea and practice are two different creatures. I suppose Murakami thought he was being terrifically "original" with his metaphors of unicorns, sentient shadows, and data inputed into someone's brain, but, really, all this has been done before by guys like Philip K. Dick and numerous other Sci-Fi writers. There is metaphor and then there's "deriative metaphor." I suspect Murakami watched Blade Runner too many times. If you want some truly original, mind-twisting stuff, then go read JG Ballard or John Shirley. Shirley in particular is quite adept at evoking new and startling images. To sum up: this book is a mixture of very bad Noir writing, an adolescent take on Blade Runner/The Matrix, and a Harry Potter-like voice that is incredibly callow and boring. Save your money and go buy Black Butterflies instead. You will not regret it.
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Title: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle : A Novel by Haruki Murakami ISBN: 0679775439 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 01 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: A Wild Sheep Chase : A Novel by Haruki Murakami ISBN: 037571894X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Dance Dance Dance by Alfred Birnbaum, Haruki Murakami ISBN: 0679753796 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 31 January, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami ISBN: 0375704027 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Elephant Vanishes : Stories by Haruki Murakami ISBN: 0679750533 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 28 June, 1994 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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