Category Archives: Book Review

21Feb 2015

February Read: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

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colorless_tsukuruI picked up “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage” by Haruki Murakami right when it came out. I usually devour Murakami novels on my commutes, back when I lived in NYC. I don’t know whether it was this particular story or whether I lost that special time to read without carving that time out for myself again, but I just never finished that book, until now.

All of Murakami’s covers are unique, but this hardcover book had a great tactile feel and a satisfying collage image. I loved the compact little size. I am serious crushing on the aesthetics of this book. the colors used on the cover and in the story remind me of the stripe of colors of the cover of a Salinger novel.

This novel was approx. 390 pages, and a smaller novel in the vein of “After Dark.” Murakami short novels are very different from his short stories or his longer novels. I would never compare this to “Kafka On the Shore” or “IQ84”. However, I feel like it’s right to compare it to After Dark. Murakami novels get complex, but depending on the length of the work, the level of complexity varies (naturally). It’s dreamy with characters that come and go and disappear. There is a good amount of fantastical elements that make this a Murakami novel. The truth is though, his short novels always appear dreamy, like a short bittersweet dream, but never go to the abstract craziness of his longer novels. So, this tangent more or less just confirms that this novel was in the same vein of his other novels that are around this length.

The story for the most part is very settled with characters that are more or less real to the main character, with the exception of the character named Haida. Similar to earlier works, the main character is of similar age and demeanor (passive, shy/quiet, eats simple Japanese meals, etc.) as many of his other novels. He’s searching like his other characters from “Wind-up Bird Chronicle” or “Wild Sheep Chase,” just to name drop some other novels. However, unlike those earlier characters, Tsukuru us searching for a truth and his self. He’s searching for a history. It’s interesting, because his other characters in his earlier novels are searching for something similar, but it manifests as a lost best friend or lost wife. Or in the case of “Norwegian Wood,” it’s the loss of a manic pixie princess.

It ends like many other of his books. However, the realism in this book makes the ending… a little unsatisfying. There are so many unanswered questions. (One can only hope that this spans into something like the Sheep chronicles, where Sara’s history is uncovered.) This book left me wanting… more. It scratched my Murakami itch, but ultimately made it crave what he does best… which is craft long amazing tales. His strengths are still in long beautiful unconventional stories.

03Oct 2008

I’ve been sick and I blame you.

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Ok, so I blame the nerds that came to the book club reading two weeks ago and continued to come last Friday. I dislike the fact that people come to work / leave their apartments despite being sick. I am one of the few that would like sick people to just stay home. I understand that most people would like to and other institutions force them to come in. That being said, the book club member that usually holds the meetings at his apartment was sick… along with three other members.

Gen thinks we need to all stop swapping spit and getting each other sick or we won’t ever find out what knowledge is! And what is the point of having epistemology reading groups if we don’t get the happy meal at the end?!

I’ve been giving the Bikram thing a rest for a while. I figure it isn’t a good idea to go when I can barely breathe out of my nose. (since um, they ask you to breathe through your nose) I’ve had a lot of time to just sort of veg out and read. I’ve checked out Samuel R. Delany’s Einstein Intersection and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Memories of My Melancholy Whores.

The Einstein Intersection refers to two theories touted by the character Spider.

[Einstein,] with his Theory of Relativity defined the limits of man’s perception by expressing mathematically just how far the condition of the observer influences the thing he perceives… [And the other by] Godel, a contemporary of Einstein, who was the first to bring back a mathematically precise statement about the vaster realm beyond the limits Einstein had defined: In any closed mathematical system>/i> – you may read ‘the real world with its immutable laws of logic’ – there are an infinite number of true theorems – you may read ‘perceivable, measurable, phenomena’ – which, though contained in the original system, can not be deduced from it – read ‘proven with ordinary or extraordinary logic.

And in this world, humans are gone leaving only their relics and myths. Tales of Orpheus are repeated in the same breath as the “myth” of Ringo and the great rock and roll. The creatures left are struggling to deal with the differences cropping up and have only stories to remind and comfort them.

The title refers to Einstein’s special relativity, where things in similar motion have similar laws of physics, and where similar context allows for similar views, whereas different motions between subject allows for differing laws of physics, and vice versa. In this theory difference stems from a lack of context, Godel’s theory serves as that which constantly looks out towards the irrational. In this respect, the text is grappling with the role of Myth, whether it takes an Einsteinian role or Godelian role. Does it offer the context or does it offer examples, instances, and difference? Which choice does Lobey make, between the real and the rest? You gotta read it to find out!

From another angle, this is a love story seemingly modeled after Orpheus and Eurydice, where Lobey goes off in search of his lover Friza. You see, she is different than the others and has “powers.” The wise woman of his clan offers the consolation that he is different too. Lobey decides to go off in search of the mysterious “Kid Death,” to retrieve his love and live happily ever after hopefully with the great rock and roll.

The novel is dreamy, fragmented, and witty. These strange mutated furry polygamous creatures with different color hair, who cage up their “non-functional” little ones, are very human to a peculiar degree. This format works given the underlying question of myth in this novel. Read it for the experience, and not for the story.

The second book by Marquez is in the same tradition as Nabokov’s Lolita. However, the protagonist is not such a villan, but an weathered old man at the end of his finances and life. This is basically a reversed story of Selene and Endymion, to use a similar myth. He falls for an under aged whore he contracts that he does not touch. He soon realizes that he prefers her to be asleep and would not even be able to recognize her if she were awake.

Some of his writing is beautiful and funny, and he is thoughtful about getting old. It’s a short and sweet book that will pass the time and intrigue you. The agonizing parts are made light due to the main character’s sweet demeanor and his neuroses never become the thing of Humbolt. Let’s just say that it didn’t quite rock my world, though.

03Oct 2008

I've been sick and I blame you.

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Ok, so I blame the nerds that came to the book club reading two weeks ago and continued to come last Friday. I dislike the fact that people come to work / leave their apartments despite being sick. I am one of the few that would like sick people to just stay home. I understand that most people would like to and other institutions force them to come in. That being said, the book club member that usually holds the meetings at his apartment was sick… along with three other members.

Gen thinks we need to all stop swapping spit and getting each other sick or we won’t ever find out what knowledge is! And what is the point of having epistemology reading groups if we don’t get the happy meal at the end?!

I’ve been giving the Bikram thing a rest for a while. I figure it isn’t a good idea to go when I can barely breathe out of my nose. (since um, they ask you to breathe through your nose) I’ve had a lot of time to just sort of veg out and read. I’ve checked out Samuel R. Delany’s Einstein Intersection and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Memories of My Melancholy Whores.

The Einstein Intersection refers to two theories touted by the character Spider.

[Einstein,] with his Theory of Relativity defined the limits of man’s perception by expressing mathematically just how far the condition of the observer influences the thing he perceives… [And the other by] Godel, a contemporary of Einstein, who was the first to bring back a mathematically precise statement about the vaster realm beyond the limits Einstein had defined: In any closed mathematical system>/i> – you may read ‘the real world with its immutable laws of logic’ – there are an infinite number of true theorems – you may read ‘perceivable, measurable, phenomena’ – which, though contained in the original system, can not be deduced from it – read ‘proven with ordinary or extraordinary logic.

And in this world, humans are gone leaving only their relics and myths. Tales of Orpheus are repeated in the same breath as the “myth” of Ringo and the great rock and roll. The creatures left are struggling to deal with the differences cropping up and have only stories to remind and comfort them.

The title refers to Einstein’s special relativity, where things in similar motion have similar laws of physics, and where similar context allows for similar views, whereas different motions between subject allows for differing laws of physics, and vice versa. In this theory difference stems from a lack of context, Godel’s theory serves as that which constantly looks out towards the irrational. In this respect, the text is grappling with the role of Myth, whether it takes an Einsteinian role or Godelian role. Does it offer the context or does it offer examples, instances, and difference? Which choice does Lobey make, between the real and the rest? You gotta read it to find out!

From another angle, this is a love story seemingly modeled after Orpheus and Eurydice, where Lobey goes off in search of his lover Friza. You see, she is different than the others and has “powers.” The wise woman of his clan offers the consolation that he is different too. Lobey decides to go off in search of the mysterious “Kid Death,” to retrieve his love and live happily ever after hopefully with the great rock and roll.

The novel is dreamy, fragmented, and witty. These strange mutated furry polygamous creatures with different color hair, who cage up their “non-functional” little ones, are very human to a peculiar degree. This format works given the underlying question of myth in this novel. Read it for the experience, and not for the story.

The second book by Marquez is in the same tradition as Nabokov’s Lolita. However, the protagonist is not such a villan, but an weathered old man at the end of his finances and life. This is basically a reversed story of Selene and Endymion, to use a similar myth. He falls for an under aged whore he contracts that he does not touch. He soon realizes that he prefers her to be asleep and would not even be able to recognize her if she were awake.

Some of his writing is beautiful and funny, and he is thoughtful about getting old. It’s a short and sweet book that will pass the time and intrigue you. The agonizing parts are made light due to the main character’s sweet demeanor and his neuroses never become the thing of Humbolt. Let’s just say that it didn’t quite rock my world, though.