Dance Dance Dance
by Haruki Murakami
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Read in June, 2008
I've read a lot of comparisons between Murakami and PKD and while I think that the two are comparable (Murakami even acknowledges this in the book), saying so is like calling them both economists. Phillip K. Dick is the macro-economist of transcendental human experience describing the sweeping changes of a landscape encompassing all technology and spirituality, while Murakami is the micro-economist looking at the subtle influences and almost non noteworty supernatural forces in our modern societ...more
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Read in July, 2007
"The whole scene seemed artificial and more than a little absurd. There wasn't anything specific that seemed odd. It was more the sense that i had happened upon the stage of an elaborate parody."
When you read a Murakami novel, you often find yourself placed in a world filled with (not so?) subtle references to other great works. Example one: in Dance Dance Dance, the narrator is taken to the local police station and interrogated in a manner that brings to mind Franz Kafka's ...more
When you read a Murakami novel, you often find yourself placed in a world filled with (not so?) subtle references to other great works. Example one: in Dance Dance Dance, the narrator is taken to the local police station and interrogated in a manner that brings to mind Franz Kafka's ...more
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Read in May, 2007
This book is a beautifully written social commentary, mystery novel, and of course fantasy. Set in Japan in the 1980s, at the height of the country's economic rise, it tells of a solitary magazine writer who suddenly has a strong urge to search for his old girlfriend. The only lead he has is a hotel he stayed in with her once, the Dolphin Hotel. As he tracks her down, he first finds that the hotel has changed from a tiny dump into a luxury high-rise, and yet there is a mystery within it. He ...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
people who have already read the wind-up bird chronicle and who are somewhat forgiving
Murakami reached his top form with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and followed it with the (not as good, but still fantastic) Kafka On The Shore. That being said, this novel was written in 1988 when Murakami still had a ways to go.
The same elements of his style are all here: the main character who is somewhat a loafer and who takes pleasure in simplistic daily routines, the precocious young female character who he sort of falls in love with but is more just friends with, the elements of magical...more
The same elements of his style are all here: the main character who is somewhat a loafer and who takes pleasure in simplistic daily routines, the precocious young female character who he sort of falls in love with but is more just friends with, the elements of magical...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
people who are already fans of Murakami.
The situation I read this book in is probably all-time high of life book reading. I was more or less stranded in the middle of a prefecture of Sichuan Province deep in the winter of 2008, stuck under a half foot of blankets and clutching this book with freezing hands for hours on end. Thank God for how engrossing Murakami short stories and novels are. I read the entire book in 3 days (very fast for a novel and I) and relished every page of it. It was a wonderful distraction from a house full...more
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Read in October, 2007
Antes, umas combinações: leio e escrevo em português. Daqui pra frente vou dar todos os dados dos livros aqui do Brasil - os gringos que cuidem de si mesmos.
Um Obsessivo, pra psicopatologia, é alguém de cinde radicalmente a emoção e o pensamento, optando pelo último como lanterna na vida.
Esse é um livro-escola sobre obsessão. E, surpresa!, retrata um processo de redenção(você, obsessivo, terá sorte se conseguir o mesmo tanto - pois a vida não é literatura).
Um fulano p...more
Um Obsessivo, pra psicopatologia, é alguém de cinde radicalmente a emoção e o pensamento, optando pelo último como lanterna na vida.
Esse é um livro-escola sobre obsessão. E, surpresa!, retrata um processo de redenção(você, obsessivo, terá sorte se conseguir o mesmo tanto - pois a vida não é literatura).
Um fulano p...more
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Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
Anyone leaving Asia
I was in the airport, waiting for my flight to board back to New York, as our month long trip through the Philippines and Thailand was ending. It was my first trip to Asia, and my interest in all things Eastern had grown enormously. So I browsed the mostly magazine store in Narita, and came across a large section of titles devoted to this one author, whose name seemed vaguely familiar.
The truth is I wasn't ready for the trip to end, was dreading the return to my New York routine, and this was...more
The truth is I wasn't ready for the trip to end, was dreading the return to my New York routine, and this was...more
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Read in May, 2008
So far, 1/8 of the way in I am mesmerized. I'm still waiting for the plot to begin, but I don't care. I feel like I've become an extension of the character's psyche.
1/2 way through. I can't stop reading. Does everyone have a Sheep Man of their own? Mine is an older lady who watches out for me and whispers in my ear if malevolent beings are in the area. There is no way that I'm reading the next book on my "to -read" list before another Murakami novel. This is too beautiful!...more
1/2 way through. I can't stop reading. Does everyone have a Sheep Man of their own? Mine is an older lady who watches out for me and whispers in my ear if malevolent beings are in the area. There is no way that I'm reading the next book on my "to -read" list before another Murakami novel. This is too beautiful!...more
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Read in June, 2008
This is my first foray (redundant much? please forgive)into Murakami. I hate to say that I'm actually surprised that I enjoyed it so much. I don't know, maybe I just assumed that since I'm not really into Asian Culture that I would write it off and just know that at least I'd given it a try.
The first person narrative approach usually doesn't work for me. I have a hard time escaping into the story, knowing that the character is just relaying it to me. But, here, the protaganist is able ...more
The first person narrative approach usually doesn't work for me. I have a hard time escaping into the story, knowing that the character is just relaying it to me. But, here, the protaganist is able ...more
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Read in November, 2006
I absolutely adore Murakami's way of creating bizarre incidents that aren't necessarily explained or tied together nicely like a typical mystery novel. Mind and reality clash in his works, and Dance, Dance, Dance is one of his most fascinating journeys of this clash.
The story centers around a place: a hotel that was once charmingly seedy but has undergone a complete transformation. When the protagonist tries to figure out what happened to the hotel's former existence, people get nervous. Rem...more
The story centers around a place: a hotel that was once charmingly seedy but has undergone a complete transformation. When the protagonist tries to figure out what happened to the hotel's former existence, people get nervous. Rem...more
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Read in June, 2008
The back of the book claims Murakami's like a "comedic Philip K. Dick". I don't necessarily agree with that, since PKD is kind of in his own league (the only other person who, in my mind, has matched him is Robert Anton Wilson, but he's just as crazy if not more so). That being said, this was an absolutely AMAZING book. Beautifully written, great characters, fantastic concept, really well-executed. I almost thought the shoveling-snow line was going to bug me, but it became this gre...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommended to Camilla by:
spencerrecommends it for: someone who would make it into a movie
I found this book so bewitching that I was incapable of putting it down. I read it during the space of 24 hrs, in which I also played laser tag and had some insomnia. I was actually surprised to be enjoying it so much, as the first Murakami book I read last month kind of left me cold. This book seemed much more human, mostly to do with the narrator, who is much more charming and easier to relate to than the one of the other book. The only trouble I had with this book, as with the other, was the ...more
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I just could not relate with the main character who was kind of a loser who becomes obsessed with finding out about an ex-girlfriend who never really liked him. His "whatever happened to her" thoughts take over his mind and he decides to live in a hotel where they once stayed in order to track her down. So if they weren't that great together, why does he change his whole life in order to find her? I don't get it.
The hotel is very surreal. It's as if he's living in a dream that is b...more
The hotel is very surreal. It's as if he's living in a dream that is b...more
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Read in July, 2007
RALAT! the book turned out to be GRRRRREAT! superb! mencengangkan! the best fictional writer ever and I am serious. if you dont believe it, read it!
it arised some doubts about my plan (and all the confidence) in writing a fiction.. i mean, now that i really know how good a fiction could be.. :(
reviewan sebelumnya saat masih gelap mata dan baru baca seperempatnya:
now I know how Murakami writes :) aaand.. not a fan. a bit popular-ish.. aww, what's the literature word for that...more
it arised some doubts about my plan (and all the confidence) in writing a fiction.. i mean, now that i really know how good a fiction could be.. :(
reviewan sebelumnya saat masih gelap mata dan baru baca seperempatnya:
now I know how Murakami writes :) aaand.. not a fan. a bit popular-ish.. aww, what's the literature word for that...more
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I can't really justify my love of Murakami. As far as I'm concerned, he writes novels specifically for me to read them. It would probably save us both a lot of time and trouble if he'd skip the publishing process and just slip his finished manuscripts under my door. So I'm biased, you could say.
In short: this is early (ish) Murakami. If you dig it you'll dig it, if not you won't. I dig it.
Just make sure you've read his "Trilogy of the Rat" before reading this. Seriously. ...more
In short: this is early (ish) Murakami. If you dig it you'll dig it, if not you won't. I dig it.
Just make sure you've read his "Trilogy of the Rat" before reading this. Seriously. ...more
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Read in January, 2008
I love this book. I know Murakami is constantly associated with Kaftka, and the associations are obvious once you read some of his stuff, but he is really in a class of his own. His books are metaphysical, mysterious, funny, and all the while he manages to give great commentary on modern values. I point in particular to a sex scene in Dance, Dance, Dance where the narrator beds prostitute Mei, and mentally marvels throughout at the wonder of modern capitalism. There is also a terrible, selfish n...more
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Read in April, 2008
We shall see if the hype is warranted ...
It wasn't, actually. I can see why people might be fans of Murakami -- he does have gems of ideas and concepts that grab you, for example, in Dance, Dance, Dance the notion that everything that exists is somehow connected, if only we could find the connections, and that a character (the Sheep Man -- real, imaginary, past, present, future, who knows, because the lines are blurred anyway) functions as a "switchboard", making the connections. Nic...more
It wasn't, actually. I can see why people might be fans of Murakami -- he does have gems of ideas and concepts that grab you, for example, in Dance, Dance, Dance the notion that everything that exists is somehow connected, if only we could find the connections, and that a character (the Sheep Man -- real, imaginary, past, present, future, who knows, because the lines are blurred anyway) functions as a "switchboard", making the connections. Nic...more
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Read in September, 2007
I do love the way he writes, but to be honest, I'm less than thrilled with were this story ended up. There's an intriguing introduction to a fantastical parallel world, but its an unsatisfactory interplay by stories end. It feels rather mundane and unexceptional as if the dank, dark world the protagonist frequently slips into is just another part of his every day life. Perhaps this is the point. But given what its compelling opening, this shift is frustrating and feels lazy, as if the writer cou...more
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Read in October, 2007
It's been said often enough that Murakami has his fixations: disappearing women, American jazz, alternate worlds, ridiculously hot sex scenes, lone men's platonic relationships with teenage girls. There's a lot of deja vu with his books, but "Dance Dance Dance" is a literal sequel to "Wild Sheep Chase," except that parts of it aren't continuous, which makes it feel a bit like a semi-amnesiac dream. Predictable or not, and as quickly as it is to read his stuff, he is as satisf...more
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Read in February, 2005
The mediocre sequel to A Wild Sheep chase. Our nameless protagonist once again goes off searching, this time for his perfect-eared girlfriend, Kiko, who disappeared at the end of the previous book. I think the hero hangs out with this precocious teenage girl named Yuki, goes to Hawaii, sleeps with some random women, etc. Pretty boring, actually. Who cares about Kiko? I guess she has perfect ears, but the search for her isn't nearly as interesting as the search for the sheep. This book is ok, but...more
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