2008-05-20 One Star...? Hmmmm

Simon Barrett's two line review (previously posted) isn't helpful when considering whether to read this book and as a thirty five year old I find him patronising.

This isn't Murakami's best work and I don't think that his short stories really give him the length of work that he needs to fully develop his ideas. Having read how Murakami writes - he alternates between novels & short stories, sometimes developing short stories in to novels - I think you've really got to read the 'Sheep' novels or Kafka On The Shore to be drawn in to the maelstrom of ideas & surreal madness that he can conjure.

For me Murakami's the literary version of John Coltrane or Ornette Coleman. You've just got to go with it, don't worry about understanding everything, let it twist & turn, it'll reward you for it.

For Mr Barrett to call The Wind Up Bird Chronicle 'execrable' is pointless without telling the prospective reader why.

But then, I'm not likely to take literary criticism seriously from a man who recommends a Ten Thousand Maniacs album ;-)