The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami

In an other world composed of languageit could be a fathomless Martian well, a labyrinthine hotel or foresta narrative unfolds, and with it the experiences, memories, and dreams that constitute reality for Haruki Murakamis characters and readers alike. Memories and dreams in turn conjure their magical counterpartspeople without names or pasts, fantastic animals, half-animals, and talking machines that traverse the dark psychic underworld of this writers extraordinary fiction. Fervently acclaimed worldwide, Murakamis wildly imaginative work in many ways remains a mystery, its worlds within worlds uncharted territory. Finally in this book readers will find a map to the strange realm that grounds virtually every aspect of Murakamis writing. A journey through the enigmatic and baffling innermost mind, a metaphysical dimension where Murakamis most bizarre scenes and characters lurk, The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami exposes the psychological and mythological underpinnings of this other world. Matthew Carl Strecher shows how these considerations color Murakamis depictions of the individual and collective soul, which constantly shift between the tangible and intangible but in this literary landscape are undeniably real. Through these otherworldly depths The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami also charts the writers vivid inner world, whether unconscious or underworld (what some Japanese critics call achiragawa, or over there), and its connectivity to language. Strecher covers all of Murakamis workincluding his efforts as a literary journalistand concludes with the first full-length close reading of the writers newest novel, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.