anyone here a Murakami fan? I want to give him a shot... but I'm not really sure where to start. What's his most accessible book?
My favourite is
Kafka on The Shore. Its quite accessible and the mystery behind it will keep you reading it until the end. Damn shame that it ends unsatisfactory, but the journey is absolutely wonderful. My Haruki Murakami reading adventure actually started from
Dance Dance Dance which just grabbed me from the beginning and I couldn't stop until it finished. That book had the best characters of his book.
Hard Boiled Wonderland & The End of the World was also amazing, and I have to say no other book have blown my mind like that books ending, Holyshit! Its quite abstract until you build your world in your head and go with it. The adventure is quite fulfilling and the two stories have two widely different structures which is helps set the tone for its thematic purpose.
I found
Wind-up Bird Chronicles disappointed and below average. The structure is non-existence, the characters are quite impulsive and the story and the world building, I found, was quite improvise to a degree that reeks of simply going for the compulsion of metaphysical emphasis rather than set a rule of thumbs towards the plot and the ending was bloody dumb. I honestly don't get the prainse it gets from people, Yes, all of his books falls flat the closer it gets to the ending, but that one was simply irritating.
After Dark is simply the most underrated of his book. I felt he has done the blend of reality and metaphysical quite better than Wind-up and the story had this Noir feel to it. It was sombre and buoyant and had this underhand abstract commentary on physical mind and body. Simply fantastic.
Haven't read 1Q84, but heard it was average. I am looking forward in reading it though.