Novelist as a Vocation

June 1, 2022

World-class Japanese author Murakami is not known for speaking about himself. But here he opens up about how he became a novelist, what it's like to be one, and where he finds his ideas while pondering the role of fiction in society and sources of inspiration not just for writers but for artists and musicians.

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 12, 2022
Novelist Murakami (1Q84) reveals the tricks of the trade in this stellar essay collection, originally published in Japan in 2015. In “Are Novelists Broadminded?” he observes that “people with brilliant minds are not particularly well suited to writing novels,” while “A Completely Personal and Physical Occupation” makes a case that it’s crucial for a writer to cultivate stamina: “You have to become physically fit. You need to become robust and physically strong. And make your body your ally.” In “When I Became a Novelist” Murakami shares stories of his time at the Waseda University in Tokyo at the peak of student protests and recalls his days operating a jazz café with his wife in the mid-’70s: “We were all young then, full of ambition and energy—though, sad to say, no one was making any money to speak of.” Especially enjoyable is a mystical tale he shares about a baseball game he attended in 1978 during which “based on no grounds whatsoever, it suddenly struck me: I think I can write a novel.” Lighthearted yet edifying, the anecdotes make for a fantastic look at how a key literary figure made it happen. Murakami’s fans will relish these amusing missives. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM Partners.

September 15, 2022
The acclaimed novelist opens up about his methods and how he creates his own private worlds. In a series of self-deprecating, introspective essays, six previously published, five written for this book, Murakami shares his modest views on writing. The fact that he has been able "to write novels as a profession...continues to amaze me." He begins with generalities: what qualities successful novelists possess and how they are able to sustain them. The author recounts how, at 29, married, attending school and struggling to keep his jazz cafe afloat, he was outside watching a baseball game, and "based on no grounds whatsoever, it suddenly struck me: I think I can write a novel." He wrote his first novel--later to become Hear the Wind Sing--in rudimentary English, "a rough, uncultivated kind of prose." He then "transplanted" it into Japanese in a "creative rhythm distinctly my own," finding the "coolest chords, trusting in the power of improvisation." Murakami believes his jazzy literary originality, voice, and style were born then. Even today, he doesn't experience writer's block. Words come out in a joyful "spontaneous flow" as his narratives grow lengthier and more complex. After dismissing the significance of literary prizes, he advises young writers to read numerous novels, good and bad, as he did growing up, observe the world around them, and draw upon their memories. Essays are "no more than sidelines, like the cans of oolong tea marketed by beer companies." Stories are like "practice pieces." When he composes his novels, he limits himself to 10 pages per day; then his wife reads it, and he makes countless revisions--"I have a deep-rooted love for tinkering." Novelists require stamina, which Murakami gets from one of his favorite pastimes: running. Over time, he gradually began writing more in third person, creating more named characters and "simultaneously being created by the novel as well." He doesn't comment much on his own works nor those of others. Dry and repetitious in places, Murakami's gentle encouragement will appeal to hesitant novice writers.

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Starred review from October 1, 2022

Murakami has written 14 acclaimed novels, including Hear the Wind Sing, Kafka on the Shore, Norwegian Wood, and his best-selling IQ84; dozens of short stories; and over a dozen books of essays and other nonfiction. Many films, plays, and other stage presentations have been based on his work. He has been a writing fellow at Princeton, Tufts, and Harvard. Novelist is indeed his true vocation, and in this collection of 11 interconnected essays, he tells would-be fiction writers, struggling novelists, and his many devoted readers about the path he's followed and the ideas and thoughts he's had in the process: competition among novelists; how he became a novelist (an epiphany at a baseball game in downtown Tokyo), literary prizes; originality (obvious in his writing); subject matter; use of his time (he writes six hours a day, then edits and rewrites extensively); physical fitness (he runs an hour a day to maintain the strength he needs to focus in his writing); the usefulness (or not) of writing schools and courses; creating and developing characters; audience (he writes primarily for himself); and extending his work abroad. VERDICT Although this is a concrete and practical guide, as Murakami intended, it is also a fascinating personal and professional memoir.--Marcia Welsh

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 1, 2022
The 29-year-old Murakami was sitting in the bleachers at a Yakult Swallows baseball game in 1978 when he had a thought, ""I could write a novel."" That thought led to the creation of Hear the Wind Sing, which launched an award-winning career that has extended to many more novels and numerous stories and essays. In 2015, Murakami published six essays in the Japanese magazine Monkey that he imagined as speeches offering a ""comprehensive look at my views on writing novels."" These ""records of undelivered speeches"" appear here with five additional essays written for this book. Covering such topics as ""So What Should I Write About"" and ""Who Do I Write For,"" Murakami employs the unadorned style that distinguishes his fiction, a style that he developed by writing first in English and then translating his work back into Japanese, striving for a natural voice ""as far removed as possible from the strictures of 'serious literature.'"" The author's devoted readers will be fascinated by how his unique style and tone came into being and will also find much to ponder in his reflections on music and writing and on how he views physical fitness as central to maintaining the mental toughness it takes to sit down at the keyboard day after day. These conversational, self-deprecating musings on how one person writes novels are as close as we can hope to come to talking books with a modern master.

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