When I was a high school student (yes, let's go back to the Sweet 16), I found a classmate sitting beside me reading a book. So I asked him what book he was reading, and he showed me the one. That was Haruki Murakami's early work, "Pinball, 1973". The classmate let me read that so I tried to read it, and have been attracted to its world. At that period, I had been just a young guy who had never known any American literature, Jazz, and also having romance.
After that experience, I learned that Haruki's on-time bestseller book "Norwegian Wood" would be re-released as "bunko" (Japanese tiny paperback), so I decided to buy that. Reading that, I had gotten into Haruki's truly sophisticated, very unique world far from from any other Japanese novelist. At first, his logical and sensitive style was very easy to understand (nothing ambiguous!). Also, the items he put everywhere in his world (I have been tempted to call it "our Haruki World") seem very attractive.
Of course, now I can see that Haruki has never been a spontaneous author who has been separated from anything else. If you read his novels carefully, you can find various essences/details in the world that could have been from Japanese culture/tradition. For example, although I have not read theirs so much (yes, I'm embarrassed about this), some critics point out that Haruki has been influenced by the Japanese legendary authors such as Yukio Mishima and Kenzaburo Oe.
On Twitter, some users started pointing out/declaring how Haruki has been "cringing" at them. For example, they mainly say that Haruki's novels must be too misogynistic. Although I need to listen to their provoking opinions well, I can tell what they are saying (I remember various heroines in Haruki World such as Naoko and Midori). But, from that too primal instinctive emotion that says Haruki must have cringed, what can come to us as any logical, well-verbalized opinions as criticism? At least, Haruki taught me that to clarify/verbalize my emotions/opinions to others must be important in his debut novel. That's an important lesson for him.
This evening, I wrote my signature on the picture. At last, I have completed it!
