I’ll Read Anything Murakami Has Written

When Actress Sister and I were younger, we used to play a game in the library: running our fingers along the spines of the books in the fiction section, until something – a title, a color – made us stop. Without reading the jacket, or even opening the book, that tome would join a stack of twenty we would check out and place in bags we’d balance on the handlebars of our bicycles, carrying the books home and trading them back and forth as we sunned ourselves in the backyard.

I’d like to believe my book-choosing is a bit more discerning, these days, though I do still find myself falling into old habits. I do, however, have a new one: fangirling authors. When I discover one I like, I attempt to read everything they’ve ever written, which is how, following my Japan trip, I ended up checking out every book by Haruki Murakami that my library has on its shelves.

South of the Border, West of the Sun may sound like a book about Mexico, but it’s actually a book about a song about Mexico, a song beloved by two only children growing up in Japan.

The book follows Haijime from childhood through middle age, tracing his friendship – and obsession – with his childhood friend, Shimamoto. Through his adolescence and adulthood, this obsession remains a shining light of nostalgia as Haijime makes a series of poor decisions; their childhood friendship is tinged with the perfection of nostalgia, a retroactive clean slate.

Reading Murakami’s work has led me to discover – as many have before me – common themes: mysterious women, weird sex, and touches of magic. Its basic plot (middle-aged man is unsatisfied with his life, seeks out new woman for sex) is tired (and I’m tired of reading it), but Murakami’s deftness of prose left me intrigued all the same.

All in all, I far preferred After Dark for the uniqueness of its themes (even if its ending is far less complete than in this short novel). And though I’m kind of tired of women as plot devices, I can’t help myself: I’m going to continue to devour everything Murakami has ever written.