Tsukuru Tazaki "Maybe the Best Book [Murakami] Has Written Since Norwegian Wood"

Néojaponisme is a site on things Japanese written by W. David Marx and Matt Treyvaud and designed by Ian Lynam. As some readers may know, Matt Teyvaud is a writer and translator living in Japan and the author of No-sword (http://no-sword.jp/), a blog on Japanese language and culture where he posts some of his excellent translations.

On October 4 Néojaponisme published a review of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki by David Morales. The art illustrating the review is perhaps a bit surprising given the contents of the novel, but the interview is very positive.

Here is a fragment:

Murakami Haruki’s most recent novel might be the best book he’s written sinceNorwegian Wood made him a household name in 1987. Published in April,Colorless Tazaki Tsukuru and His Years of Pilgrimage (『色彩を持たない多崎つくると、彼の巡礼の年』) was an instant best seller, quickly selling out and moving a million copies in just a week.

Unlike the massive tomes that have come to characterize his writing in the years since Norwegian Wood (1988’s Dance Dance Dance, 1994’s Wind-up Bird Chronicle, 2002’s Kafka on the Shore, and 2009’s 1Q84), Murakami’s latest outing is a mere 370 pages in the Japanese. The story also eschews complex metaphysical adventures for a more realistic setting. The work conveys the intense emotional landscape of protagonist Tazaki Tsukuru, a Nagoya-born Millenial whose given name — homophonous with a word meaning “to build” or “to construct” — corresponds nicely with his work as a train station designer.

To read the whole review go to:
http://neojaponisme.com/2013/10/04/colorless-tazaki-tsukuru-and-his-years-of-pilgrimage/