I once asked a Haruki Murakami reader, where would you place his books? Not Harold Bloom but equally opinionated, the faithful reader immediately replied, and added, “Magical realism; the plots are plausible, yet they are not.” He, of course, was referring to the absurd scenarios in Murakami’s stories made superbly feasible by his elegant storytelling; for example, A Shingawa Monkey (2006), in which a monkey from one of Tokyo’s special wards steals names of young women whom he desires. I refer to this essay only because the monkey and its story reappear in this collection.
There are eight stories in all and the magic unleashed is a testament to not only Murakami but also his polyglot translator Philip Gabriel. In Murakami’s book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, we get to understand his passion for running. Likewise in this, the author’s relationship with music is reinforced, almost to the point of being didactic. In fact, reading First Person Singular will ge
9 New Books We Recommend This Week
April 29, 2021
There are woods near my house where I sometimes head when I’m craving green shadows and stillness, a reminder that time and nature have very little to do with the human scale of things. Very little but not nothing: As Scott Weidensaul points out in his new book about migratory birds, “A World on the Wing,” humans are deeply implicated in the recent decimation of aviation species. If you love the woods as I do, this book will make you more alert to the chirrups and whistles and flashes of movement in the canopy above you and give you new respect for birds’ incredible abilities. It’s one of our recommended titles this week.
Bookcase: First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami and Stronger by Poorna Bell droitwichstandard.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from droitwichstandard.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Apr 25, 2021
If you were to enumerate the problems besetting Japanese society, bullying would be high on that list. In school and at work, bullying and other forms of harassment are the root cause of horrific statistics for mental health and suicide. For all the talk and hand-wringing, however, year on year little seems to improve.
Lonely Castle in the Mirror, by Mizuki Tsujimura
Translated by Philip Gabriel
DOUBLEDAY
Given the ubiquity of the problem, it’s perhaps no surprise that “Lonely Castle in the Mirror,” Mizuki Tsujimura’s respectful, moving novel about teenage bullying in the Tokyo suburbs, made such an impact upon publication in 2017. It has sold more than 500,000 copies to date, and won the Japan Booksellers’ Award in 2018. Now, it’s been given an English translation by Philip Gabriel.