As mentioned before, during my Qing Ming jie, 清明节, holidays in Shanghai I managed to read again this book from Haruki Murakami, Japanese writer that has taken the “title” of my favorite, at least during the past 8-10 years. In this period, starting actually from the very same book, “Norwegian Wood”, borrowed from an old friend that I had visited in Oslo for a couple of days (I think it was 2001), I then read almost all the books he has written, before and after that one. At least, all that got published in English!!
When people ask me about Haruki Murakami, I always suggest to start reading his fictional works from “Norwegian Wood”, since it is probably one of the easiest to read.. more about everyday life without any jump into the great fantasy world that he is otherwise brilliant in creating.. and brilliant as well to confuse the reader. Not an easy or happy book, but a book about life as messy it can be when you are a young teenager, 17 to 20 years old, and the people around you take unexpected life changing decisions..
I do not want to write spoilers about the book, because I really strong recommend it to anyone who likes reading. I can just say I started it again during the seat less train trip to Shanghai and at page 9 I felt a rush of emotions coming back to me, as.. a rabbit frozen in front of a car lights in the night.. and I could not get away.. so that, the second night, after a good practice in Xijiao Shanghai Aikido dojo, a great pizza with those friends, I just went back to the hotel and read until 2am! And the day after it was the same: reading at any chance, until I finished the 380 pages book once back in Hefei, around the same time of the night..
Once I started I could not stop. It happens quite often to me, when I like a book. So I ended up having lunch on Tuesday 5th April in a dim sum Hong Kong style restaurant enjoying the different dishes with pages and pages of my book.. great combination! Once also during lunch I had the feeling that my eyes blurred.. by the emotions that this book brought back to me. Even knowing the story and how it would end, this book was as good as the first time I read it (and I remember also the first time it had took only few days!).
What I really love of Haruki Murakami is writing about normal life, also when his stories go beyond this world. As I write in the introduction to my stories, a story does not need any special ending, when everything wraps up and you got all your answers.. it does not happen in real life..
Tomorrow it will be a new day.. or not.. and we will do everything again.. for the better or the worse.. or not..
Dreaming of... Asia 