South of the Border, West of the Sun

\”…the river of Unmindfulness, whose water no vessel can hold; of this they were all obliged to drink a certain quantity, and those who were not saved by wisdom drank more than was necessary; and each one as he drank forgot all things.\” – Plato (***1/2) This was not my favorite Murakami, but it was still good, solid (OK, maybe no Murakami novel should be described as anything close to solid) second-shelf Murakami. It felt like a mystical combination of Descartes + Proust. His themes of love, memory, forgetting, the past, reality, etc., were all better developed in some of his other novels (\’Kafka on the Shore\’, \’Wind-Up Bird Chronicle\’, etc). Still, there was something haunting and beautiful about the novel. For me, it was a story about the seductive and supernatural/surreal qualities of the past. It is, at heart, a dark love story where a man essentially becomes the lover to (and haunted by) the memory of his childhood sweetheart.

This was unavailable in audio for many years. I am happy to see they\’ve finally released it. I\’ve read four Murakami novels and most of the short story collections. I don\’t think this book is as popular as \’Wind up Bird\’ and some of the others, but in my own opinion this is his best work. Wind Up Bird and Kafka are paced very slow with chapters and chapters of stuff that is intereting to read, but overall does not contribute to the story. This book is slim, to the point. Wistful romance of the only-child. It is very haunting without trying too hard. I\’ve read the other Murakami novels once, but this book I\’ve read at least five times. I am surprised it is not as popular as his other books. If you already like Murakami, I think you will like this. If you\’re new to Murakami, I can\’t think of a better novel to start with.

Like \”Sputnik Sweetheart\”, among Murakami\’s books, this is a \”lighter\” but very good one, I think. To explain what I mean by \”lighter\” without mentioning the plot, a metaphor that Murakami used in one of his interviews may help (this was an interview for a Japanese literary journal in 2004; I am translating/para-phrasing – the original was longer): \”Human existence takes place in a \”two-story house\” (metaphorically, obviously) : the first floor is where people talk to each other; the second floor is where each individual does her/his own things, like reading books or listening to music; then there is the basement where people occasionally visit to reflect or look at things that lay there that are forgotten in daily life; then, below the basement, there is the second basement that most people don\’t get to visit. There is darkness in the second basement; people see the connections to their past and their souls. The entrance to the second basement is not obvious. You may not come back from there\” Using this metaphor, the story in \”South of the Border, West of the Sun\” takes place mostly on the first and second floors and occasionally peeks at the basement. It does not get down to the second basement, I thought. In contrast, \”Kafka on the shore\” and \”The wind-up bird chronicle\” definitely spend some time in the second basement. But I don\’t mind Murakami\’s stories that take place mostly on the first and second floors, probably because I don\’t necessarily want to visit the basement or the second basement that often. It\’s just that it\’s good to know that Murakami can take me there. Unlike many of Murakami\’s stories, this book does not contain many metaphors, but I liked it.

listened it to completion when driving back to the city, was completely immersed and addicted to it. just stood in the kitchen for 15 minutes till it ended, so enthralled and needing to see the ending

Murakami is known for his magic realism and many people emphasize the magic part of that equation. But it\’s the realism part I like best. His novels are so real but they also have a dreamlike quality to them which is why I guess his particular brand of magic works so well. Well in this one, it\’s all real and no magic. But it doesn\’t suffer one but for it, because while everyone likes to think they like Murakami for the magical/surrealistic/sci-fi elements it\’s really the realism makes the novels what they are. His simple yet poetic prose, his psychological depth, his vivid observations and perspective on the world. These are what make his novels special. The actual magical elements only accentuate, rather than constitute, the magic that can be found in the everyday and that Murakami so eloquently expresses and represents in his novels. If you can\’t tell, I\’m a fan, and this one did not disappoint.

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