Odd Books:Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock & The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

An interesting sort of books these days are those with something more than printed words on the page.  These books have nooks and crannies for peeks into some secret worlds.  Sometimes they have strange and bizarre art work.  I am not talking about graphic novels.

Nick Bantock has created a series of four books beginning with Griffin and Sabine.  Griffin receives a strange and beautifully decorated post card with an exotic postmark from Sabine.  Naturally intrigued, he writes back and thus begins a correspondence every bit as strange, beautiful, and exotic as the first post card.  Some pages have envelopes attached.  Lifting the flap reveals a folded letter.  This window into the mysterious Sabine made me feel as though I had eavesdropped on a growing romance.

The story takes numerous twists and turns over the three volumes which follow, including, Sabine’s Notebook, The Gryphon, and The Golden Mean.  They all take the story on twists and turns around the globe with a quite mysterious ending.

Haruki Murakami adds to this genre with The Strange Library.  This unusual volume has flaps which fold over the top and bottom, and it only needs a wax seal to complete the strangeness of this story.  A child who loves books, returns a few to the local library with the intention of borrowing several others.  Then a slightly strange and scary man invites the boy to look at some interesting books he might like in Room 107 in the basement of the library.  The boy is locked in a room with four folio sized books about taxation in the ottoman empire – a topic he inquired about for his next borrowings.  The librarian tells him he must memorize all four volumes, or he would suffer unspeakable pains.  A friendly jailer visits him and fills in some information, but he encourages the boy to memorize if her ever wants to escape Room 107.  The a mysterious, ethereal young girl approaches and offers a means of escape.

Together these three attempt to escape this nightmare.  The young boy who narrates the story frets about his mother who expects him home for dinner and his pet starling. 

The ghostly girl delivers gourmet meals to the boy, and another weird character, the “Sheepman” brings donuts for an afternoon snack.

Haruki Murakami

Nick Bantock

The circulation librarian checks his returned unusual books – How to Build a Submarine and memoirs of a Shepherd.  The woman directs him to the basement and room 107.  In his typical style, Murakami describes the strange librarian.  “A little old man sat behind a little old desk in the middle of the room.  Tiny black spots dotted his face like a swarm of flies.  The old man was bald and wore thick lenses.  His baldness looked incomplete; he had frizzy white hairs plastered against both sides of his head.  It looked like a mountain after a big forest fire. // ‘Welcome my boy, […] How may I be of assistance?’ […] ‘I want to learn how taxes were collected in the ottoman Empire’” (Part 2, no pagination). 

Although not described as YA fiction, this tale seems appropriate for older children.  All these books are wonderfully creative excursions into an uncommon literary genre.  They offer a pleasant afternoon of reading.  5 stars

--Chiron, 12/22/14 

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

I usually like to spread out over time the authors I review.  However, Haruki Murakami has taken a firm hold on my imagination, and when his newest book arrived recently, I immediately began reading.  Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is a fascinating tale of relationships, the meanings of friendship, and the effect misunderstandings can have.

Five friends in high school – three young men and two young women – band together to complete a community service project.  When the project ends, they continue to hang out with each other.  Four of the members of this group have, as part of their names, a kanji symbol which also refers to a color: red, blue, black, and white, which they used as nicknames.  Tsukuru’s name did not contain any color, so he remained Tsukuru.  After graduation, they all went their separate ways to college.  Tsukuru receives a strange message, that his four friends no longer want anything to do with him, and furthermore, he was not to contact any of them in any way whatsoever.  This message contained no explanation of what had happened.  Naturally, Tsukuru becomes devastated to the point of contemplating suicide.  Then he meets a woman who urges him to contact his friends and learn why he was ostracized from the group.  His “pilgrimage” involves traveling around Japan and Europe to track down his friends.  What he discovers about them – and more importantly about himself – is a rather poignant story.

As he has done in previous novels, Murakami sprinkles lots of references to music in his story.  He also plays with the colors and the occupations of the five friends.  Also, like Tengo in 1Q84, Tsukuru is a rather fastidious creature of habit.  Again, like Tengo, Tsukuru frets over his fear of being alone.  Murakami writes, “Maybe I am fated to always be alone, Tsukuru found himself thinking.  People came to him, but in the end they always left.  They came, seeking something, but either they couldn’t find it, or were unhappy with what they found (or else they were disappointed or angry), and then they left.  One day, without warning, they vanished, with no explanation, no word of farewell.  Like a silent hatchet had sliced the ties between them, ties through which warm blood still flowed, along with a quiet pulse.

One of the interesting aspects of Murakami’s fiction is his attention to microscopic detail.  He describes an encounter with the new friend who urges him to solve the mystery of his lost friends.  Murakami writes, “She took a sip of coffee and returned the cup to the saucer.  She paused, and checked her enameled nails.  They looked beautiful, painted in the same maroon color as her handbag (perhaps a little lighter).  He was willing to bet a month’s salary this wasn’t a coincidence” (147).

Compared to some of his other novels, this small format book of a little less than 400 pages, really seems like a novella.  Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami would be a great introduction to this important figure in world literature.  5 stars

--Chiron, 9/20/14

Likely Stories: Five Years in the Making

One of the hardest questions for an avid reader is “What’s your favorite book?”  The task is no easier to come up with a list of my favorites over the five years of Likely Stories.  So, I decided to pick two from each reading year.  

2009-10 – Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín.  Tóibín’s prose weaves a serene tale of life in Ireland and Brooklyn, NY.  The main character Eilis matures quickly after her arrival and develops a relationship with a young man she meets at a dance.  Toibin writes lovely prose.  And  Ballistics by Billy Collins.  This collection, by my favorite poet, sparkles with all the wit and humor, which characterizes his poetry.

2010-11 – Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff.  Schiff has written one of the most entertaining biographies I have ever read.  She brings the Queen of the Nile into sharp focus with all her strengths and weaknesses. Also, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.  Another writer with elegant and beautiful prose, which tells the story of a close bond between a loner and a young girl who share a love of books and reading.

2011-12 – The Radetsky March by Joseph Roth.  The thread which ties this list together has emerged: spectacular, beautiful, enchanting prose.  This novel, set during the Napoleonic Wars might not seem interesting, but that would be a mistake on any reader’s part.  Next, The Golden Droplet by Michel Tournier.  This story of a young girl’s search for a woman who took her photograph excites, saddens, and pleases on every page.

2012-13 -- The Red and the Green by Iris Murdoch.  Iris Murdoch is one of my top three authors.  Her novels have large casts of characters with intricate plots.  Nearly every one of her novels is a masterpiece.  And, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.  This first volume in a trilogy covers the life and loves of the Tudor Court of Henry VIII.  This Booker Prize Winner was followed by the same award for part two, Bring Up the Bodies.  Part three is due out sometime in 2015.  I can’t wait.

2013-14 – Now we come to my 5^th year of sharing my love for fine literature with my dedicated and faithful listeners.  I have declared a dead heat between Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch and Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84.  Goldfinch is one of the finest novels I have ever read.  Despite its length, it was a fast read – a page turner some might say – about a young man who loses his mother in a terrorist attack, but new friends place him on a much more secure path to adulthood.  This is a must read.  And finally, Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 is another must read.  Again, I urge readers not to allow the length – 933 pages – to deter from reading this fascinating story of two children, who share a secret bond neither of them fully understands.  Twenty years after their single encounter, they search for each other.

--Chiron, 8/21/14

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami is an important writer, and 1Q84 is an amazing and wonderful story.  But I must warn readers there are about a half-dozen explicit scenes, which account for about a dozen or so pages of 925 but are easy to spot and skip.  However, one such scene has important implications for the plot.  In part one and two of the novel, the chapters alternate between two characters.

Tengo is a 30 year-old-man who is a math prodigy and teaches at a cram school for students preparing for college.  He is a “gentle giant” figure and liked, loved, and respected by everyone he meets.  He pines for a woman he loved and lost.  He also works for a literary magazine.  While examining manuscripts submitted for an important literary prize for new authors, he comes across a wonderful story titled Air Chrysalis.  The manuscript purported to be written by a 17 year-old high school girl, Fuka-Eri, but it is full of errors and omissions, and it lacks clarity and organization.  Something about the story enchants Tengo, and he takes it to his editor.  Together, they decide to re-write the story to make it a prize winner.  Tengo is reluctant.  He recognizes the plan amounts to fraud.  He agrees to meet the peculiar young lady and her guardian.  They okay the plan, but Tengo says he will adhere to the voice of Fuka-Eri.  He rewrites the story, it wins the prize, and quickly becomes a best seller. 

Aomame is a 30 year-old woman who has a black belt in Karate, and works as a fitness coach and a physical therapist.  She lives alone, and dreams about a man she loved who is no longer in her life.  Aomame lost her best friend when she committed suicide as a result of a seriously dangerous husband who constantly physically abused her.  Aomame takes matters into her own hands and kills the husband.  She escapes cleanly, and, because of her skills in physical therapy, the death appeared to result from a heart attack.  Aomame partners with a woman who lost a daughter to spouse abuse, and she runs a home for abused women and children.  When one of the husbands shows up and attempts to cause trouble, Aomame takes care of him.  Aomame carries out her last murder of a powerful figure, and she is in hiding awaiting plastic surgery and escape to a place far away. 

In Part 3, a private investigator – a most unpleasant man by all and every measure – is hired by the dead man’s family to find Aomame.  They know who she is, but she has completely disappeared.  Ushigawa begins alternating chapters with Tengo and Aomame.

When Tengo was ten, he was teased by students, and had no friends.  Aomame was peculiar, and she also had no friends.  One day, Tengo was crying, and Aomame held his hand tightly for a few minutes.  Neither spoke a word.  She left the classroom, and he never saw her again.  20 years later, he begins searching for her.  Aomame has not forgotten Tengo either, but she is in hiding and cannot risk leaving the safe house to look for him.  The lives of these three people are closely intertwined in ways none of them fully comprehend.

Murakami has an amazing style.  His attention to detail can sometimes put off a reader, but the devil is in the details, as they say, and I have a clear and full picture of these characters and their habits.  He also uses frequent references to music and literature.  My recent review of In Praise of Shadows by Tanizaki stemmed from this novel.  I have two other intriguing books on my shelf, which I hope will enlighten me as much as Shadows did.

Murakami’s 1Q84 is long, but it as an amazing story.  I was never bored, never had a moment of hesitation in turning to the next page.  I have admired this author for a long time, and any serious reader who enjoys a complicated story and the patience to make it all the way thorough the novel will agree.  5 stars

--Chiron, 8/7/14

In Praise of Shadows by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki

One of my real joys about reading fiction involves a literary novel sprinkled with art, music, or literary allusions, which usually help round out a character.  These novels tend to the inhabit the category of intellectually challenging.  One writer who constantly challenges, amuses and intrigues me is Muraki Harikami.  Of the three of his novels I have read, all have music and art as a background.  His literary allusions – of Japanese and Western literature – always intrigue.  As I near the end of his latest novel, I have already ordered three books, which play an important role in the story.  Most often, these obscure books come as a complete surprise.  In Praise of Shadows by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki really surprised me.

Tanizaki was born July 24, 1886 and he died July 30 1965) was aJapanese author, one of the major writers of modern Japanese Literature, and perhaps the most popular Japanese novelist after Natsume Soseki, who happens to be my favorite Japanese author.  Some of Tanizaki’s works present a rather shocking world of sexuality and destructive erotic obsessions, while others, are less sensational and subtly portray the dynamics of family life in the context of the rapid changes in 20th-century Japanese society. His stories frequently narrate a search for cultural identity in which constructions of "the West" and "Japanese tradition" are juxtaposed.

This essay on aesthetices was originally published in 1933, and the English translation came out in 1977 by Leete's Island Books.  The translation contains a forward by architect and educator Charles Moore and an afterword by one of the translators, Thomas J. Harper.  Harper was a Senior Lecturer in Japanese Literature at the Australian national University in Canberra.  The other translator, Edward Seidensticker, was Professor of Japanese Literature at Columbia University.  Much shorter than the author's novels, this book is a meditative work, which tells the story of Tanizaki building his dream home.  He freely admits the house cost more than he could afford.

Tanizaki writes, “What incredible pains the fancier of traditional architecture must take when he sets out to build a house in pure Japanese style, striving somehow to make electric wires, gas pipes, and water lines harmonize with the austerity of Japanese rooms – even someone who has never built a house for himself must sense this when he visits a teahouse, a restaurant, or an inn.  For the solitary eccentric, it is another matter.  He can ignore the blessings od scientific civilization and retreat to some forsaken corner of the countryside, but a man who has a family and lives in the city cannot turn his back on the necessities of modern life – heating, electric lights, sanitary facilities – merely for the sake of doing things the Japanese way.  The purist may wrack his brain over the placement of a single telephone, hiding it behind the staircase or in a corner of the hallway, wherever he thinks it will least offend the eye” (1).

As a person who lives in a home decorated in the style of post-modern clutter – that is, everything in the place where it fits – I would have the opposite trouble: finding more wall space, more book shelves, and less empty spaces.

I now have a window on the character in the novel, whose meticulous attention to order seemed odd to me.  In Praise of Shadows by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki is a pleasant read with a cup of tea one fine afternoon.  5 stars

--Chiron, 7/30/14