Works of Haruki Murakami -- TV Man

Author: (Japanese) Haruki Murakami, translated by Lin Shaohua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-12-01
Features: In the world of contemporary Japanese writers, Haruki Murakami stands out as a truly extraordinary figure—a literary star. In just over a decade, his works have become wildly popular across Japan. Publishers have released special collections for him, magazines have published special issues, and bookstores have set up dedicated displays. For every book he releases, sales range from tens of thousands to over a million copies. Among these, Norwegian Wood (both volumes) sold over 7 million copies (statistics as of 1996). For pure literary fiction, this is absolutely no ordinary number. In Japan's previous records for novel sales, Masahiko Torii's historical novel Xiang Yu and Liu Bang topped the list with 2.3 million copies, followed by Watanabe Junichi's popular fiction The Incarnation with 1.47 million copies. Norwegian Wood far surpassed these records. This book is a short story collection published by the author in 1990, consisting of six stories, all of which are engaging and highly readable. For example, "The TV People" tells the story of several miniature TV people, who, like copies of normal humans scaled down, boldly intrude into private homes and companies. "Folklore of Our Time" features a girl who is so rational in love that she is eccentric. She falls in love with her male classmate but refuses to marry him, citing the general trend that women should marry someone a few years older. Meanwhile, she makes an appointment with him for a secret rendezvous after marriage, reasoning that since she will marry as a virgin, she won’t need to remain one afterward. However, when the day finally comes, she loses all passion. "Sleep" tells the story of a married woman who suffers from insomnia for a whole month but finds joy in it, because her life has expanded by one-third. This collection showcases the author's exceptional imagination, with each story being unexpectedly original and brilliantly unconventional.