Book Reviews for December 2011
1Q84 BY HARUKI MURAKAMI.
Books One & Two.
Translated by Prof Jay Rubin
(Harvill Secker £20.00)
1Q84 BY HARUKI MURAKAMI.
Book Three.
Translated by Prof Philip Gabriel
(Harvill Secker £14.99)
Murakami’s long awaited epic novel 1Q84 sold a million copies in its first month of publication in Japan. The English translation launched last month in the UK saw queues in the bookshops that were unusual for a ‘high-brow’ author like Murakami.
If you are reading this review, you are probably already familiar with the novels of Nobel Prize winning Yasunari Kawabata and Yukio Mishima. These were among the first modern Japanese writers to impact on the Western world and we were struck by the perfect terse prose, eloquently sparse descriptions of people and places and the surreal quality of their plots.
Salute to the Translator
The role of the translator came into focus. We saluted these geniuses who were completely at home in two languages, who expressed idiom bilingually with such celerity, and who opened the gates to exotic literature so expertly. They took stream-of-consciousness styles, impressionistic depictions of personality, and mystifying social practices in their stride – they were far more than mere interpreters; they were masters of semantics and semiotics in two languages and two cultures. Wow!
Western Influences
The best-known Murakami novels –Kafka on the Shore, Norwegian Wood and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – followed traditional Japanese literary style, moving in the slip-stream of the giants.
Though Murakami’s cultural inspiration was already Western i.e. Kafka, the Beatles and now George Orwell, his style and content remained very Japanese. Enigmatic protagonists spoke dialogue that led nowhere, you never were told what they felt about each other or about anything else, their reaction to events around them was hard to gauge, thick creamy swathes of surreal literary nothingness concealed the plot --- it was all wonderful, utterly exotic, a hypnotic experience where you knew you had been exposed to great beauty but weren’t sure how it had happened.
Back to Linear Narrative
With 1Q84, though magical realism remains the leitmotif, all this oriental hubris has changed. In 1Q84, Murakami presents a linear plot where A leads to B, and B to C, in a logical sequence from start to finish.
The 1,000 page book is neatly divided into chapters allocated alternately to the main protagonists, Tengo and Aomame in Books 1and 2 with the addition of Ushikawa in Book 3. Murakami’s genius flourishes in this change of form with new vitality and a gift for story telling that defies the boundaries of literary criticism.
The Plot
The story of professional assassin Aomame and her childhood schoolmate and sweetheart Tengo, mathematical prodigy and novelist, has to be one of the most arresting and original in contemporary literature. Both children suffer psychological abuse from authoritarian parents till they use their scholastic abilities to flee home. They are separated for the next twenty years. When Tengo is caught up in the rewriting of an amazing debut novel by a teenage writer, he enters the world of the air chrysalis, the little people and the sky with two moons -- quite literally. The novel Air Chrysalis is a runaway success, but attracts the hostile attention of a secretive religious cult.
Aomame is given the task of assassinating the leader of the cult which she does with astonishing results. She has by now also entered the parallel universe of the air chrysalis and the two moons and waits to be reunited with Tengo before they are hunted down by the cult.
Compelling narrative
The lives of Tengo and Aomame intertwine in a series of surreal events involving their associates and friends—editors, powerful businesswomen, reclusive scholars….But even with the wealth of stories unfolding, we still don’t know who killed Aomame’s policewoman friend. Nor do we ever find out what happened to Tengo’s married girlfriend who disappeared.
Dare we hope that we are looking at a possible sequel? It will be as voraciously consumed by Murakami admirers as 1Q84.
THE MILKMAN IN THE NIGHT
By Andrey Kurkov.
Translated from the Russian by Amanda Love Darragh
(Harvill Secker £12.99)
Three years ago we reviewed Kurkov’s Death and the Penguin in this column, an exquisitely told story of a hapless Ukrainian citizen and Misha, his pet penguin. In that review (June 2009) I said:
“Add to this the grim realities of urban life in the post-Soviet confusion of the Ukraine and the mood is set for deep pathos, expressed by Kurkov in a dispassionate narrative style that spreads a feeling of hopelessness and dread throughout the novel.”
Modern Ukraine
What a far cry from that life of doom and despair is Kurkov’s newest opus, The Milkman In The Night! We are back in Kiev, but this is a very different Ukraine, with a MacDonald’s everywhere, Western chain stores, supermarkets, smart Japanese cars. The protagonists have steady jobs, enjoy life and above all have hope and faith in the future.
What a difference bringing down a wall makes!
Bizarre Characters
Kurkov introduces a bizarre line-up of characters that represent modern Ukraine but still display old uncertainties and fears – which are resolved with a fearless new pragmatism. Irina feeds her baby and then sells the rest of her milk at a State depot; Semyon is a somnambulist who worries what misdeeds he might be committing on his nocturnal sleep-walks. Dima, a security dog-handler at the airport finds himself with an illicit hoard of mysterious ampoules, the contents of which, terrifyingly, resurrect his dead cat Fluffy. Anna and Darya don’t want to be widows so they have their dead husbands embalmed and continue their lifestyles as before. These are some of the intriguing protagonists in The Milkman In The Night, and the new Kiev is the setting for a novel that at last allows full unrestrained rein to Kurkov’s natural high spirits and his gift for comedy.
In Death And The Penguin, though the mood remained sombre, flashes of humour shone through—in particular when the protagonist Viktor gets a job as an obituary writer for living politicians and finds that each one dies as soon as the obituary has been submitted.
The Milkman In The Night would be a very good novel no matter where it was set. It certainly does not follow any gloomy Russian or other East Bloc writing tradition; it is full of life and vigour and moves at a smart modern pace.
And let’s not forget the proficient translator who made it possible for the English speaking world to enjoy a remarkable work
A CRUEL BIRD CAME TO THE NEST AND LOOKED IN.
By Magnus Mills
(Bloomsbury £12.99)
Magnus Mills is something of a literary phenomenon. His debut novel The Restraint of Beasts was an immediate success and appeared in the Booker shortlist in 1998. This novel had the rare distinction of a jacket quote by cult novelist and reclusive genius Thomas Pynchon who called it "a demented, dead-pan comic wonder."
Mills followed with a succession of best-selling novels, the latest of which is The Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In.
Once again, in his detached and distinctive style, Mills describes a surreal world of self-affirming logic where the preposterous appears normal and events take their inexorable comic path with no reference to ethical or moral standards .The main character is the Emperor of Fallowfields who never appears in his court, the members of which are wildly unqualified for their roles. The result is a kind of controlled mayhem and the situation deteriorates steadily. Bureaucratic, self-seeking, pompous and unable to lead the Empire, the courtiers of Greater Fallowfield bear an uncomfortable resemblance to modern politicians and political structures.
Magnus Mills is a serious political and social observer who delivers his message in allegorical fables. His multifaceted novels can be appreciated quite as much at the level of humorous and enjoyable narrative as at the level of a disturbing commentary on contemporary life.
COLLECTED FOLK TALES
by Alan Garner
(Harper Collins £14.99)
Folk tales, fairy tales, myth and legend – the oldest forms of storytelling were all originally part of an oral tradition and so they should continue. Alan Garner’s carefully selected collection of regional and international lore is drawn from familiar sources like Norse myth and from meticulously researched material deep in rural tradition resulting in a wealth of stories, poems and reports most of which I have not heard before and which would be perfect to read to children and grandchildren over the Christmas holiday – a true continuum of the oral tradition.
Exotic stories from Russia, India, Japan, Scandinavia and American vie with absorbing tales of our own local bogles, barguests, fairies and goblins to create a treasure trove of immortal narrative.
All this glory is presented in a gorgeous purple and gold volume, a rich and promising gift.
FT-GOLDMAN BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR
Poor Economics, which champions radical new ways of tackling global poverty, is the winner of the 2011 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year.
Co-authors MIT professors Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo received the £30,000 prize.
Poor Economics is published by Perseus Books in the UK
