Two-cents #1
貓頭鷹在黃昏飛翔 |川上未映子、村上春樹 The Owl Spreads Its Wings with the Falling of the Dusk | Mieko Kawakami, Haruki Murakami
Hi there,
Here are my two cents on the book 貓頭鷹在黃昏飛翔 |川上未映子、村上春樹 (The Owl Spreads Its Wings with the Falling of the Dusk | Mieko Kawakami, Haruki Murakami). The book was originally published in Japanese, and I read the Taiwanese translated edition, and reviewed it in English.
It is only fair to start by saying that I am rather neutral when it comes to Murakami’s work. I have fond memories reading Norwegian Woods during my late teen years, and memories of being perplexed as to why I did not enjoy Kafka on the Shore (both in traditional chinese translation). I didn’t pick up another Murakami book until couple of years ago - Men without Women (in english). The reason why I picked up the book 「貓頭鷹在黃昏飛翔」has more to do with Kawakami (author of Breast and Egg), as well as this interview excerpt published on Literary Hub. It was part intrigue for conversations between two contemporary literary giants, part flexing my bilingual prowess that I decided to order the book from a Taiwanese online book seller.
The book has a structure of four chapters, each refers to four respective interviews Kawakami had with Murakami. The date and time was captioned, so do the venues, which not much was mentioned about these info apart from the last session conducted at Murakami’s place. Their conversations span from textual reading, (which Murakami are often reluctant to comment on), literary theory, writing habits and Japan’s literary scene. As someone whose literary knowledge comes solely from being an avid reader and an amateur writer, the reading experience has been rich. And, because I am not a Murakami-head per se, I wasn’t planning to replicate his writing style or habits (there are books for Murakami tropes), it still gave me a lot to chew on. The juiciest bites are parts when he talks about ‘realism’ and ‘surrealism’, his multiple analogies for his self-aware cognitive thinking and his role in the literary biz (he described himself as a goose from ‘Murakami Corporate’).
These ‘hot’ takes would not have been available on view in this book without Kawakami’s persistence. There are multiple occasions where her interview questions were repeated or rephrased in different chapters. It gives reader a sense that she is not happy with the depth of Murakami’s previous answers, and you are with her. This, is where the strength of the book comes from. I suppose Kawakami’s role as an interviewer was very much backed by her being a fan of Murakami and a writer with a different career trajectory as him - it strikes a balance of imploring with composure and being critical with assertiveness, which I guess is partly where the fun is - imagining Murakami shifting in his seat. Undeniably he is a prolific writer to be reckon with, and he is admirable in his humbleness and discipline in what he does. The fun I mentioned wasn’t about making him fret or anything like that, but to see someone as established as he is uncomfortable when asked questions or presented reading he had never thought about, was somehow affirming. Allow me to pole vault to conclusion, that if there are something Murakami didn’t know about or didn’t write about (not that he is the standard), there are a lot left for all of us to read and write about. To that point, it was disarming as well as inspiring, to look to him as a fellow writer.