Review: The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami, translated by Ted Goossen (Knopf, 96 pages)

"WUT."

That's what I was thinking while starting this latest from one of the masters of bizarro fiction, and that's what I thought after I finished it. WUT. WAS. THAT.

But what's this odd, beautifully-illustrated, small book that you can read in half an hour actually about? Um, ok- so a teen-aged boy goes to the library to return some books and check out some new ones. For some reason, he absolutely has to know about taxation in the Ottoman Empire. Yup. So he returns the books and is then whisked down a million twisty corridors by a scary old librarian dude, and locked in a cell. The old dude says the boy is a prisoner until he reads all of the massive books on Ottoman taxation and repeats them word-for-word back to the dude.

Review: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (2014) by Haruki Murakami

Lovely, introspective, hypnotic, addictive. I wasn't surprised.

Even though I've only read one other Murakami novel so far (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles), I knew that this latest offering would be tantalizingly obscure and beautifully written. Murakami wields words like a master craftsman, making his complex creations seem so easy and effortless.

From the TBR Shelf #12: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994-5) by Haruki Murakami

Wow...I...just...no words.

Ok, I do have words, but how to use them to explain this book? There's the rub, y'all.

This is my first Murakami novel, and while I'm not necessarily into magical realism-ish, surreal-ish kinds of novels, this one had a (might I say) jaunty quality, an energy that I always associate with Nabokov's Lolita. And yet, that seems strange to say, considering the main character comes across as passive most of the time. It's his attempt to figure out why his life has spiralled out of normalcy that spurs him to action.