Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words by Jay Rubin
I’ve been getting a lot of reading done over the holiday break. Not that I don’t get a lot of reading done anyway, but it is nice to have more time for it- and better time, too. I’ve been able to get a few hours on the sofa instead of the hours on the train. A tremendous book I picked up recently was Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words by Jay Rubin. I’ve loved Murakiami’s books for years, but I was quite surprised by how much more there is to his work and life than I had realized.
From the Vintage website:
As a young man, Haruki Murakami played records and mixed drinks at his Tokyo Jazz club, Peter Cat, then wrote at the kitchen table until the sun came up. He loves music of all kinds - jazz, classical, folk, rock - and has more than six thousand records at home. And when he writes, his words have a music all their own, much of it learned from jazz. Jay Rubin, a self-confessed fan, has written a book for other fans who want to know more about this reclusive writer.
He reveals the autobiographical elements in Murakami’s fiction, and explains how he developed a distinctive new style in Japanese writing. In tracing Murakami’s career, he uses interviews he conducted with the author between 1993 and 2001, and draws on insights and observations gathered from over ten years of collaborating with Murakami on translations of his works.
Vintage Publication date: 06/01/2005 384 pages ISBN: 0099455447
Everyone knows that Murakami ran a jazz bar. Everyone knows that his work is autobiographical. Or is it?