Currently acknowledged as the recognisable face of Japanese fiction - at least in the West - Murakami is a lively and original writer, as may be seen from the success of his previous book, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle which was shortlisted for this year's IMPAC award. In that lengthy and hilarious odyssey, the central character is a wry, quasi-sophisticated thirty-something who has effectively dropped out of society. Having left his job in a legal firm , he stays at home where his marriage is under threat by, among other things, the disappearance of the couple's cat.
In this new novel, the situation is slightly different, and although the theme, that of emotional dislocation, is similar, the treatment is far more intense. Hajime tells his story from the age of 12 until he is 37, financially successful and utterly miserable. As a boy he had been friendly with a girl of the same age and also an only child, but circumstances caused them to lose touch. As a teenager, he has a girlfriend but that relationship ends badly - for the girl. As he recalls, "I didn't understand then that I could hurt somebody so badly she would never recover." Years pass and he finally marries. All is well until that first friend, the young Shimamoto, now a grown woman, comes back into his life bringing with her a bizarre sense of mystery. When presented with the choice of leaving his wife and children (all of whom he loves) Hajime knows he will choose the enigmatic Shimamoto, who has begun to obsess him.
While the narrative tone is deliberately flat - and Hajime, despite his material wealth, has remained a nervous boy, dependent but detached - Murakami's achievement here is to evoke the sense of a 19th century romantic novel set in the brash surroundings of modern-day Tokyo. The translation conveys a narrative tone which is both urgent and apathetic. At the heart of this deft and unnerving story, which is about far more than a typical mid-life crisis, is Murakimi's determined exploration of one man's life and the ease with which the most carefully-built structures may collapse. His achievement lies in making his confused and self-absorbed central character sufficiently real to be more pitied than despised. A strong, uneasy performance from a writer whose characteristic energy is here supplanted by a mood of increased pensiveness and inevitability.
