Murakami's 1Q84

[Nerds_feather]

has anyone else read this? what did you think? i just finished it, and found it to be a sometimes brilliant, but more often frustrating read. i wrote up a more detailed opinion here:

http://www.nerds-feather.com/2012/06...book-1q84.html

[GOLLUM]

Interesting Review.

D_Davis if memory serves has read this book and I'm sure will post something on this.

Murakami is a favourite of mine but I am still to read IQ84 which I'm guessing may be his longest work to date?

I have all of Murakmai's ouevre and if you have not read anythnig else by this author I would definitely recommend Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, Kafka on the Shore and Norwegian Wood.

Digressing for a moment, it's also good to see another Roberto Bolano fan. He's another author whose entire translated ouevre I've collected. I think you may be the only person at Chrons (other than myself) that I know of who has read his masterpiece 2666....

[Nerds_feather]

2666 is amazing, possibly the best book i've ever read.

i recently finished The Third Reich. have you read it yet? it was predictably great, but what baffles me is that he evidently didn't think it was good enough to publish!

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by Nerds_feather

2666 is amazing, possibly the best book i've ever read.

i recently finished The Third Reich. have you read it yet? it was predictably great, but what baffles me is that he evidently didn't think it was good enough to publish!

No I haven't read Third Reich yet but I understand it is one of his very best works published post humously and a more recent addition to his ouevre...and you're correct it was 'discovered' buried amongst his other papers.

If you like Bolano you definitely need to check out his novellas One Night In Chile and A Distant Star...brilliant. His poetry is also quite good, so check out what I think is the best translated collection 'Romantic Dogs'. For short story collections 'Last Evenings On Earth' is my favourite.

I've met the guy who translates a lot of Bolano's work for New Directions, Dr Chris Andrews. He used to teach at Melbourne University but now lives in Sydney. He's an excellent translator and someone to talk to if you are at all interested like I am in Latin American literature.

[Nerds_feather]

i've only read stuff translated by natasha wimmer (2666, the savage detectives and the third reich), but i just picked up the secret of evil, though, which is translated by chris andrews.

i'm planning to slowly work my way through his entire bibliography, which i've been doing with jg ballard for about a decade. (with authors like these, i don't like to blast through it all but rather take my time and savor all the awesomeness.)

[GOLLUM]

The Secret of Evil is another recent translation and not one I have had a chance to read yet. It will be interesting to read your thoughts on this one. Chris basically does all the Bolano translations for New Directions, which is obviously why you've got his translation in particular for this book.

J.G. Ballard I also like. I don't have all of his collected fiction, a 'best of short fiction' and some of his better known novels is about it.

Now that we've got to talking about Bolano I want to write a review of at least one of his novels (and a short story collection) this year when I resurrect my World Lit thread.

[Nerds_feather]

i'd love to read that. which novel would you choose? also, which do you rate as his finest? i haven't read savage detectives yet, though i plan to do so soon.

as for ballard, i'd start by recommending the novella high-rise, as it's quite funny and disturbing.

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by Nerds_feather

i'd love to read that. which novel would you choose? also, which do you rate as his finest? i haven't read savage detectives yet, though i plan to do so soon.

as for ballard, i'd start by recommending the novella high-rise, as it's quite funny and disturbing.

Easy. Same as you 2666, which is of course a 3-parter and a masterpiece.

Savage Detectives is not as good and has copped a lot of a bagging..when comparing it to 2666..possibly a little unfairly so.

After 2666, of the Bolano's I've so far read, I would place One Night in Chile and A Distant Star next. Whislt I own the entire translated ouevre I have not read all of the books yet, so this assement may change and/or include further favs as I plan to realistically complete my reading by end 2013.

[Nerds_feather]

well, you can't go wrong with The Third Reich for the next read. I thought it was absolutely stunning. Not only great literature, but a true page-turner as well.

Do you like Pynchon as well?

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by Nerds_feather

well, you can't go wrong with The Third Reich for the next read. I thought it was absolutely stunning. Not only great literature, but a true page-turner as well.

Do you like Pynchon as well?

Not as big a Pynchon fan. Crying of Lot 49 and of course Cavity's Rainbow (yet to read but earmarked this 'challenge' for later in 2012)...and Oh Yeh some novel called V....

Pynchon is good but not in my A level favourites for World Lit.

[Nerds_feather]

i love the crying of lot 49, and just read inherent vice last year, which i thought was awesome.

i've never tried to tackle gravity's rainbow, though...on my list as well!

[Vertigo]

Sorry nothing to do with 1Q84, but having perused your thread a week or so back I stumbled on a copy of 2666 in a charity shop and decided on an impulse buy (I'm bad at impulse buys, but it was only a quid afterall!). So now it seems I have you guys to thank for a brand new secondhand bookstop! That is one chunky book; Peter Hamilton eat your heart out.

Anyway I have only read the first part but since Bolano had requested it be published as 5 separate novels I don't feel it unreasonable to take a break before moving on to the second. Actually I may go back over the first part again. At the beginnning of the story I was rather swimming out of my depth and feel I missed much, but now I better understand the style in which it is written, I am inclined towards a quick re-read.

Strangely, having said that, I'm not absolutely sure what I think of the book itself. I was, without doubt, way way out of my comfort zone; this is not SFF, which is generally all I read, and it's certainly no easily accessible thriller or adventure story. However it was strangely compelling and I don't think I have ever read a book that took me quite so intimately into the feelings, the deepest desires and fears of the protagonists.

From the perspective of someone learning to write, his style was fascinating; he must have broken just about every rule I have been industriously learning. I swear there was at least one sentence that spanned an entire page, and there were many I had to study for a while before I could disentangle all the clauses. But once disentangled those sentences flowed in a way I don't think I've ever come across before. It was not an easy read but, with effort, a rewarding one.

His approach to dialogue was equally fascinating. He effectively gave himself the luxury of editing the dialogue by not writing it as straight dialogue but rather using constructs like "they talked about..." "he told them about..." etc. (I'm sure there's probably some proper and fitting name for such dialogue). In this way he would present only the key points of a conversation and remove all the prosaic clutter that would normally surround those points. In fact I would say far more of the dialogue was presented in this manner than in the more conventional way. This took a bit of getting used to but it grew on me as the book progressed. It also gave an almost claustrophobic feeling to the narrative that would release, sometimes explosively, whenever he did break out in more normal dialogue forms.

I suppose one of the hardest things would be to say exactly what the plot of the story was and I'm really not even sure there was one, except in the loosest possible sense. Instead it was more an intimate journey through the motivations and feelings of the four protagonists.

Ultimately this was not a book of action and convoluted plots. It was rather an almost voyeuristic insight into the lives of four different people united by a common interest (obsession?) with Archimboldi (shame he's fictional I almost want to read his work to see what the fuss is about!). It certainly made an impression on me, disturbed me even. Did I like it? I'm just not quite sure yet but I think so, and indeed I may come to decide I loved it.

Sorry for the ramblings, but I guess it clearly made an impression on me, and there should be some price for you to pay for introducing me, albeit wihout your knowledge!

Thank you both!

[GOLLUM]

Glad you are enjoying 2666 Vertigo... I don't want to give too much away but that's only the start of a roller-coaster ride of emotions and characters. I happen to have a particular love for experimental fiction but it still needs to be more than just that of course. Bolano really was both a social and literary firebrand reminiscent of the likes of the great German writer Thomas Bernhard...another you should look up if you can handle pages of sentence-less diatribe that work due to Bernhard's melodiously crafted treatment of erudite and often profound prose.

If you like expeirmental style fiction then the books The Waves by Virgina Woolf, Blow up and other Stories by Julio Cortazar, Obscene Bird of the Night by Jose Donso, Ulysses (annotated version) by James Joyce, If On A Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino, John Dos Passos' work including Manhattan Transfer and Diderot's Jacques the Fatalist are all suggestions that come readily to mind. Naturally that is of course only the tip of a cross-sectional iceberg...and I must declare a particular bias towards stream-of-consciousness writers.

Good evening.

[Vertigo]

*dives for cover*

I'll be honest I have no idea if I like experimental literature. My dabbling in this kind of 'serious' literature is rare to say the least. However I may have to do more as my attempts to learn to write are at least making me more of a critical reader, even if I never succeed in writing! And that in turn is making me far more critical of writers who I have happily enjoyed in the past.

Gah - the goal posts keep moving!

Hope you have a good night Gollum!

[GOLLUM]

Weell....as they say the journey can often be more rewarding than the destination.

I would like to think that the more styles of writing one experiences and the greater ones exposure to the proverbial 'literary bag of tricks' is, the better ones writing will become. Of course I'm a very much a reader of fiction, not a professional author...so perhaps this is an idealistic viewpoint on my part.

I'm off to grab some shut-eye.

Night.