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Murakami's latest hit bookshelves on Tuesday. Bostonist correspondent Evan Fleischer gives us the "rundown."
A series of real-time anecdotes focusing in on his time as a writer and runner in Hawaii, New York, Japan, and Cambridge over the past twenty-five-odd years, Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running delivers a strong performance. Things happen along the way, and Murakami narrates them in the style (once again) of Chandler or Cheever. An enormous amount of the book is about Murakami's time in Cambridge, which came as a pleasant shock and surprise.
At first, the book's platitudes--or if they're not platitudes, they're at least platitudinous--are a touch alarming:
"Life is basically unfair."
"On the highway of life you can't always be in the fast lane."
"Exerting yourself to the fullest within individual limits: that's the essence of running, and a metaphor for live."
"... that's what happens when you get older."
"In most cases learning something essential in life requires physical pain."
"But in real life things don't go smoothly."
"At certain points in our lives, when we really need a clear-cut solution, the person who knocks at our door is, more likely than not, a messenger bearing bad news."
These simplistic aphorisms bring to mind Garrison Keillor's introduction to Good Poems, in which he quotes Bukowski--"There is nothing with wrong with poetry that is entertaining and easy to understand. Genius could be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way"--and then reflects on his own time spent as a youth craving complexity, when he'd have looked on a statement like Bukowski's with scorn.
A complicity on the part of the reviewer settles in. Perhaps it is a question of youth, though the L.A. Times' assessment of the simplistic style as "pedestrian" is a very tempting one to agree with. When applied to blah reality instead of fantastic fiction, Murakami's bare bones style starts to feel less effective.
Fortunately, a rhythm soon arrives. Murakami defines his running terms, saying that while "Most ordinary runners are motivated by... a time they want to beat... I just run. I run in a void." When he adds, "I'm happy I haven't stopped running all these years. The reason is, I like the novels I've written," he finally connects the process of running to that of writing. Murakami describes the particulars of his running routine, how he does from race to race, and shares some of his strategies. He also, as befits a writer, tells some stories--the best one in the book being where he runs that special distance from Athens to Marathon:
I finally reach the end. Strangely, I have no feeling of accomplishment. The only thing I feel is utter relief that I don't have to run anymore. I use a spigot at a gas station to cool off my overheated body and wash away the salt stuck to me. I'm covered with salt, a veritable human salt field. When the old man at the gas station hears what I've done, he snips off some flowers from a potted plant and presents me with a bouquet. You did a good job, he smiles. Congratulations. I feel so thankful for these small gestures of kindness from foreigners.
Quotations That Made This Bostonist Laugh And/Or Smile
1. "The Charles River is a holy spot for regatta racing, and there is always someone rowing on the river. I like to race them."
2. "As if to lament the defeat of the Boston Red Sox in the playoffs (they lost every game in a Sox vs. Sox series with Chicago), for ten days afterward a cold rain fell on New England. A long autumn rain. Sometimes it rained hard, sometimes softly; sometimes, it would let up for a time like an afterthought, but not once did it clear up. From beginning to end the sky was completely covered with the thick gray clouds particular to this region. Like a dawdling person, the rain lingered for a long time, then finally made up its mind to turn into a downpour. Towns from New Hampshire to Massachusetts suffered damage from the rain, and the main highway was cut off in places. (Please understand I'm not blaming the Red Sox for all this.)"
Read more excerpts from Murakami's latest and see what others had to say about the book after the jump. This post contributed by Evan Fleischer.
3. "Once when I had a chance to talk with a sales rep from Mizuno, he admitted, 'Our shoes are kind of plain and don't stand out. We stand by our quality, but they aren't that attractive.' I know what he's trying to say. They have no gimmicks, no sense of style, no catchy slogan. So to the average consumer, they have little appeal. (The Subaru of the shoe world, in other words.)"
4. Murakami only refers to Sam Adams as "Sam Adams draft beer." (Clearly, there are no bottles.)
5. '"Thank you all very much for taking the time to attend my reading," I began. "If I'd know there would be this many attending, I would have booked Fenway Park." (This Bostonist remembers the reading, and called a few friends who he knew were attending. "Don't bother," they said. "No chance you'll get in.")
6. "And how was my time? Truth be told, not so great. At least, not as good as I'd been secretly hoping for. If possible, I was hoping to be able to wind up this book with a powerful statement like, 'Thanks to all the hard training I did, I was able to post a great time at the New York City Marathon. When I finished I was really moved,' and casually stroll off into the theme song from Rocky blaring in the background."
7. "An understated, rainy-day-sneakers sort of conclusion."
8. "At any rate, I'd happily made it to the finish line set up in front of the Murakami City Hall. The race was over. I didn't drown, didn't get a flat, didn't get stung by a vicious jellyfish. No ferocious bear hurled himself at me, and I wasn't stung by wasps, or hit by lightning."
9. "I'll be happy if running and I can grow old together."
Images of Locations Mentioned in the Book That Were Unfamiliar To This Bostonist and Might Be Helpful for Others to Take A Gander At
2. Jingu Gaien
4. Lake Saroma (above right)
What Have Others Said About the Book?
Bookslut: "Taking place, as it does, in the real world, Haruki Murakami's slim memoir is less strange and beautiful than his fiction. Instead, the author presents the story of his life as a runner in straightforward language, charming in its simplicity and honesty. Murakami frames his development as a novelist, as well as his early adventures as a night club entrepreneur, within the physical experience of his daily run."
Complete Review: "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running only provides a few autobiographical details, but in the way Murakami reveals himself in his day-to-day (running-)routines and concerns proves quite satisfying as a small memoir. There's really not that much to it, and yet it gives a good sense of the man."
L.A. Times: "The flat, colloquial style that serves to heighten the magical qualities of Murakami's fiction makes this work of straightforward nonfiction sound pedestrian. Clichés abound: The heat of a city in summer is "something else," squirrels run around "like crazy" and young Harvard students run "like the wind." For a book by such a gifted writer, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running reads as though it could have been written by anyone."
Post contributed by Evan Fleischer. Lake Saroma photograph by psiphim6.
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