false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179321881m/903154.jpg 17799 39 In <I>South of the Border, West of the Sun</I>, the arc of an average man's life from childhood to middle age, with its attendant rhythms of success and disappointment, becomes the kind of exquisite literary conundrum that is Haruki Murakami's trademark. The plot is simple: Hajime meets and falls in love with a girl in elementary school, but he loses touch with her when his family moves to another town. He drifts through high school, college, and his 20s, before marrying and settling into a career as a successful bar owner. Then his childhood sweetheart returns, weighed down with secrets: <blockquote> When I went back into the bar, a glass and ashtray remained where she had been. A couple of lightly crushed cigarette butts were lined up in the ashtray, a faint trace of lipstick on each. I sat down and closed my eyes. Echoes of music faded away, leaving me alone. In that gentle darkness, the rain continued to fall without a sound. </blockquote> Murakami eschews the fantastic elements that appear in many of his other novels and stories, and readers hoping for a glimpse of the Sheep Man will be disappointed. Yet <I>South of the Border, West of the Sun</I> is as rich and mysterious as anything he has written. It is above all a complex, moving, and honest meditation on the nature of love, distilled into a work with the crystal clarity of a short story. A Nat "King" Cole song, a figure on a crowded street, a face pressed against a car window, a handful of ashes drifting down a river to the sea are woven together into a story that refuses to arrive at a simple conclusion. The classic love triangle may seem like a hackneyed theme for a writer as talented as Murakami, but in his quietly dazzling way, he bends us to his own unique geometry. <I>--Simon Leake</I> 1739145 book 1992 South of the Border, West of the Sun total:4781|5:1089|4:1940|3:1417|2:291|1:44| 4781 18082 6118 330 4 7 false false Tue Mar 11 16:08:24 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 19 21:35:18 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 12 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Feb 16 10:43:28 -0800 2008 Sun Apr 26 16:47:45 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 6 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 23 10:41:39 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 26 07:06:32 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 3 false false Thu Jul 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 22 14:51:13 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 02 19:32:09 -0700 2009 "عنوان الرواية «جنوب الحدود، غرب الشمس» هو عبارة عن توليفة ابتدعها خيال الروائي، ليختزل، بهذه الاستعارة الذكية، مزاج بطل روايته، ومخاوف...more...]]> 5 4 false false Tue Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Fri Nov 16 03:12:03 -0800 2007 Fri Nov 16 04:04:36 -0800 2007
firmly believe that you d...more...]]> 2 2 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 28 22:46:19 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 15:41:27 -0800 2008
I found Hajime an infinitely unlikeable character, but I couldn't put my finger on the details of why. He had no problem doing things that would hurt the women he claimed to "l...more...]]> 5 2 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Wed Jul 11 20:48:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 22 16:11:26 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Dec 26 17:58:20 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 18 16:28:41 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 26 17:58:20 -0800 2008
"Her hand, which up till then had laid on the back of the sofa, she now placed on her knee. I stared vacantly at her fingers tracing the plaid pattern of her skirt. There was something mysterious about it, as if invisible thread emanating from her fingertips spun together...more...]]> 3 2 false false Sat Apr 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 03 12:42:06 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 19 16:31:34 -0700 2009 قرأتها فقد سبق وأن قرأت مجموعه قصصيه صينيه منذ فتره
تمتد للسنتين .. عندما بدأت هذه التي الروايه كنت اشعر أن هناك شيء ما
...more...]]> 2 1 false false Fri Jul 28 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Sat Apr 12 16:51:32 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 12 16:54:55 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Thu May 10 06:43:18 -0700 2007 Thu May 10 08:48:50 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Dec 27 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 11 19:18:41 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 28 08:17:16 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Jun 17 23:07:54 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 07 00:35:53 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Mar 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 25 20:40:24 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 25 21:23:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Dec 29 22:10:05 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 00:12:15 -0800 2008 And of course a l...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Dec 23 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 22 22:14:01 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 23 05:42:10 -0800 2008 Dance, Dance, Dance slightly more, but this is also a really good novel.

There's an elegance to Murakami's prose that is really satisfying to read. Someone likened it to jazz, and there's something in that. Smooth, cool, Kind Of Blue jazz.
...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Aug 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 19:48:06 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 20 17:40:55 -0700 2009
"Gefährliche Geliebte" ist ...more...]]> 5 0 false true Sun Sep 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 05 14:15:39 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 13:14:03 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Aug 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 04 15:03:05 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 04 15:10:42 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Feb 22 10:37:31 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 22 10:41:35 -0800 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=903154