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Ten Zuiden Van De Grens

Haruki Murakami

3.88 · Rating details · 90,120 ratings · 5,670 reviews

Hajime is naast de succesvolle eigenaar van een nachtclub ook echtgenoot en vader. Jaren eerder was hij verliefd op Shimamoto, maar hij is haar uit het oog verloren. Dan komen ze elkaar weer tegen, en blijkt dat haar leven gehuld is in geheimen. Hajime zet alles op alles om zijn jeugdliefde weer te veroveren.

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Paperback, 240 pages

Published October 22nd 2013 by Atlas Contact (first published October 5th 1992)

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Mar 11, 2008 Kelly Jean Egan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Whatever Murakami book I am reading, I find myself stepping back into the same world as before, with all of the same characters and themes of wells and transience and strangely poignant details like gold lighters and classical music records and the myriad spaghetti dinners--the mundane details of everyday life spun into a dreamy tapestry. The fact that every Murakami book I read seems to feel the same is a good thing in this author's case. His tone is something quite distinct. Every time I read ...more

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Feb 22, 2011 Ian "Marvin" Graye rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: reviews-5-stars, read-2011, reviews, mura-karmic-wonder-land, nippon

A Companion Intervenes

I re-read “South of the Border” immediately after re-reading “Norwegian Wood”, as part of my training regime for Murakami’s “1Q84”.

Although they were written five years apart and were separated by “Dance Dance Dance”, they are good companion pieces.

They stand out from Murakami’s other novels because they explore love and its consequences almost exclusively.

Although some things and events go unexplained, there is little of the surrealism and absurdity that characterizes mos ...more

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Dec 14, 2012 B Schrodinger rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, japan

The other night a friend mentioned she is reading '1Q84' at the moment and it got me all nostalgic for a Murakami experience. So choosing one at random of the ever diminishing list of Murakami's I haven't read yet I chose 'South of the Border, West of the Sun'.

What do you get? Unsurprisingly a story that is Murakami. There is an every-man protagonist, mysterious lady from the past, jazz, university protests, people with deformities... I could go on or just use the Murakami Bingo:

Desipite being ...more

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Dec 24, 2011 Boysie Freeman (not my real name, it's just my Internet name) rated it did not like it · review of another edition

At first I dislike this book but now I am confident to say that I hate it.

It's about this shallow and whiny man who wronged every women he put his hand on (probably because he is so deep, no one can understand him since he's the only child, yes, you gotta remember how painful it is for this Hajime guy to be the only child)... except his childhood sweetheart who is so deep that she never has a real personality but some random emo appeal which cannot make me care less. The author tried so hard bu ...more

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Oct 09, 2015 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: japan, culture, magical-realism, romance, 20th-century, literature, novels

Kokkyō no Minami, Taiyō no Nishi = South of the border, west of the sun, Haruki Murakami

South of the Border, West of the Sun is a short novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. Publication date: 1992.

The novel tells the story of Hajime, starting from his childhood in a small town in Japan. Here he meets a girl, Shimamoto, who is also an only child and suffers from polio, which causes her to drag her leg as she walks.

They spend most of their time together talking about their interests in life Kokkyō no Minami, Taiyō no Nishi = South of the border, west of the sun, Haruki Murakami

South of the Border, West of the Sun is a short novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. Publication date: 1992.

The novel tells the story of Hajime, starting from his childhood in a small town in Japan. Here he meets a girl, Shimamoto, who is also an only child and suffers from polio, which causes her to drag her leg as she walks.

They spend most of their time together talking about their interests in life and listening to records on Shimamoto's stereo. Eventually, they join different high schools and grow apart. They are reunited again at the age of 36, Hajime now the father of two children and owner of two successful jazz bars in Aoyama, the trendy part of Tokyo.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: بیست و پنجم ماه نوامبر سال 2016میلادی

عنوان: جنوب مرز، غرب خورشید؛ نویسنده: هاروکی موراکامی؛ مترجم: کیوان سلطانی؛ تهران، نشر بدیل؛ 1393، در 179ص؛ شابک 9786009423033؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان ژاپنی سده 20م

عنوان: جنوب مرز، غرب خورشید؛ نویسنده: هاروکی موراکامی؛ مترجم: سلماز (سولماز) بهگام؛ مشهد، ترانه دانیال دامون؛ 1394، در 272 ص؛ شابک 9786007061091؛

موراکامی بسیار محبوب هستند، و برخی منتقدان نیز آثار ایشان را بزرگوار می‌دانند؛ آثار ایشان معمولاً مایه‌ هایی از «سورئالیسم» دارند، و به موضوعاتی همانند از خود بیگانگی می‌پردازند

نقل از متن: (سی سالم بود که زن گرفتم؛ با زنم تو یکی از تعطیلات تابستونی که تنهایی سفر می‌کردم آشنا شدم؛ پنج سال از من جوون‌تر بود؛ داشتم تو یکی از جاده ‌های روستایی راه می‌رفتم، که یه دفعه ‌ای بارون گرفت؛ من هم دوون دوون خودمو به اولین جایی رسوندم که می‌شد از دست بارون در امون بود؛ اون و یکی از دوست‌هاش هم اون‌جا ایستاده بودن، و منتظر بودن بارون بند بیاد؛ سه‌ تایی‌ مون موش آب کشیده شده بودیم؛ طولی نکشید که سه‌ تایی‌ شروع کردیم به حرف زدن تا بارون بند بیاد؛ اگه هیچ بارونی درکار نبود، یا مثلاً اگه با خودم چتر برده بودم که احتمالش خیلی زیاد بود، چون قبل از اینکه از هتل بزنم بیرون داشتم چترمو برمی‌داشتم که یه دفعه منصرف شدم؛ هیچ‌وقت اونو نمی‌دیدم؛ اگه اونو نمی‌دیدم، بعید نبود که هنوز تو همون شرکت کتاب‌های درسی گرفتار باشم، و با ناامیدی به دیوار اتاق نشیمن خونه ‌ام، تو اون آپارتمان کذایی، تکیه بدم، و تنهایی مشروب بخورم، و با خودم حرف بزنم؛ این اتفاق باعث میشه این حقیقت تلخ رو با همه‌ ی وجودم درک کنم؛ این حقیقت که کوچک‌ترین احتمال‌هایی که تو مسیر زندگی‌ سر راهمون قرار می‌گیرن، میتونن به یه چشم بهم زدن، آینده مونو دگرگون کنن، و زندگی‌مونو برای همیشه تغییر بدن؛ من و «یوکیکو» از همون لحظه‌ ی اول، جذب همدیگه شدیم؛ دوستش خیلی از خودش خوشگل‌تر بود، اما چشمم فقط «یوکیکو» رو می‌دید و بس؛ یه جذابیت قوی و غیرمنطقی، ما دوتا رو به طرف هم می‌کشید؛ تقریباً دیگه داشتم فراموش می‌کردم مغناطیس تو رابطه چه مفهومی داره، و چه شکلیه؛ اون هم تو «توکیو» زندگی می‌کرد، به همین خاطر به محض اینکه سفرمون تموم شد، فوراً با هم قرار گذاشتیم، و همدیگه رو دیدیم؛ هرچی بیشتر می‌دیدمش، بیشتر ازش خوشم میومد؛ خوشبختانه «یوکیکو» از اون دسته زن‌هایی بود، که به چشم مردهای دیگه نمیومد، و ظاهرش خیلی جلب توجه نمی‌کرد؛ اما یه چیزی تو صورتش داشت، که معنی ‌اش رو فقط من می‌فهمیدم؛ هر وقت با هم قرار داشتیم، نگاه طولانی و عمیقی بهش می‌انداختم، و مطمئن می‌شدم عاشق اون چیزیم که دارم می‌بینم؛ همیشه می‌پرسید «چرا این‌طوری بهم خیره میشی؟» من هم می‌گفتم «چون‌ خیلی زیبایی.» «تو اولین کسی هستی که همچین حرفی می‌زنی.» «چون من تنها کسی ‌ام که می‌فهمم تو چقدر زیبایی؛ باور کن فقط من می‌دونم.» اوایل آشنایی‌مون حرفمو باور نمی‌کرد اما خیلی زود فهمید دروغ نمیگم، و فیلم بازی نمی‌کنم؛ اغلب می‌رفتیم به جاهای خلوت و آروم، و با هم حرف می‌زدیم؛ می‌تونستم در مورد هر چیزی باهاش حرف بزنم، بدون اینکه مجبور باشم مراقب کلمه‌ هام باشم، خودمو سانسور کنم، یا یه بحث دیگه رو پیش بکشم؛ می‌تونستم سنگینی دهسالِ از دست رفته‌ ی زندگیم رو‌ به وضوح حس کنم، همه ‌ی اون سال‌هایی که بیهوده گذشت، و منو از پا درآورد؛ باید پیش از اینکه دیر می‌شد، قسمت‌های از دست رفتمو به خودم برمی‌گردوندم؛ وقتی «یوکیکو» رو تو بغلم می‌گرفتم، یه حس دیرآشنا سراغم میومد؛ یه حسی که مدت‌ها بود تو لایه‌ های زیرین روحم اسیر شده بود، و راه رهایی نداشت؛ وقتی از هم خداحافظی می‌کردیم، احساس می‌کردم ،دوباره گم شده ام؛ گمشده ‌ای تو دنیای غریبه و تلخ خودم؛ تنهایی آزارم می‌داد، و سکوت کلافه ‌ام می‌کرد؛ یه هفته قبل از تولد سی ‌سالگیم، بعد از سه ماه رفت‌ و آمد، و با هم بودن، ازش خواستگاری کردم؛ باباش رئیس یه شرکت ساختمونی تقریباً بزرگ بود؛ مرد خوبی بود؛ شخصیت جالبی هم داشت؛ اون مرد حتی دیپلم نداشت، ولی از اون آدم‌هایی بود، که دنبال آینده ‌شون رفته بودن، و فردا رو با دست‌های خودشون ‌ساخته بودن؛ خیلی تندمزاج بود، و این خصوصیتش چندان با روحیات من سازگار نبود؛ توکیو رو تو مرسدس بنزش با راننده ‌اش می‌گشت، و به کارهاش می‌رسید، اما حتی یهذره‌ خودپسندی و خود بزرگ ‌بینی تو رفتارش دیده نمیشد؛ وقتی رفتم ببینمش و ازش اجازه بگیرم، تا با دخترش ازدواج کنم، بهم گفت «شماها که دیگه بچه نیستین، اگه همدیگه رو دوست دارین بقیه‌ اش به خودتون مربوطه»»؛ پایان نقل

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 22/07/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی ...more

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Feb 16, 2008 Martine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: asian, modern-fiction, psychological-drama, favourites

I never fail to be impressed by the way Murakami captures mood and feelings. Even in his less fantastic novels, of which this is one, he draws you into a world that is all his, and so full of possibilities and connections that you feel you could grasp them if you reached out. Except you don't, because in Murakami's universe it's easier to stay put and wait than to get actively involved. It's about memories and reminiscences, about wishes and alternate realities, and if you were to reach out and I never fail to be impressed by the way Murakami captures mood and feelings. Even in his less fantastic novels, of which this is one, he draws you into a world that is all his, and so full of possibilities and connections that you feel you could grasp them if you reached out. Except you don't, because in Murakami's universe it's easier to stay put and wait than to get actively involved. It's about memories and reminiscences, about wishes and alternate realities, and if you were to reach out and touch anything, you would break the carefully crafted atmosphere, leaving nothing but some loner's neurotic ramblings about the things he should have done but sadly never did. You wouldn't want to do that, now would you?

South of the Border, West of the Sun is set in a familiar Murakami landscape where lonely men listen to jazz and classical music, get obsessed with mysterious women with death in their eyes, and crave a connection with just one fellow soul. This time around, the protagonist is Hajime, a man in his late thirties who seems to be going through a bit of a mid-life crisis. Reasonably happily married and the successful owner of two jazz bars, Hajime seems to have it all, except for two things: he can't really connect to anyone, and he is haunted by memories of the women he has wronged. Most of all, he is haunted by the memory of his childhood friend Shimamoto, the only person in his life to whom he has ever been close, but of whom he lost sight at age twelve. And then Shimamoto suddenly reappears in his life, tempting him with promises of closeness and understanding and confusing him profoundly.

As stories of mid-life crises and marital infidelity go, this one is nothing out of the ordinary. It follows Hajime through his obsession with Shimamoto and his insecurities, regrets and justifications, leading him all the way to some modicum of self-discovery. So far, so generic adultery novel. What sets the book apart from countless other such books is its mood. Like other Murakami books, South of the Border, West of the Sun is a mood piece. It has a dreamlike, timeless quality, a mellow intensity, and a jazz-and-rain-fuelled melancholy which occasionally drips off the pages. It evokes loneliness and obsession in a way few other authors manage to evoke them. It's like being submerged in a bath of longing and nostalgia, and I, for one, really enjoy that sort of thing. There's something quite cathartic about it.

Much has been said about Hajime, the protagonist of South of the Border. Like many Murakami characters, Hajime is not an action hero; he spends most of the book waiting for fate to deal him a lucky card, and when he finally gets it, he doesn't really know what to do with it. Nor does he seem to notice that the cards he was initially dealt were actually quite good. He is a dreamer and a drifter, floating through a world in which he doesn't seem properly anchored, feeling rather than observing, longing rather than acting. He is haunted by memories and wallows in his own mistakes without having the guts to address them. He is not necessarily the world's most attractive protagonist, but all the same it is interesting watching the world through his eyes, sensing his guilt and sharing his cravings. And if he doesn't seem to be all that different from countless other Murakami protagonists, well, so be it. That's Murakami for you -- writing the same story featuring the same protagonist over and over again, but in a way which keeps you coming back for more.

As for Murakami's refusal to tie up the loose ends in this book, which seems to baffle certain reviewers, I like that. I like that we never find out exactly what Shimamoto has been up to for all these years. I like that her disappearance remains unexplained. I even like the fact that we never find out her first name (Hajime keeps calling her by her family name, even when they are having sex). It adds an air of detachment and mystery to the novel, which in turn just adds to its dreamlike quality. It allows you to fill in the blanks yourself, and at the end of the day, that is what I like most about good fiction -- its ability to make you fantasise and write parts of the story yourself. Maybe that's why I like Murakami so much; he draws me into brilliant moodscapes and leaves me there, thinking, feeling, wondering what I would do in a given position. Sometimes I wish I never had to leave his world, but alas, even the best jazz gets tedious after a while... ...more

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Jul 21, 2017 Mutasim Billah rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: japan

".....the sad truth is that certain types of things can’t go backward. Once they start going forward, no matter what you do, they can’t go back the way they were. If even one little thing goes awry, then that’s how it will stay forever."

South of the Border, West of the Sun is a short novel by Haruki Murakami. Here, we read the story of one Hajime's journey from childhood to middle age. The novel explores themes of post-war capitalism and culture in Japan in the 20th century, infidelity in re ...more

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Oct 13, 2019 Steven Godin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, japan

Lost loves and existential romance haunt in what was for Murakami a tender and mellowed out novel, which oddly still had a gripping edge to it, but I can't pinpoint exactly why. Maybe it's simply down to the fact this is Murakami, and here, even though the story is a simple one, I never truly felt in the comfort zone, like there was an underlying menace, and that something unexpected was going to happen at any moment.
He loves a good sex scene does Murakami, and they can be found here also, but a Lost loves and existential romance haunt in what was for Murakami a tender and mellowed out novel, which oddly still had a gripping edge to it, but I can't pinpoint exactly why. Maybe it's simply down to the fact this is Murakami, and here, even though the story is a simple one, I never truly felt in the comfort zone, like there was an underlying menace, and that something unexpected was going to happen at any moment.
He loves a good sex scene does Murakami, and they can be found here also, but at least here his eroticism feels like it's in the right place and at the right time, and not crawling out of the woodwork at the oddest of moments like he has done before. He leaves his Kafkaesque side behind here, with no strange happenings or talking cats, but there are other Murakami trademarks like whisky and jazz that feel right at home.

In a nutshell, this is the tale of obsessive attraction told with a quiet psychological power.
The central figure is Hajime, born, as he tells us on the first page, early in the second half of the 20th century, he is your average person from a typical family. He is, in other words, part of the regeneration that repopulated Japan after World War II, and never experienced any real hardships. Typical Japanese families has several children, but Hajime is an only child, and that bothers him as people assume he must therefore be spoiled and self-centered. In his lonely world Hajime only one true friend, a girl named Shimamoto, who is also an only child, and they click really well.
After moving away he soon stops seeing Shimamoto until many years later after he is settled into family life with wife and kids. But in her unobtrusive way, she has stolen into his being, such that no other person can ever be fully meaningful to him. He has experiences with other women, including a high school sweetheart named Izumi, but Shimamoto is always present at the back of his mind. Then out of nowhere Shimamoto comes back into his life, after they had parted as 12-year-olds. She is as beautiful as Hajime had imagined, but with the passing of time something has changed, and she is gripped by a dark power about which she says nothing. The novel then shifts tonally and consists of their strange obsessive attraction, and the ineffable meaning that each has for the other.

One of the skills with this novel, is that Murakami creates a vague sense of perilousness as his characters go about their business. This is for the most part down to the psychological fragility that is the book's motif. There are deep cracks in the shells that each character lives within.
It is as if these lives can be fatally wounded with the slightest mistake, and, given the weakness and self-centered nature that is embedded in Hajime's core, the danger of that is always lurking close by. Like other Murakami novels I have read, it feels like there is an invisible force or mysterious power running through the pages, that compels his characters to the very harmful acts that will end up ruining them. I have to say, I didn't particularly think of Hajime as a likeable person, but I can at least understand some of his actions. He still loved his wife, he still loved his children, but without Shimamoto something was always missing.

Murakami's narrative style here is as spare and unornamented as a traditional Japanese room, and it's a stripped back style that suited the novel really well. A delicate and affecting work, and certainly one of Murakami's more realistic novels, but it's one that I still found had a dreamy quality to it. ...more

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Aug 23, 2009 Eddie Watkins rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: japanese-fiction

This book is the literary equivalent of cloud paintings. I’m not talking John Constable’s clouds, which are dense with specificity from a keen and earthy eye; but rather New Agey cloud paintings, which are designed to be innocuous and calming, to not stimulate the eye, to induce a meditative state and readjust the spirit and turn one away from the tangible.

So South of the Border, West of the Sun is not all bad – it does satisfy all the above criteria for New Agey cloud paintings – and I have no This book is the literary equivalent of cloud paintings. I’m not talking John Constable’s clouds, which are dense with specificity from a keen and earthy eye; but rather New Agey cloud paintings, which are designed to be innocuous and calming, to not stimulate the eye, to induce a meditative state and readjust the spirit and turn one away from the tangible.

So South of the Border, West of the Sun is not all bad – it does satisfy all the above criteria for New Agey cloud paintings – and I have no beefs with calmness and spirit clarifying, but that’s not typically why I turn to art, whether it be paintings or literature. I typically turn to art to be engaged with the materials of that art. Of course I’m also interested in the overall effect of those materials, in the work of art per se, that unquantifiable essence of what has been accomplished; but I like this essence to be composed of tangible things, things I can chew on and wrestle with, things I can be viscerally engaged with.

This book is all essence and forced me to readjust my reading habits. I had to actually remove my focus from the words themselves, and to let them pass intact – like cloudy kidney stones painlessly through my urethra – through my reading eyes and brain and straight into my conceptualizing mind, where they formed something quite small for a novel of over 200 pages. The essence of this book is that “All things with form can vanish at any moment, but emotion abides”, an admirable enough concept that I wholeheartedly accept; but is that why I read, to ingest thousands of words that instantly vaporize in my mind leaving a paltry residue such as that? Zen koans can perform that feat in ten words or less. Again, I turn to art to be engaged with the materials of that art.

In his essay on marathon running Murakami refers to himself as boring, and now I'm inclined to believe him. The protagonist of this book is clearly a stand-in for Murakami, and is numbingly dull. He’s a “successful” family man who likes jazz and to have his balls licked, not much of a Curriculum Vitae that, so it’s augmented with a fixation on a girl he was friends with when he was 12. Granted, this is the “meat” (or rather tofu) of the plot, and is sweet and somewhat moving as it morphs through the vicissitudes of his life, though some of its impact was lost on me because now I don’t quite believe Murakami. I don’t believe he’s in touch with an inner purity aglow with a spiritual innocence. I don’t believe his romantic idealism. I don't believe in the transcendence of his imagination. I don't believe there are women who like to lick his balls. And not believing these things about him substantially lessened the impact of the main character’s final transformation into the first stages of a complete and interesting being.

Which begs the question – who wants to read a book whose main character doesn’t become interesting until after the final word?

But then is that possibly the point of this book? Given the delicate and profound beauty of the final image, and given the vapidity of the preceeding 200+ pages, is it possible that the book itself is an embodiment of the essence I previously pointed out; that the bulk of the novel itself represents the form destined to vanish and that the final emotionally charged image is what abides? I applaud Murakami if that is the case, at least for his conceptual gumption; but still I'd rather read a book that wasn't designed to be innocuous. Give me some meat on my words.

...more

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Jun 01, 2016 Jim Fonseca rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This novel starts out as a coming-of-age story of a young Japanese man. Like other Murakami novels we have cats, Western culture and music – both American pop and European classical music. To the cats we can add lame women because there are two in this story. Another major theme of this book is that the main character and several others are an “only child” and the characters discuss what this means. This makes a lot of sense in Japanese culture with its exceptionally low birth rate to the point ...more

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Oct 30, 2018 Sid rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Life, with everyone, is always suspended between two possibilities ( What you want to do? And what you should do?), whenever you need to make a decision. The rest of the life moves according to the choice you make, which decides if you are going to have an *apparently-happy-looking* life or the one where your heart is satisfied with what you have and doesn't let you roam in the direction of what-ifs? The path of *what you want to do* is hard as a rock but the one I would always prefer. You can't ...more

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Jan 28, 2008 Lisa rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I really didn't enjoy this book, but it did make me think about why, so at least it had that going for it.

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 "love", even as he said that there must be something wrong with him for doing so. I think of "that's just the way I am, nothing to be done" as the worst, laziest possible excuse for bad behavior toward others.

But it was I really didn't enjoy this book, but it did make me think about why, so at least it had that going for it.

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 "love", even as he said that there must be something wrong with him for doing so. I think of "that's just the way I am, nothing to be done" as the worst, laziest possible excuse for bad behavior toward others.

But it wasn't until I got to the end of the story that I began to be able to articulate what I disliked about Hajime, and therefore the book. Hajime loses the only dream he's ever had in life, Shimamoto, though he knows absolutely zero about her as an adult (somehow that doesn't matter...he just wants the dream, not a real person). He is crushed at the somehow dismal prospect of providing dreams for others (his family), instead of pursuing his own dream no matter the cost. I found that utterly depressing. A character that a) can't generate new dreams in life, and b) is miserable about the newly discovered prospect of providing for the dreams of people he claims to love, is utterly unappealing to me. I wonder if Hajime was meant as an illustration of a total failure of a human-in-relationship, or whether he was supposed to be a somewhat sympathetic character and I just hated him anyway.

The only book I can compare it to that I really did like is Lolita. Reading that book, it was crystal clear that we were reading a story offered to us by a wildly unreliable (first-person) narrator, and that this story, presented to us as star-crossed, tragic love, was really about something else entirely--the danger and blindness of sick obsession, a child's loss of her right and ability to define and direct her self. I could appreciate South of the Border on this level, thinking of how Hajime's narration about himself was completely unreliable, and underneath there was a story about someone who spent his life driven only by what he wanted, with no understanding of or interest in his impact on others. Interestingly, this also somehow leaves him completely unable to understand his impact on himself. ...more

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Sep 08, 2019 Barry Pierce rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2019, 20th-century

This is the novel Norwegian Wood wishes it were.

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Jul 14, 2016 Ivana Books Are Magic rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

They say that Murakami is one of those authors you either love or hate. I can actually understand how his style of writing might not be for everyone’s taste, but I happen to love him. His unique writing style always had a sort of hypnotic power over me. I feel enchanted when I read his novels, almost like I’m entering some magical world. Moreover, at times it is almost like I’m in the book myself, a silent observer, but nevertheless, a person very much present. Do you know that feeling you feel They say that Murakami is one of those authors you either love or hate. I can actually understand how his style of writing might not be for everyone’s taste, but I happen to love him. His unique writing style always had a sort of hypnotic power over me. I feel enchanted when I read his novels, almost like I’m entering some magical world. Moreover, at times it is almost like I’m in the book myself, a silent observer, but nevertheless, a person very much present. Do you know that feeling you feel a part of a book right from the start? You only started reading it but you already feel immersed in it? When the first sentences draw you in completely? You’ve just started to read it, but you know you’re going to love it. I don’t know exactly how Murakami does it, but I could make a guess. It is the ease with which he creates his characters, revealing their inner world before our eyes in ever more detail with each page we turn. He is so brilliant at capturing the mood of his protagonists that we can’t help feeling for them and feeling with them. At times it might even seem like we know his characters better than ourselves.

Both his writing style and the general mood of his books have something very unpretentious about them. Murakami writes simply but beautifully; it makes me wonder how he sounds in original (I doubt I’ll ever become fluent in Japanese, so I will have to keep relying on translations). This simplicity and minimalism in writing works very well in this novel, adding another layer of sophistication to it. That is the world I would be tempted to use if I had to describe his books in one word: sophistication. His writing, for most part, doesn’t seem lyrical to me, yet there are always those special moments when his writing style becomes amazingly graceful and poetical. He certainly has his signature style. Murakami uses metaphors and symbols with much ease, creating with them a thing of delicate beauty.

Murkami’s exploration of theme of human loneliness can bring Kafka to our minds. Indeed, I can see many similarities between them, not just in the choice of themes explored but in the writing style as well. Kafka had this way of making surrealistic/fantastical elements in his work seem perfectly plausible. Murkami uses them in a slightly different way, he is more ambiguous, and when it comes to certain events, you’re never quite sure whether the event being described is real or imagined. Both writers know how to employ fantastical/surreal to their advantage. Somehow those elements are employed so skilfully by these two writers, that they manage not only to deepen their descriptions of human loneliness and isolation, but give them additional meanings. Murakami’s works feel a bit dreamier than Kafka’s and they do have different styles but there are similarities between them, no doubt about that.

I was amazed at how easy I found it to sympathize with and feel for the protagonist of South of The Border, West Of The Sun. The protagonist of this novel, Hajimi, is not by any means a perfect man. It seems that he has a perfect life, though. Married with two children and a successful job- what man could want more? Yet, underneath it all, Hajimi is somewhat unhappy and obsessed with his past. He owns jazz clubs, he is married to a woman who adores him, his marriage is by no means build on false pretences- and yet he is so utterly dissatisfied with something, it is like there is something deep inside of him, a worm of doubt eating up his life. If there was something in Hajimi’s life that he hated, he could understand it, but there is mystery in his unhappiness, it runs deep. He is a happy man in many ways and he doesn’t hide it, he feels grateful for it even, but there is always a but…. both in life and in literature.

Some might see Hajimi as an irresponsible man undergoing a mid-life crisis, but I don’t think is it so simple. This novel is much too complex for something like that. If feels more like a psychological study of character than just a story about some guy discontent with his life. The richness of this book is composed of many layers. One of them can certainly be found in its philosophical exploration of the human condition. What does it mean to be human? Why do we always want more? The existentialism is subtly played out in this one, much like music in a jazz bar, it echoes through the room until it becomes a part of you and nests itself somewhere deep in your heart. You either hate it or love it. That’s the way with Murakami. People tend to either be utterly moved by his writing or feel it does nothing for them. Obviously, I fall into the first category. I agonized for and with the protagonist, perhaps even more that he did himself.

What (or whom) is Hajimi looking for, this man who seemingly has it all? Perhaps it all comes down to his past and a spirit of lost love (the most potent of spirits, right?). Hajimi grow up as a single child in a time when it wasn’t usual for parents to have only one child. This turned him into an oddity of some kind, perhaps something that we would referred to (In Victorian, colonial and postcolonial literature) as ‘an other’. However, he manages to find another ‘other’- Shimamoto, a girl who is, like himself, a single child. Together these two finally feel complete, but unfortunately they lose touch when they families move away. This childhood friendship/ love continues to haunt our protagonist. Suddenly, Shimamoto reappears and Hajimi, now a married man, is captured under the spell of her mystery. As the years pass, Hajimi becomes more and more obsessed with Shimamoto.

Why is this old love so important to Hajimi? Because it is what itching fingers are to a painter. Many of my illustrating friends told me they feel it, a need to draw that is almost physical, you can actually feel your fingers itching, longing for a pencil even if you don’t have a clear picture of what you would like to create in your head. For some people love might be like that. Like that physical and spiritual need for creation that artists feel. A yearning for the other than goes deeper that most romantic relationships. It is not so much sharing and friendship, as a creation of something new. Love, for some, might be that great mystery, that only thing that can give us fulfilment. Hajimi certainly doesn’t idolize Shimamoto, he doesn’t sing praises to her….He is just utterly and completely fascinated and drawn to her. It seems like something that is genuinely stronger than both of them. Can this connection between them be read as a metaphor for something else? Certainly it can, as a metaphor for great many things, but I suppose it is fair to say that it can also be an exploration of the theme of love itself. The mysterious connection between a man and a woman.

That would be the premise of this story. To discover what happens next, you’ll have to read the novel. When you do that, you can draw your conclusions about the characters, the story and the message of this book. For me, one of the best things about this novel is that can be read in so many ways. An existentialist might say that Shimamoto is just a symbol of the absurdity of this world, those more inclined to pessimism might add that Shimamoto represent the unattainable for happiness can’t be achieved. Romantics might see it as a simple love story. A bitter cynic might say that Hajimi is a loser and that the novel is a quasi-intellectual masturbation (and a cynic would be wrong because bitterness is a bad method to read anything). A feminist might call Hajimi a pig (for mistreating the woman who not only worships him but is also the mother of his children). Psychologist might find reasons for Hajimi’s behaviour in his upbringing. One possible psychological examination of Shimamoto and Hajimi relationship could be those of ‘unrelated siblings’, drawing parallel with Heathcliff and Catharine (it is a natural tendency in humans not to marry childhood friends because on unconscious levels we perceive them as siblings- because we grew up together). As I said, there many possible readings of this one. It is up to us to find a reading that we like best.

What I find so ingenious about this novel is the way it explores numerous question, from why our past holds such a power over us to why is every human being sentenced to an isolation of some kind? This book raises questions, rather than answers them, but it does it so brilliantly, that you feel like the answer must be attainable. I loved the honesty of this book, the unpretentiousness of it. At times, I had a feeling that Murakami was telling me: “I don’t know the meaning of life and I can’t tell it to you.”, but in some instances I had a feeling I was seeing it with my eyes, in the story (in art) itself and that it is too complex a thing to put into worlds in a straightforward way. That is why we have art. That is why we have literature. To cross the bridges of everyday and banal worries to get to our cores, and examine them- as painful as it can be at times.
...more

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Aug 02, 2014 Jr Bacdayan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I am in love with Haruki Murakami’s novels. I guess it might be the resonance of loneliness emanating from all his works. It might be the fusion of pop-culture and philosophical musings. It might be the mysterious atmosphere he creates. I can’t really pin it down. Most of his novels are deceptively similar in their tones and backgrounds but each one has a different center. Each novel shows a similar scene, but each one with a different focus.

South of the Border, West of the Sun is a meditation o ...more

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Nov 16, 2007 Moushumi Ghosh rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I have always liked jazz music but I don’t think I qualify as a fan. But this book seems like a jazz symphony to me (I’m kind of clueless about jazz. Is there something like a “jazz symphony?”) It’s smooth, mysterious and leaves you thirsting for more.

I firmly believe that you don’t choose your books; the books choose you. Yeah, I’m one of them people who think that there is no such thing as a coincidence. So, this SOTBWFTS (short form) was a gift from a friend on my birthday.

Anyways, I jumped o I have always liked jazz music but I don’t think I qualify as a fan. But this book seems like a jazz symphony to me (I’m kind of clueless about jazz. Is there something like a “jazz symphony?”) It’s smooth, mysterious and leaves you thirsting for more.

I firmly believe that you don’t choose your books; the books choose you. Yeah, I’m one of them people who think that there is no such thing as a coincidence. So, this SOTBWFTS (short form) was a gift from a friend on my birthday.

Anyways, I jumped on the novel like a piece of cake: long denied, much remembered. Since it’s a slim volume, I’m done with it in 9 hours with equally slim breaks in between.

At first, you wonder where is the story going? But I’m as usual getting ahead of myself. The story is of an average man, Hajime, who cannot forget the superbly mysterious and beautiful Shimamoto (ironically, he can’t remember her first name: this is her last name.) Hajime meets Shimamoto in kindergarten and they both bond over the fact that they are “only” children of their parents. It’s a beautiful friendship with music playing (quite literally, since they listen to music most of the time) a major part in their friendship. Polio-infected Shimamoto is the one girl who makes a very deep impression on his young mind. When Shimamoto moves out of his life, Hajime goes on with his life in a very on-the-surface manner. He does the regular things: school, high school sweetheart, college, a dead-end job, find the girl who would be his wife, dabble in business, and become successful. But you get the feeling that something is missing. When one day a stunning woman walks into his club on a rainy evening, everything changes. The woman is Shimamoto. Now, looking more stunning than ever. Hajime is torn between an average life and his prospects with Shimamoto. She appears on rainy evenings to tantalise him. One day, just when he makes a choice, she disappears forever.

Hajime is the everyman in this novel. It’s his life we identify with. Shimamoto is the symbol of all that we want and cannot have. She appears from time to time in our lives teasing us with the prospect. But she is like the rain: she can appear but she cannot stay. If she does, she will destroy everything. And the novel is a testiment to the fact that her short stay was quite destructive for the protagonist.

This novel is considered to be one of his most mature works. I couldn’t help but compare it with Norwegian Wood. The youthful flavour of Norwegian Wood is not to be seen here. But what you can see is a mature writer and a mature man. It’s like a sequel to Norwegian Wood. Naoko grows up and become Shimamoto. Toru and Hajime are the same – the passive protagonist –appearing again and again in all Murakami novels. Even in a very adventurous novel like The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, the protagonist remains the calm guy who makes spaghetti. All Murakami protagonists wait for life to happen to them, somehow calm, somehow untouched like the eye of the storm.

All the references to music especially Jazz are there usual. It makes the story all the more poignant. This is not one of them rambunctious novels that use mind-bending narrative pyrotechnics to tell the story and grab the attention of the reader. It’s one of those quiet books that makes a deep impression on your mind. It sure did on mine.

...more

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Apr 15, 2020 Reading_ Tam_ Ishly rated it liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book is the living example of 'All is well if it ends well'.

I was getting really bored reading the eleven chapters in between the first two and the last two chapters because most of these chapters didn't make much of a difference to the story and they were so damn repetitive and monotonous that I ended up watching three adaptations of a good manga series in between. I was really struggling to go through these chapters and it gave me a bad taste in my mouth reading about all the cheating an This book is the living example of 'All is well if it ends well'.

I was getting really bored reading the eleven chapters in between the first two and the last two chapters because most of these chapters didn't make much of a difference to the story and they were so damn repetitive and monotonous that I ended up watching three adaptations of a good manga series in between. I was really struggling to go through these chapters and it gave me a bad taste in my mouth reading about all the cheating and the infidelity things that were going on. I know we can neglect it when it's Murakami because we love reading about his writing about all the complex human emotions as if we are swept by some unknown force that we actually end up liking whatever is written about the characters no matter how flawed they are. But this Murakami touch was there only in the first and last two chapters respectively. The other chapters were so bland in comparison and the characters got so annoying and irritating to the point of cursing myself why I was reading something I wasn't enjoying at all. But...
The last two chapters literally rescued the book. I really appreciate the fact that the book is short with less than 200 pages (actually it seemed like never-ending of boredom and unlikeable mundane characters).

This is a story of a guy in particular who got so emotionally attached to a girl when they were in diapers (just kidding!) No, when they were kids. Because of the fact that they are the only child of their parents and they could understand each other really well (but I don't see the point of getting obsessed over someone in kindergarten or school years later to the point of breaking up your own family regardless of hurting the person you're with at present).

Those who read Murakami will know something in common about his storyline in most of his books, that is, there's some girl in the boy's life who he is unable to forget and get so attached that everything that's going to happen in his life is going to do something with this unforgettable special girl.

Yes, that's the plot here as well. Usually, it doesn't matter much to me because the characters in each of his books stand out and are memorable. But the characters in this book are just bland and they seem like characters borrowed from some other book. I am so disappointed. Not because of the plot or anything but the characters disappointed me. The writing shines in the first and the last two chapters. I seriously believe that this book has been so unnecessarily long and tedious for nothing. The ending was satisfactory and it's for the best for the readers as well as for the characters in the story. Otherwise this book would have been the one book which hangs on a wobbly thread between 1 star and 2 stars and ending up throwing away the book the moment I end up reading the last line. But damn, the writing did picked up towards the end and I ended up being a reasonable person who may seem like a normal person without unnecessary strong feelings about a book by one of her autobuy authors ☕

I would have liked the book better if:

👉 The writing didn't go so bland for most parts of the book

👉 If the plot and the sequence of the story were planned a little better

👉 If the women in the story were more actively vocal or involved other than just merely being mysteriously dark and lonely (we all know we enjoy such characters from time to time and it's so Murakamily but it would have been much better if the lives of these two important women, no, actually three important women in the life of the main character were a bit more elaborately described rather than putting them in particular sections of
1. The one he's so obsessed with forever, the perfect one, the ultimate woman in his life
2. The wife who's ever understanding to the point of no return even if it triggers her to be mentally affected again (significant history of self harm)
3. That other girl who was used as a substitute in between and who ended up unfeeling of any emotion in her later life and ended up being feared by children and ended up living alone like an unwanted being

I seriously hated all the eleven chapters (out of the 15 chapters in total) in between. ...more

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Sep 15, 2017 Jelena rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: bigass-real-shelf, contemporary

At home, we have a private joke about the two Murakamis. One Haruki Murakami, my Murakami, would be the author of “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World”, “1Q84”, “A Wild Sheep Chase”. My boyfriend’s Murakami, the other one, is the one from “Norwegian Wood”, “Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki” or “Sputnik Sweetheart”. And by a rule of thumb, I love and admire my Murakami, and am indifferent at best (and hostile at worst) towards his.

This one is completely different, though. The protagonist, a At home, we have a private joke about the two Murakamis. One Haruki Murakami, my Murakami, would be the author of “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World”, “1Q84”, “A Wild Sheep Chase”. My boyfriend’s Murakami, the other one, is the one from “Norwegian Wood”, “Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki” or “Sputnik Sweetheart”. And by a rule of thumb, I love and admire my Murakami, and am indifferent at best (and hostile at worst) towards his.

This one is completely different, though. The protagonist, a fairly ordinary if somewhat better-off man, remembers two important people from his childhood and adolescence, before eventually meeting one of them again more than two decades later. But since this is a Murakami, after all, of course this is a love story, of course there is jazz, of course there are city walks, and of course there is an anything but smooth clockwork of social, emotional and communicational barriers.

More often than not I could hardly comprehend the human interaction in Japanese literature and film. Rationally, I do know about the specific code of conduct. Personally, I am almost always perplexed at all that is left unsaid and withheld, at everything that is not expressed and unresolved. Mostly because it could all be so simple and speaking up feels like the most plausible and natural thing to do. Here the Great Unspoken falls perfectly into place with all those inexplicable little surreal scenes, so typical of Murakami’s work. The carefully wielded and shaped events of the plot are the basis for the protagonist’s subtle yet stirring inner shifts. Nothing happens here that hasn’t happened before or to others, the world isn’t about to end, there is nothing earth-shattering. Maybe not even visibly soul-shattering, since everything passes and life does go on. But still, even though the surface seems untouched, the change within the characters is profound enough that little will be as it was. I have always loved these weighty and deeply personal, exclusively personal, changes in Chekhov’s dramas, and I found the same lyrical, melancholy atmosphere here.

But unlike some of Murakami’s other inner turbulence stories, with their tendency for the melodramatic or depicting a numb withdrawal, in “South of the Border, West of the Sun” there just seems to be no other way. Because sometimes you have no idea what needs to be said; sometimes you get the idea but nothing will really work in your favour; and sometimes there is no one to say it to. ...more

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Nov 03, 2013 Ms. Smartarse rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: people who're not too bothered by the (lack of) plot

Shelves: translated_into_romanian, mid-xx-century, slice-of-life, japanese-lit, drama

Published in English as South of the Border, West of the Sun.

Just out of college, I was suddenly overcome by this maddening desire to write, and do it well. So well, that everyone would want to read the things I wrote. As a matter of fact, I was so impressed with the idea, that I would tell everyone how a truly great writer could practically write about SOCKS and have a legion of followers.

... then I entered the "adult world" and realized that I had vastly overestimated my sock-story-reading-tim ...more

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Feb 01, 2016 Chris_P rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: haruki-murakami

After having read the bulk of his work, I've come to the conclusion that one has to have a general picture of Murakami's novels in order to understand each of his stories seperately. There are some recurring themes in all of them that at first I couldn't quite get. Now, it's become easier to interpret those symbolisms.

As much as I love his surrealistic tricks, I can't help but be equally dazzled by his more sensitive, romantic themes. This one belongs to the latter category, while it has been s ...more

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Jul 03, 2018 Michael rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: music, coming-of-age, japan, fiction, romance

I was charmed by this sentimental novel of loss and regret over a childhood love of a boy for a girl when he was twelve. Hajime in his 30s finds his life empty and somehow inauthentic despite all the trappings of success with a healthy family and a business running a couple of jazz clubs. He grew up in post-war Japan quite lonely and alienated, part of it he attributes to his being an only child, a situation made worse by stigma he felt:

…I hated it whenever someone asked me how many brothers an I was charmed by this sentimental novel of loss and regret over a childhood love of a boy for a girl when he was twelve. Hajime in his 30s finds his life empty and somehow inauthentic despite all the trappings of success with a healthy family and a business running a couple of jazz clubs. He grew up in post-war Japan quite lonely and alienated, part of it he attributes to his being an only child, a situation made worse by stigma he felt:

…I hated it whenever someone asked me how many brothers and sisters I had. Just let them hear I didn’t have any, and instinctively they thought: An only child, eh? Spoiled, weak, and self-centered, I betcha. That kind of knee-jerk reaction depressed me, and hurt. But what really depressed and hurt me was something else: the fact that everything they thought about me was true. I really was spoiled, weak, and self-centered.

But his world opened up when he befriended Shimamoto, who was also an only child and suffered a limp from polio. Murakami captures so well the wonder of this innocent childhood friendship free of sexuality in a way not possible in our current age. His fondest memories are of playing jazz records together, making each other laugh, and recounting their hopes for the future. But soon they went to separate schools and saw each other no more. Little was he to know how much this lost relationship would infect his identity and cast a shade on all his love relationships through the rest of his life.

Even after we stopped seeing each other, I thought of her with great fondness. Memories of her encouraged me, soothed me, as I passed through the confusion and pain of adolescence. For a long time, she held a special place in my heart. I kept this special place for her, like a Reserved sign on a quiet corner table in a restaurant. Despite the fact that I was sure I’d never see her again.

Hajime walks us through his painful adolescence and an honest look at his typical callous behavior in his sexual relations. A former high-school classmate drops by the bar and fills him in on a girlfriend he had jilted as a teenager for her hotter cousin. She now lives alone and appears zombie-like, which instills Hajime with remorse and guilt as the possible cause of her unhappy state. Something his friend says about a Disney documentary about the desert somehow epitomizes his current existential state of mind:

One generation dies, and the next one takes over. That’s how it goes. Lots of different ways to live. And lots of different ways to die. But in the end that doesn’t make a bit of difference. All that remains is a desert.

In this state of anomie and self-judgment, Shimamoto appears one day at his bar. If you are like me, you will be quite challenged to pin down what you would do in this situation. I think we can all identify with how Hajime struggles to do the right thing, fail in some ways and succeed in others. A simple story but so full of universal issues around our metaphors of love as a journey and love as a obsessive madness. Published in 1992, this tale stands out with Murakami’s “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki” from 2013 as a story free from his usual inclusion of magical realism elements. ...more

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Apr 03, 2016 Kate rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: murakami, japanese-lit, read-in-2016, favorite-standalones, read-in-2020

Reread April 2020;
5/5stars

I stand by this being my fave murakami contemporary. So relatable, so beautiful, so haunting. I love how much this differs from the “typical” murakami novel but also still is just as powerful.

First read July 2016;
4.5/5 stars

OKay, let's do this. This is my NINTH book I've read from Haruki Murakami - so I'm not going to talk about his writing and his style because obviously I absolutely adore it. I'm going to just talk about THIS book by him.

This seemed to me like just a Reread April 2020;
5/5stars

I stand by this being my fave murakami contemporary. So relatable, so beautiful, so haunting. I love how much this differs from the “typical” murakami novel but also still is just as powerful.

First read July 2016;
4.5/5 stars

OKay, let's do this. This is my NINTH book I've read from Haruki Murakami - so I'm not going to talk about his writing and his style because obviously I absolutely adore it. I'm going to just talk about THIS book by him.

This seemed to me like just a better version of Norwegian Wood. I wasn't the biggest fan of Norwegian Wood - yes, I know, unpopular opinion especially for a Murakami fan. But where that book lacked depth and emotion for me, this book soared. This book follows a man named Hajime who is an only child, and becomes best friends with a girl named Shimamoto. It chronicles their childhood friendship, getting torn away from each other when Hajime moves, and then his life up until thirty six years old when he is happily married with two little girls and running an extremely successful bar in Tokyo.

First, let me say, I enjoyed this a lot because the character of Hajime differed SO much from our previous narrators. Excluding Hard Boiled Wonderland (because what on earth even was that book, seriously, it's so insanely different from all Murakami's books I almost always forget it was by him!) and Kafka, all of Murakami's narrators are extremely similar men with no idea where they're going, what they want to do in life, and basically all they do is read and have a cat before suddenly the universe takes them on a wild journey. Hajime was such a dynamic character. He was actually successful in his work, he had a successful marriage and children and also had varying hobbies and interests - it was just a very refreshing after reading like seven books about almost the exact same character.

I also liked Shimamoto, Izumi and Yukiko - basically, the women in this novel were just so much more fleshed out and interesting and HUMAN than in his other novels. Most love interests in Murakami books are just very boring in my opinion, but these women were all, again, very dynamic and interesting. I loved how Murakami showed where Izumi was years after Hajime and her dated. I really loved how Shimamoto introduced that weird aspect of Murakami books that I love so much - mystery, strange characters with strange motives, and just a hint of magical realism. And Yukiko, thank the gods for Yukiko, this woman was so incredibly realistic, especially toward the end of the book. She was a woman who knew exactly what she wanted, she was realistic in what she asked of her husband, and eventually she actually had a heart and forgave him and I just really appreciated her.

I also just enjoyed the plot and the twists and such, they just simply worked for me. Although this is very similar to most of Murakami's love stories, this one just worked better in my opinion. I loved the twist with Shimamoto, I loved the ending with Hajime and Yukiko and overall I just really enjoyed this book.

The only problem I had with it was the length - it was just a bit too short and I felt left hanging a little bit. As well as I wish there had been a bit more magical realism to it since that is my favorite part of reading Murakami! ...more

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Mar 07, 2010 Evan rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-reads, asia, yearning

Eh, this was Orange Crush trying to masquerade as champagne.

The book's linchpin is a lifelong unrequited or dashed youthful romance that obsesses the protagonists, Hajime (he) and Shimamoto (she), each -- unknowingly to the other -- holding a candle over a vast span of time. Unfortunately, Murakami is no Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and this glass of soda pop novel is no Love in the Time of Cholera.

I'm not a guy who requires plot, per se, but what plot there is here is perfunctory; Murakami makes thi Eh, this was Orange Crush trying to masquerade as champagne.

The book's linchpin is a lifelong unrequited or dashed youthful romance that obsesses the protagonists, Hajime (he) and Shimamoto (she), each -- unknowingly to the other -- holding a candle over a vast span of time. Unfortunately, Murakami is no Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and this glass of soda pop novel is no Love in the Time of Cholera.

I'm not a guy who requires plot, per se, but what plot there is here is perfunctory; Murakami makes things way too easy for his protagonist Hajime in order to grease the skids from point A to B. His main strategy seems to set up a longing, create a vast bridge of banality in between, and then get to where you know the thing is obviously going, to the poignant reunion. There's never any sense of tension or anything earned or that resembles real life; he skates over vast periods of time and whole lifespans in a few sentences. Most of the book is an academic exercise in biding time until the inevitable encounter with the exalted lost love. The essence of Hajime's work life is reduced to sentences such as "I hated my job. It was boring." Things seem to happen too easily for him; his marrying into money and opening a chic jazz bar (what a great atmosphere for a noirish reunion) come off as a deus ex machina more than anything. Anytime Murakami wants to add any kind of flavor or to flesh things out, he resorts to easy pop cultural markers, Nat King Cole records, Casablanca and such.

A relatively large amount of time is spent tying Hajime to his father-in-law's shady dealings, yet nothing comes from all the set up. There are a lot of things like that in the book. Foreshadowings to nothing. I assume that some have even suggested that this may be a ghost story; there are numerous indications of this, but let's not get into spoiler territory.

This reminded me of a lesser Philip Roth novel, specifically, Indignation; another coming-of-age tale, well enough done and wistful but also half-hearted and ho-hum. Nothing here you haven't encountered before. Based on this, Murakami is no Kawabata or Mishima. It's entertaining and moves along, readable in a couple of hours; but is mostly shallow and forgettable. ...more

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Feb 15, 2019 Piya rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Actual rating:2.5⭐

Too many questions unanswered , too much work for my little brain 🙄.I am so confused . Not sure what to feel here .This was the BOTM for our Overbooked Book club. I will say this,it's definitely a great pick for book clubs - good for discussions because most of the story is left to your own interpretation.

First the pros : Started out as a coming-of-age story.I liked the flow, enjoyed the writing , the pacing- no issues here. Although I hated Hajime from the bottom of my heart, ...more

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Mar 24, 2020 Janie C. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The story of a life and its intersections, complications and yearnings. In simple but elegant prose, the author moves us to become the main character, feeling his heart beat in tandem with others', yet separately as a desert animal's. Fulfilment and emptiness underline the meanings of life and death, offering no answers, yet outlining the promise of new beginnings. ...more

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Apr 18, 2016 ·Karen· added it · review of another edition

Shelves: in-german

This novel (in an earlier translation Gefährliche Geliebte) gained a certain notoriety in Germany back in 2000 when it led to the acrimonious collapse of a long-running television institution, Das Literarische Quartett. It was, perhaps, inevitable. The programme was kept alive by its gladiatorial atmosphere. Four self-opinionated critics who come together to dispute the merits of a literary work, each trying hard to hold their corner and usually getting shouted down by the most self-opinionated ...more

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Aug 19, 2019 Algernon (Darth Anyan) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019

[9/10]

Strangely enough, she always appeared on quiet rainy evenings.

Shimamoto – the one that got away, first love and first deception, an elusive ghost from the past that still haunts Hajime, a middle aged bar owner in a fashionable Tokyo district. I may be getting ahead of myself, as the present novel is not constructed around flashbacks, preferring instead a linear, chronological progression for Hajime, starting with his early school days and with his unlikely friendship with a quiet, but de ...more

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Jun 21, 2012 vivliovision rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

keep in touch: https://twitter.com/vivliovision

Hajime is a happily married man. He is also the father of two daughters and the owner of two Jazz Clubs. At some point during his 30’s Hajime finds himself leading a typical suburban life close-enough-but-not-too-close to down-town Tokyo.

Some people would say that Hajime is one of those lucky-few-guys, who can afford a rather easy-going lifestyle, while others would argue that this sort of life is quiet dull, actually. But then again, that's exactl ...more

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Sep 30, 2018 Cody rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: haruki-murakami

"Because everyone's seeking the same thing: an imaginary place, their own castle in the air, and their very own special corner of it." (105)

South of the Border, West of the Sun is a representation of classical Haruki Murakami lore. Murakami traces the life of Hajime, a man born of a relatively peaceful post-WWII life where, rather than the traditional struggles of poverty, war, famine, or religious identity, his struggles come from his own sense of purpose and meaning. And of course being Muraka "Because everyone's seeking the same thing: an imaginary place, their own castle in the air, and their very own special corner of it." (105)

South of the Border, West of the Sun is a representation of classical Haruki Murakami lore. Murakami traces the life of Hajime, a man born of a relatively peaceful post-WWII life where, rather than the traditional struggles of poverty, war, famine, or religious identity, his struggles come from his own sense of purpose and meaning. And of course being Murakami, there's all the tropes associated with him: cats, jazz music, blowjobs, and that aching sense of loneliness.

Reading South of the Border, West of the Sun was reminiscent of another book about the idea of identity crisis in a time and culture where a person has everything yet seemingly feels helpless and numb: Fight Club. "We're the middle children of the history man, no purpose or place, we have no Great war, no Great depression, our great war is a spiritual war, our great depression is our lives." While the two books differ in some respects, they both question the need of material possessions and social fulfilment. Hajime ends of owning two Jazz bars, is successful in business making good money, marries and has two daughters, and drives a nice BMW. And yet, the existence of a lack of fulfilment compounds his thoughts so much he begins to suffer for it. "What am I missing," he continually asks himself. This lack of fulfilment answers itself in the form of his first ever love, Shimamoto, a woman so mysterious she pops in and out of Hajime's life, haunting him. Diving into this aspect will spoil a few things, but it is important to note Shimamoto's role is multilayered and debatable.

The book consistently makes reference to a film The Living Desert. "All that remains is a desert." Desert as a word can invoke the image of something like the Sahara: a barrenness wasteland of little meaning. However the desert depicted in the film is one in the American Southwest. A land full of life. Hajime associates a more negative image of a desert to his life, when in reality his life mirrors the American Southwest in that it's full of life and significant micro-transactions that give it so much more meaning than he can imagine. By the end of the book he comes to this realisation and hopes to build on it. That encompasses the theme of this book. How can we make meaning of what's in front of us rather than letting our "imaginary castles" drag us down into a depression we don't deserve nor need. This theme makes it one of the better books written by Murakami. ...more

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Aug 21, 2019 Prashasti rated it really liked it · review of another edition

“The sad truth is that certain types of things can't go backward. Once they start going forward, no matter what you do, they can't go back the way they were. If even one little thing goes awry, then that's how it will stay forever.”

A very typical of Murakami to delineate the zest of modern-day Tokyo and to spin a nexus of episodes revolving around it. I thoroughly enjoyed the descriptions of Suburban Japan, that were oft mentioned in the story.
If you're someone who enjoyed reading Norwegia ...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Goodreads Librari...: Correction	1	15	Aug 06, 2019 01:51PM
Spoiler-The Ending-Spoiler	24	2235	Aug 08, 2018 01:36AM
south of the border: what does it represent? (spoilers)	2	158	Aug 22, 2016 06:41AM
Turkish Reading C...: Murakami - "Sınırın Güneyinde, Güneşin Batısında" ile ilgili tartışma	15	72	Mar 13, 2015 02:13AM
مناشة حول نهاية الرواية	1	32	Jun 24, 2014 11:09PM
7DRAKE: South of the Border, West of the Sun Review	1	37	Dec 09, 2013 01:34PM
Backseat Book Club: episode 9: South of the Border, West of the Sun	3	50	Jun 20, 2013 12:22PM

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About Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami

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Murakami Haruki (Japanese: 村上春樹) is a popular contemporary Japanese writer and translator. His work has been described as 'easily accessible, yet profoundly complex'. He can be located on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/harukimuraka...

Since childhood, Murakami has been heavily influenced by Western culture, particularly Western music and literature. He grew up reading a range of works by Am ...more

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“I think you still love me, but we can’t escape the fact that I’m not enough for you. I knew this was going to happen. So I’m not blaming you for falling in love with another woman. I’m not angry, either. I should be, but I’m not. I just feel pain. A lot of pain. I thought I could imagine how much this would hurt, but I was wrong.” — 9328 likes

“Sometimes when I look at you, I feel I'm gazing at a distant star.
It's dazzling, but the light is from tens of thousands of years ago.
Maybe the star doesn't even exist any more. Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything.” — 3424 likes

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