On the 18th of this month, Haruki Murakami's new short story collection "First Person Singular" will be officially launched by Bunji Motetsu Chinese edition.
"First Person Singular" is a collection of short stories by Haruki Murakami for 6 years, and it is also a new work that has been released after 3 years after the novel "Assassination of the Knight Commander". The original Japanese version was launched in July last year and the English version in May this year.
First Person Singular
[Japanese] Haruki Murakami / Author
Ye Yi / Translation
Motie Wenzhi Flower City Publishing House
"First Person Singular" contains 8 short stories, of which 7 have been published in literary magazines, the short story of the same name is a new work, and three short stories were also translated into English for the first time and published in last year's New Yorker magazine. The title of the new book shows that Haruki Murakami has returned to the first-person narrative he is good at, he often creates the illusion in the novel that makes the reader think that he is really experiencing, Murakami has also admitted in interviews that this is a deliberate setting, and literary critic Jay Rubin has analyzed that for more than two decades, the use of "friendly and kind first-person way to tell the story has been a central part of Murakami's narrative strategy." The only personality that exists is the 'I' himself, and the other is only a reflection of his mind." Haruki Murakami also said bluntly about the book: "Once again, we stand in the original position and meet a new challenge." ”
The Haruki Murakami Library of Waseda University in Tokyo opened in October this year
Among the 8 novels included, "On the Stone Pillow" recalls the accidental emotional exchange between a literary girl who met a migrant worker in college; "Cream" writes an intriguing question that cannot be explained in life, illogical but disturbs the mind, and is divorced from reality; Haruki Murakami, who loves jazz, also writes this seemingly fantastic musical novel "Charlie Parker Plays Posanova", and the writer of the music report in the story fictionalizes a fantasy album but thus derives a strange connection between the dream and the real world; With the Beatles, "With the Beatles" narrates the chronicle of the first love of youth full of the atmosphere of the past summer and rock music; it is also worth noting the "Yakult Swallows Poetry Collection", in addition to the love of baseball, but also combined with poetry, prose genre, and it is also a rare time to reveal the memories of life with his parents after "Abandoned Cat".
"Shinagawa Monkey", which is very popular with readers in the Tokyo Strange Tan Collection, this monkey appears again in the sequel "The Confession of Shinagawa Monkey", revealing the magical life mystery and the ultimate love story of Shinagawa Monkey, "Shinagawa Monkey Confession" will especially attract readers who are fascinated by Murakami's surrealist turn, this story blurs the boundary between dreams and reality, and the English version cover also chooses this monkey as a visual element. The chapter of the same name, "First Person Singular", has a self-questioning encounter in the bar on a full moon on a spring night, and the story suddenly ends but the afterglow is not over, as if falling into the dark bar space.
Cover of the English edition of First Person Singular
The first-person feel is accentuated by the musical elements in the new work, with names such as Robert Schumann, Charlie Parker, and the Beatles flashing between titles or paragraphs, and the reader can almost imagine the situation in which Murakami completed the creation. In an interview with the Mainichi Shimbun, Haruki Murakami mentioned that fiction and music have the same meaning to themselves, "Music is beyond 'logic'. It's something that makes people feel the same way. I think that kind of power can have a lot of resonance. The same is true of fiction. In principle, music and writing novels are the same. Even in the face of some readers' doubts about the decline in the quality of his work, Murakami would fight back with music, "If anyone is difficult for me, I will hand over my instrument and say to him, 'Give, you blow!'" ’”
The music mentioned in the new work was made into a book set
After the English version of the book was launched, numerous media outlets paid attention to the book, and the Guardian published a rare critical article arguing that the book was still full of The Murakami's trademark cliché, "He occasionally tried to gain insight but left without making any progress", and the review of "Charlie Parker Playing Posanova" said that he was just reviewing the great jazz musician's new album, and that the turn in the story halfway through the narrative had a "cheap Borges" feeling, while "Charlie Parker played Posarois" was dismissed as nothing more than a review of the great jazz musician's new album, and that the turn in the story was halfway through the narrative with a "cheap Borges" feel, while "Charlie Parker played Posarois" The image of the talking monkey in Shinagawa Monkey Confessions makes the commentators think they have been fooled. But at the same time, the article also said that any criticism was invalid for Murakami, just informing his loyal readers that a new book had been released with this core message.
NpR Literature's review was slightly milder, arguing that Murakami's outspoken short stories, like his more complex novels, raised existential questions about perception, memory, and all of this meaning, "though he rarely came up with answers, as a perennial contender for the Nobel Prize, he enjoyed rare global popularity among writers." ”
A short story published in The New Yorker in 2020
In contrast, the Harvard Review and the New York Times have more depth, the Harvard Review noted the literary ideas expressed in this short story, and Murakami said of memory in "With the Beatles" that "memory sometimes becomes one of my most precious emotional assets, and it becomes the sustenance of my life, like a sleeping, warm kitten in a big pocket in my coat." In "The Confession of the Shinagawa Monkey", Murakami expressed his opinion on the theme of the story, and "I" said bluntly about how to develop the topic when meeting a monkey who could only talk: "Theme? I can't find the theme at all... Where will there be any theme or inspiration for such a story? Critics argue that Murakami here "expresses a peculiar way of contempt for literary conventions, especially for writers themselves, who have always challenged this tradition through creative foresight."
The New York Times commented more on the phenomenon of Haruki Murakami's international dissemination, and the article focused on Haruki Murakami's current writing from different aspects with keywords such as magic, bridge, and reality, and the problems derived from these stories about the reproduction of memory, the loss of self-identity, and the distance between the self and the real world made Haruki Murakami "like a mysterious wanderer, exposing his global readers to the essential and universal question that only art can cause: What does it mean to carry memory?" What is the baggage of identity? Will the name be stolen? The article explains why Haruki Murakami's international reputation is better than at home (which he himself admits), on the one hand his writing draws more elements of Western literature, on the other hand, his writing is full of allegory and the mystery of time, "his works—driven by the tension with the writers of his predecessors—blended with world culture, or crossed the world culture, fearing time and beating like a popular song." ”
As for the "first-person narrative", the critics believe that Haruki Murakami has been rebelling against the influence anxiety from the writer Kenzaburo Oe in the past, whose novel "Personal Experience" published in 1964 is regarded as one of the masterpieces of "private fiction" and the text that Murakami values when he steps into first-person narrative, and commentators believe that it can now be felt from the new work "First Person Singular" that Murakami's perspective on "private novels" is less sensitive, "He expresses his voice in a more relaxed tone, Created a tone of confession for life, reminiscent of Alice Monroe's later works. Perhaps, this is a better way to understand the "manifesto" that Haruki Murakami issued for the book, "once again standing in the original position and meeting a new challenge." ”
New Media Editor: Zheng Zhouming
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