Independent Organ

by Haruki Murakami

Genres: Short Stories, Japan, Fiction, 21st Century, Japanese Literature

Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 2014

About the author

Haruki Murakami (村上春樹) is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been best-sellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Gunzo Prize for New Writers, the World Fantasy Award, the Tanizaki Prize, Yomiuri Prize for Literature, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Noma Literary Prize, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Kiriyama Prize for Fiction, the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Fiction, the Jerusalem Prize, and the Princess of Asturias Awards.
Growing up in Ashiya, near Kobe before moving to Tokyo to attend Waseda University, he published his first novel Hear the Wind Sing (1979) after working as the owner of a small jazz bar for seven years. His notable works include the novels Norwegian Wood (1987), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994–95), Kafka on the Shore (2002) and 1Q84 (2009–10); the last was ranked as the best work of Japan's Heisei era (1989–2019) by the national newspaper Asahi Shimbun's survey of literary experts. His work spans genres including science fiction, fantasy, and crime fiction, and has become known for his use of magical realist elements. His official website cites Raymond Chandler, Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan as key inspirations to his work, while Murakami himself has named Kazuo Ishiguro, Cormac McCarthy and Dag Solstad as his favourite currently active writers. Murakami has also published five short story collections, including First Person Singular (2020), and non-fiction works including Underground (1997), an oral history of the Tokyo subway sarin attack, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (2007), a memoir about his experience as a long distance runner.
His fiction has polarized literary critics and the reading public. He has sometimes been criticised by Japan's literary establishment as un-Japanese, leading to Murakami's recalling that he was a "black sheep in the Japanese literary world". Meanwhile, Murakami has been described by Gary Fisketjon, the editor of Murakami's collection The Elephant Vanishes (1993), as a "truly extraordinary writer", while Steven Poole of The Guardian praised Murakami as "among the world's greatest living novelists" for his oeuvre.

Reviews

[Reem Ghabbany · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fact that this story is real makes me so sad

[Eman Elshamekh · Rating 4 out of 5]

يمكن من أكتر الحاجات الصعبة اللي مرت على عقلي المسكين، محاولاته لفهم العلاقات البشرية، وكذا المشاعر، مهما تعاظم فكرك، هيقابلك حاجة عابرة حصلت بسبب غضب أو حب أو خيانة، والحب أه منه الحب. :D

[Lil' Bamboo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Destruction of a human soul by love. Impressive.

[Dania Abutaha · Rating 1 out of 5]

لم يعجبني طرحه....لا احب الخيانه...ليس هناك مبرر لها ...الا ضعف الشخصيه و قله المروؤه و التخلص من هكذا اشخاص باي سبب هو حافز للحياه و ليس للموت ...نتعرض بسببهم لاذى نفسي و مدمر للكيان لكن في مركب الحياه لا تحتاج بجانبك الى هذه الفئه لخستها و خيانتهم رحمه لك لينزاحوا عن طريقك...هو درس قوى و صفعه عنيفه خصوصا خيانه من تحب لك و لكن الحب رابط بين طرفين و تعدى طرف على الاخر ينزع منه سبب وجودهtherefore an independent star for an independent organ

[doma 🦢 · Rating 4 out of 5]

artur rojek miał rację: można umrzeć z miłości

[Constance · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short story with themes of existentialism, longing, falling in love, and loss. This story follows a Dr Tokai, a pleasant looking, polished, and well-to-do plastic surgeon who inherited the clinic from his father. He's a great conversationalist and doesn't want to settle down or commit to a woman. However, he still has casual flings or "arrangements" with girlfriends and wives. The introspective moments provided by Dr Tokai and the writer, Mr Tanimura are wholly absorbing.


My favourite quote:
"All of her qualities are tightly bound into one core. You can't separate each individual quality to measure and analyse it, to say it's better or worse than the same quality in someone else. It's what's in her core that attracts me so strongly. Like a powerful magnet. It's beyond logic."

[سارة · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully written but the women in this story were AWFULLY portrayed. Depicted as this general nondescript mass, who are either asexual or overly sexualised, emotional (but in an irrational way that is 'a nuisance'), dependent, blah blah (?) bored of authors who CBA to create complex nuanced female characters, even when they're secondary to plot.

[Satineh Harutyunyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It feels like somehow our hearts have become intertwined. Like when she feels something my heart moves in tandem. Like we’re two boats tied together with a rope. Even if you want to cut the rope there’s no knife sharp enough to do it.”

[samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

phenomenal
short. to the point. yet so DEEP!

:( Dr. Tokai
he was lovesick in the worst way possible..
is it bad that i relate to him in a way?

thanks murakami for, once again, providing me with a form of escape

[Thikra · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Remembering someone for along time is not easy as people think"
"there's no such thing as too soon or too late, I told him. Your understanding may have come a little late in life, but that's better than never realizing it at all."

[Charlie Dexter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great mix of short stories. Whilst engaging with wonderful character development in the different stories in it, it lacks the impact that is usually delivered by full length Murakami books.

[Sneha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the character of Dr.Takoi..story made me emotional

[Joseba Bonaut · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es una historia maravillosa

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars.

[Nerd · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a simply told, twisted tale about a man who once enjoyed solitude falls miserably in love.
I think I have to re-read it to understand what lies between the lines.