Haruki Murakami

Combining an offbeat cast of characters with Murakami's idiosyncratic prose, this novel is an assault on all the senses, a murder mystery that is also philosophical speculation, and a dark fable of advanced capitalism.

Dance Dance Dance

Mathias Hellsing

The next thing I knew the room was flooded with silence. Waves of helplessness washed over me. I needed to rouse myself. I closed my eyes and counted from one to ten in Spanish, ending in a loud finito and a clap of the hands. My own spell to conquer helplessness. One of the many skills I'd acquired living alone. Without these tricks I may not have survived.

“As time goes on, you'll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn't, doesn't. Time solves most things. And what time can't solve, you have to solve yourself.”

Another addition to my TBR list almost exactly a decade ago, I seem to have forgotten that 

. Now, it has also been an alarmingly long long time since I read that one, so the events in this book were even stranger and more dreamlike than a classic Murakami. The characters, the places all seemed faintly familiar, like staring through a thick mist. Just another layer on top of the Murakami dreamscape, I suppose.

This book, like many other Haruki Murakami stories, is cynical, mysterious and tense with a wry sense of humor and a poetic, chilling depth to its narration. However, what put it over some of the other books for me was that I listened to it as an audiobook ( a first for me for Murakami’s books). It was just perfectly done. Excellent narration that not only complimented the story itself, but made it even stronger.

My biggest and perhaps only problem with this book is how the main character talks about Yuki, a 13 year old girl. In fact, all women in this book are overly sexualised and seen through the most tedious male-gaze perspective possible. However, I find that Murakami’s early works all have this underlying problem which does get better over time (although there is still room for improvement). It does get distracting and distasteful at times, but I will overlook it in the grand context of the book, in contrast to its great narrative moments.

“As time goes on, you'll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn't, doesn't. Time solves most things. And what time can't solve, you have to solve yourself.”

---------------------------------

Another addition to my TBR list almost exactly a decade ago, I seem to have forgotten that Dance Dance Dance is the sequel to A Wild Sheep Chase. Now, it has also been an alarmingly long long time since I read that one, so the events in this book were even stranger and more dreamlike than a classic Murakami. The characters, the places all seemed faintly familiar, like staring through a thick mist. Just another layer on top of the Murakami dreamscape, I suppose.

This book, like many other Haruki Murakami stories, is cynical, mysterious and tense with a wry sense of humor and a poetic, chilling depth to its narration. However, what put it over some of the other books for me was that I listened to it as an audiobook ( a first for me for Murakami’s books). It was just perfectly done. Excellent narration that not only complimented the story itself, but made it even stronger.

My biggest and perhaps only problem with this book is how the main character talks about Yuki, a 13 year old girl. In fact, all women in this book are overly sexualised and seen through the most tedious male-gaze perspective possible. However, I find that Murakami’s early works all have this underlying problem which does get better over time (although there is still room for improvement). It does get distracting and distasteful at times, but I will overlook it in the grand context of the book, in contrast to its great narrative moments.

Jackie Lu

First Murakami book and I read this without knowing about the prequels. Very good

alyssa helena

I love how Murakami describes night vibes in this book

Dance dance dance

Virginia L

Bla bla bla bla bla bla  quanto sei carina Yuki bla bla bla bla l’affascinante Gotanda  bla bla bla bla bla bla bla “sei un tipo davvero strano”  bla bla bla bla bla bla quello che faccio è spalare la neve bla bla bla bla bla cosa vorrà dirmi Kiki bla bla bla bla bla le dita di Gotanda lungo la schiena di Kiki bla bla bla bla l’uomo pecora esiste per me bla bla bla bla *citare un evergreen* bla bla bla bla bla “Cucù” fece Mei.

Haritlak Thawikasikam

Murder mystery meets magical realism. And most of all, more Murakami for me to read.

Frederik De Bosschere

So clever and creative, I did not read the sequel but the book was still so captivating and coherent. Recommended by the loml americanbaron and so worth it 

aves! 

Charlotte 

Merve A. 

It was an interesting book, but it left me with so many questions. I found the I-could've-slept-with-her-but-I-didn't-but-I-wish-I-had main character quite insufferable and his interactions with Yuki, a thirteen year old girl, were sort of creepy. Guess this will be my first and last Murakami book.

Ender Ahmet Yurt

Bazen donguyu tamamlamak icin basladiginiz noktaya donmeniz gerekir. Bu Donus yolunda zorluklar ve gercekten basiniza gelmesini istemediginiz olaylar ile karsilasirsiniz. Iste tam olarak da ana karakterimizin yasadiklari ve zaman zaman cevap vermedigi sorular ile herseyin zamani vardir diyerek yoluna devam etmesi. Klasik bir Murakami eseri sade ama guzel.

Dance Dance Dance—a follow-up to A Wild Sheep Chase—is a tense, poignant, and often hilarious ride through Murakami’s Japan, a place where everything that is not up for sale is up for grabs. As Murakami’s nameless protagonist searches for a mysteriously vanished girlfriend, he is plunged into a wind tunnel of sexual violence and metaphysical dread. In this propulsive novel, featuring a shabby but oracular Sheep Man, one of the most idiosyncratically brilliant writers at work today fuses together science fiction, the hardboiled thriller, and white-hot satire.

Mark Wadley

It’s tough to describe a Murakami novel without simplifying it to the point of absurdity. Like you could say Dance Dance Dance is about a bad writer solving murders with the help of a 13-year-old psychic, and you’d be right, kind of. But this novel, like other Murakami I’ve read, is so much more (and less?) than you think. On the surface, not much happens — the unnamed narrator travels, hooks up, hangs out — but there’s a supernatural mystery humming along beneath it all.

This is my favorite kind of detective story: an ordinary person (i.e. not a cop) stumbles into something strange and feels compelled to work it in a sort of shaggy adventure. There’s a lot of humor and Lynchian dreaminess in this version of that story, and I’m here for it. I read and really loved 1Q84 last year, and while I think that book is better, they certainly share a lot of DNA. Murakami’s writing is so direct and accessible that it makes the grounded elements feel very real and all the weird shit just sings. I really dig it.

Milk

I really wanted to enjoy this book more than I did. The first half of it was thrilling, the other half wasn't as compelling as Murakami's books usually are. It was good, fine. I liked it. I didn't love it. To be frank; I didn't find the main character to be too interesting and although I liked him to some degree, reading  Dance Dance Dance was mainly enojyable, to the degree in which I found it enjoyable, whenever Yuki was around. The story reminded me too much of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle as well, despite the fact that the plot of these two novels aren't too similar. I don't know. It was fine.

Kirsten Devolder

Sonia Flores

“Es igual que una raíz: por pequeña que sea la parte que aflora a la superficie, si tiramos de ella, no para de salir. La conciencia humana vive en hondas tinieblas. Es enrevesada, compleja… Hay demasiados elementos incomprensibles. Sólo cada uno conoce sus verdaderos motivos. Incluso puede ser que no los conozca.”

Este me ha gustado mucho. De verdad. No sé qué tiene Murakami pero en este libro lo ha hecho muy bien, ya no me enfadé nunca ni nada por los personajes, aunque a veces resultaban un tanto planos. En general lo que hace de este libro algo especial es el modo de poner las cosas. No sé explicarlo bien, todo queda un poco difuso como el final de este libro. Y así tiene que ser.
Por supuesto que no habría leído este sin antes haber leído los que le anteceden si hubiera podido, pero espero algún día encontrarlos todos y leerlos.

Dance Dance Dance

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