Week 7 of our Shadow Man Asian Literary Prize 2011 longlist reviewing project and we're moving along with less than two weeks now to the shortlist announcement. This week's reviews are: Jahnavi Barua's Rebirth (India) by Fay of Read, Ramble who thinks it has some interesting things to say about women's lives in contemporary India … Continue reading Shadow Man Asian Literary Prize 2011: Reviews from the week December 26-31
Haruki Murakami
Shadow Man Asian Literary Prize 2011: Reviews from the week December 11-17
Week 5 of our Shadow Man Asian Literary Prize 2011 longlist reviewing project and we're moving along with quite a bumper crop of reviews this week ... Haruki Murakami's IQ84 (Japan) by Matt of A Novel Approach. Matt, a student of Japanese literature, has mixed feelings. He calls it unwieldy, though he also admits that … Continue reading Shadow Man Asian Literary Prize 2011: Reviews from the week December 11-17
Delicious descriptions from Down Under: Alice Pung and Haruki Murakami
Regular readers here may know that I like Haruki Murakami and so will understand that I was tickled when, out of the blue, Alice Pung alludes to Murakami in her book, Her father's daughter, that I reviewed earlier this week. It appears in her description of a prostitute who has come into her father's Retravison … Continue reading Delicious descriptions from Down Under: Alice Pung and Haruki Murakami
Haruki Murakami, Blind willow, sleeping woman
Granted, my fiction contains more than its share of invention, but when I'm not writing fiction I don't go out of my way to make up meaningless stories. (from "Chance traveller", 2005) This is as good a way as any to commence my review of Haruki Murakami’s recent short story collection, Blind willow, sleeping woman, … Continue reading Haruki Murakami, Blind willow, sleeping woman
Haruki Murakami, What I talk about…
What a strange little book! I guess it's not surprising that Haruki Murakami's notion of a memoir is not quite that of the rest of us. This is not because it has any of the, shall we call it, weirdness you find in his novels, but because in its 180 pages, What I talk about … Continue reading Haruki Murakami, What I talk about…
Whispering Gums 