after the quake by Haruki Murakami

I have always wanted to get into Murakami’s work ever since I heard about him four or five years ago some how. From what I gathered at the time, his stories were surreal in style, but still I never read anything by him until now. Someone from my Asian Literature class had recommended me this story (after the quake) saying, “It’s good.” Last time I heard that was from Erik with Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, which I am about a quarter through it and I find it to be boring but that’s for the entry when I finish it if ever.

Anyway, I picked up quake since I was in the bookstore/campus store since I needed to buy printer ink. After the quake is a short book of 147 pages. It has six stories total. To take the little review from Amazon as always.

Haruki Murakami, a writer both mystical and hip, is the West’s favorite Japanese novelist. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Murakami lived abroad until 1995. That year, two disasters struck Japan: the lethal earthquake in Kobe and the deadly poison gas attacks in the Tokyo subway. Spurred by these tragic events, Murakami returned home. The stories in After the Quake are set in the months that fell between the earthquake and the subway attack, presenting a world marked by despair, hope, and a kind of human instinct for transformation. A teenage girl and a middle-aged man share a hobby of making beach bonfires; a businesswoman travels to Thailand and, quietly, confronts her own death; three friends act out a modern-day Tokyo version of Jules and Jim. There’s a surreal element running through the collection in the form of unlikely frogs turning up in unlikely places. News of the earthquake hums throughout. The book opens with the dull buzz of disaster-watching: “Five straight days she spent in front of the television, staring at the crumbled banks and hospitals, whole blocks of stores in flames, severed rail lines and expressways.” With language that’s never self-consciously lyrical or show-offy, Murakami constructs stories as tight and beautiful as poems. There’s no turning back for his people; there’s only before and after the quake.

From Amazon

The first two stories really didn’t leave an impression on me. Perhaps because I’ve never felt empty inside or at a deep loss, but the last four left an impression on me. In particular at these parts.

In all god’s children can dance, the lead character in this story, Yoshiya, runs after a man half heartedly who he thinks is his estranged father. He ends up losing the man but finds himself in a baseball field. He then thinks to himself,

What was I hoping to gain from this? He asked himself as he strode ahead. Was I trying to confirm the ties that make it possible for me to exist here and now? Was I hoping to be woven into some new plot, to be given some new and better defined role to play? No, he thought, that’s not it. What I was chasing in circles must have been the tail of the darkness inside me. I just happened to catch sight of it, and followed it, and clung to it, and in the end let it fly into the still deeper darkness. I’m sure I’ll never see it again. (pg. 64)

That part resonated deep inside me for whatever reason.

The story thailand had some great lines as well mostly by the 60 year old thai man, Nimet.

“Strange and mysterious things, though, aren’t they—-earthquakes? We take for granted that the earth beneath our feet is solid and stationary. We even talk about people being ‘down to earth’ or having their feet firmly planted on the ground. But suddenly one day we see that it isn’t true. The earth, the boulders, that are supposed to be so solid, all of a sudden turn mushy as liquid…” (pg 76)

“You are a beautiful person, Doctor. Clearheaded. Strong. But you seem always to be dragging your heart along the ground. From now on, little by little, you must prepare yourself to face death. If you devote all of your future energy to living, you will not be able to die well. You must begin to shift gears, a little at a time. Living and dying are, in a sense, of equal value.” (pg 87)

I’m not going to quote it but the drawn similarity Nimit’s old employer made to polar bear relationships to human ones and why exactly to they even exist if they only have sex once to mate but never to see each other again was interesting.

Super-frog saves tokyo was absolutely awesome, and felt like I slipped in something done by Satoshi Kon. Themes of what is real might not always be real abound in this short story. As if Murakami knew the reader too would want to read Anna Karenina and “White Nights” just like the main character in this story realizes towards the end as to have a nice literary discussion with Frog. This story reminded me of the ending to Paranoia Agent in a way. Things seemed resolved but only for a short time kind of thing. I also cried manly tears at the end.

The last story honey pie wasn’t anything that left an impression on me, but it was cute. Something a hopeless romantic like myself would like. 3 friends come together. The two get married and the third guy regrets he never really even made a move on the girl before his friend did.

Loved this collection of stories. The characters are all developed significantly in each story. The language draws you in and is an easy read, but to understand the themes underneath might take multiple reads or analysis. A great way to get into the type of work Murakami does. I’m looking forward to reading more books by him.