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Thread: Kazuo Ishiguro, Banana Yoshimoto, Haruki Murakami...

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    Default Kazuo Ishiguro, Banana Yoshimoto, Haruki Murakami...

    I'm all into Japanese/ westernized Japanese literature right now...I realize Ishiguro is British, and that many of his books haven't a thing to do with Japan, but my list is limited. I just love Banana and Murkami though. Anyone else like these authors? Could someone recommend other writers who write in a similar way? I just can't get enough of that dreamy, morbid surrealism.

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    God/dess Jenny's Avatar
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    Default Re: Kazuo Ishiguro, Banana Yoshimoto, Haruki Murakami...

    I love (love, love, love) Kazuo Ishiguro; not sure about the rest, though. I might try over the summer.

    You can try - if you are interested in the Japanese Canadian experience - Kerri Sakamoto and Joy Kogawa.

    Sorry, I'm - how do you say? Ethnocentric? But something I have a feeling that you might like is Because It Is Bitter And Because It Is My Heart by Joyce Carol Oates.
    I have taught that the sky in all its zones is mortal and its substance was formed by a process of birth

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    Default Re: Kazuo Ishiguro, Banana Yoshimoto, Haruki Murakami...

    I have loved Manga by Shirow Masamune since the 80's. With CGI it gets closer to his black and white line drawings. Appleseed.


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    Default Re: Kazuo Ishiguro, Banana Yoshimoto, Haruki Murakami...

    I love Banana Yoshimoto!

    But no, I have no idea about similar stuff...do you want Japanese author recs, or similar-style?

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    Default Re: Kazuo Ishiguro, Banana Yoshimoto, Haruki Murakami...

    slightly unrelated, but I love, love, love Yosano Akiko.....poetry, written about a hundred years ago, it pretty much rocks.....here's a sample:

    To punish
    Men for their endless sins,
    God gave me
    This fair skin,
    This long black hair!

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    Default Re: Kazuo Ishiguro, Banana Yoshimoto, Haruki Murakami...

    hey, molly! I loved Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto when I first read it about ten years ago.

    I'm drawing a blank on similar stuff, though....I feel like there's another contemporary Japanese female author whose last name begins with Y...but I'm drawing on a very vague memory....sorry...

    Have you read Audrey Hepburn's Neck? I haven't read it...I think it's by an American guy who lived in Tokyo for 7 years, and the back cover calls it "extraordinarily evocative of the mishmash of cultures and mores that is modern Japan..." So if you're on a Japan kick, you might like it.

    As for "morbid surrealism," a few things come to mind....Have you read Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia? You might like that one...

    You've probably read Milan Kundera...The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is my favorite.

    How about Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman?

    Also, this has nothing to do with Japan, and I wouldn't call it dreamy or morbid or surrealism, but I want to recommend Iron & Silk by Mark Salzman just because it's such a lovely little book....
    "Doc still loved true things, but he knew it was not a general love and it could be a very dangerous mistress." - John Steinbeck, Cannery Row


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    Default Re: Kazuo Ishiguro, Banana Yoshimoto, Haruki Murakami...

    Oh gosh, I didn't see that others had replied to this before now. Thanks for the recommendations!

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    Default Re: Kazuo Ishiguro, Banana Yoshimoto, Haruki Murakami...

    I'll check out the Banana person, as I have read and enjoyed several of Murakami's books. He has a new one out, actually. I just saw it at B&N. I liked "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" and "A Wild Sheep Chase" the best, I think.

    Jenny-I've never read that Joyce Carol Oates book, but have looked at it a couple of times. The title is a line from a Stephen Crane poem called "In The Desert" that I always liked. I'll have to check it out.
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    Jay Zeno
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    Default Re: Kazuo Ishiguro, Banana Yoshimoto, Haruki Murakami...

    Try works by Yukio Mishima, like Spring Snow. He was one of the more notable postwar Japanese authors.

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    Default Re: Kazuo Ishiguro, Banana Yoshimoto, Haruki Murakami...

    Banana Yoshimoto would make a kick-ass porn name!! I know you want to touch this long hard BANANA!! Heh- heh! Good times, good times....

    Now I digress.
    “What a caterpillar calls the end of the world we call a butterfly.” - ECKHART TOLLE

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    God/dess Jenny's Avatar
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    Default Re: Kazuo Ishiguro, Banana Yoshimoto, Haruki Murakami...

    Quote Originally Posted by MrChristopher View Post
    I'll check out the Banana person, as I have read and enjoyed several of Murakami's books. He has a new one out, actually. I just saw it at B&N. I liked "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" and "A Wild Sheep Chase" the best, I think.

    Jenny-I've never read that Joyce Carol Oates book, but have looked at it a couple of times. The title is a line from a Stephen Crane poem called "In The Desert" that I always liked. I'll have to check it out.
    I have to admit that I only know the poem because I know the book. Joyce Carol Oates writes too damn much (I mean, I wouldn't say that to her face, but...) so some of it is bound to be ... meh. But, and I mean really, she is a genius. Like when she is on, she is ON. And I realize that it is kind of like saying "and you know what everyone? Picasso is good!" but I do think it is the best thing by her that I've read. Like by a lot.
    I have taught that the sky in all its zones is mortal and its substance was formed by a process of birth

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    Veteran Member Kitsune83's Avatar
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    Default Re: Kazuo Ishiguro, Banana Yoshimoto, Haruki Murakami...

    yukio mishima...he wrote "patriotism", right? (too lazy to look it up right now)...wait a sec.....didn't he commit sepukku (harakiri) on stage in the late 70's when he was laughed at? or am I thinking of another Japanese imperialist?
    another author of note: Junichiro Tanizaki......pretty great writing style.

    Anyone ever read "Never Let Me Go" (Kazuo Ishiguro) I'm curious about that one......

    PS: Molly, you might enjoy Natsuo Kirino, I think she's outstanding
    Last edited by Kitsune83; 05-30-2007 at 11:48 PM.

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    Default Re: Kazuo Ishiguro, Banana Yoshimoto, Haruki Murakami...

    ^^Never Let Me Go is the first Ishiguro book I read, and is just such a page turner. I think I finished it in a day. Very spooky, very sad. Topical. I loved it.

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    Jay Zeno
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    Default Re: Kazuo Ishiguro, Banana Yoshimoto, Haruki Murakami...

    Mishima performed seppuku, or ritual suicide. And he was not a very admirable character to me in a lot of ways. But he was an influential author and wrote well.

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    Default Re: Kazuo Ishiguro, Banana Yoshimoto, Haruki Murakami...

    Thought that Mishima was who I was thinking of. I admire his love for his country.....a touch xenophobic though he was.......I tend to err on the side of Japanese Nationalists, because after the war, we took so much of their identity and pride from them, re-wrote the textbooks, did what we could to destroy their religion and culture, etc......It's a bit contentious, but I think Hawkish Abe (Shinzo Abe) has the right idea in wanting to rebuild the pride and power of Japan.

    Oh, another book suggestion: Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara, I believe she wrote it at age 19 or 20, got a hugely prestigious award for it as well. I think it'd be right up the alley of some people on here......

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