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The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami

Article  in  Asian Studies Review · February 2015

DOI: 10.1080/10357823.2015.1006319

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The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki

Murakami
a
Chikako Nihei
a
Yamaguchi University
Published online: 05 Feb 2015.

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To cite this article: Chikako Nihei (2015): The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami, Asian Studies
Review, DOI: 10.1080/10357823.2015.1006319

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 Asian Studies Review, 2015

Book Review

MATTHEW CARL STRECHER. The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami. Minneapolis

and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2014. xiv, 237 pp. Notes, bibliography, index.
US$22.95, paper.

About a decade after the publication of Dances with Sheep, the second monograph
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written in English about Murakami Haruki following Jay Rubin’s The Music of Words,
Matthew Strecher has made another significant contribution to the study of this
renowned and controversial author. In The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami,
Strecher delves into the function of the metaphysical realm portrayed in Murakami’s
stories, in order to shed light on a number of related themes including narrative,
psychology, mythology, religion and journalism.
In the introductory chapter, referring to the speech ‘Of Walls and Eggs’ that
Murakami made when he received the Jerusalem Literary Prize, Strecher recapitulates
the “bumpy road” that Murakami travelled in his career as a Japanese novelist, acting
as an “egg”, an individual in a fragile shell, standing against the “wall” of the System.
Strecher argues that in Murakami’s work the metaphysical realm is the space where
individuals gather the strength to rebel against the “wall”. This further provides them
with a chance to reflect on themselves and (re)construct their identities.
In the first chapter, Strecher discusses the power of language to create new realities.
In his view, Murakami demonstrates the readers’ significant role in bringing the text
into being by reading it through the filter of their own language, experience and culture
and therefore “rewriting” it in their own way. By portraying individuals who try to cre-
ate their realities and construct their subjectivities, Strecher says, Murakami describes
the “eggs” standing against the “wall”. The discussion is further developed in the
second chapter, in which Strecher introduces a number of metaphysical elements that
function to transport the protagonists into an “other world”. While the style of the
journey into the “other world” has become more complicated in Murakami’s recent
work, the primary function of the journey remains consistent, which is to provide the
protagonists with a space where they face themselves and grasp their individual
narratives to (re)establish their subjectivity.
In the third chapter, in line with his discussion about the power of language and
narratives, Strecher draws attention to the recurrent appearance of god figures
and mythological elements in Murakami’s fiction. In Murakami’s stories, characters and
spaces that take on mythological elements often appear as holders of powerful voices.
They might lead the protagonists into the apt direction for their journey to the “other
world”, or attempt to control the protagonists with their authority. Strecher delves into
how Murakami’s protagonists struggle with the overbearing power of these voices,
and/or learn to relate to the voices in a collaborative way. Strecher’s analysis of Kafka
 2 Book Review

on the Shore and 1Q84, in which he explains how the characters attempt to overcome
the dominance by their Father figures, is particularly insightful. In both novels, the
power of dominant narratives provided by the Fathers is challenged by the protagonists’
will to create their own stories.
In the fourth chapter, Strecher explores the genre of literary journalism, in which fic-
tional elements and the author’s subjective apprehension are embedded in the description
of factual events as an effective approach. In Underground and Underground 2, the
collections of interviews Murakami did with the victims of the sarin gas attack carried
out by Aum Shinrikyō in 1995, and the cult members, respectively, Murakami sharply
criticises the media’s oversimplification, and its portrayal of the event as a battle
between the good on “our” side and the evil on “their” side. As a prominent case of
literary journalism, Strecher discusses how in 1Q84 Murakami fictionalised the stories
about Aum for a more effective portrayal of the facts by employing metaphysical and
mythological elements.
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In the fifth chapter, Strecher, shifting his focus to Murakami’s latest novel,
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, discusses the function of
dreams as a constructive device to understand oneself and create one’s new realities.
Strecher notes how in this story the System that governs the protagonist is constituted
by his circle of friends. It is in his dreams that the protagonist becomes aware of his
internal, suppressed desires and is driven to step out of the System. In this way,
Strecher argues, the protagonist in the novel is encouraged to face his inner desires and
create a new self.
In the Epilogue, Strecher draws attention to Murakami’s role as a translator. He
speaks highly of Murakami’s active engagement with the introduction of English-
language texts to Japanese readers. Strecher also points out Murakami’s colouring his
translation with his own writing style, which easily reminds the reader of the presence
of Murakami as the translator of the text. This well-researched monograph not only
contributes to deepening our understanding of Murakami’s work, but, more importantly,
Strecher reaffirms the bottomless possibilities to enjoy reading this author’s stories.

CHIKAKO NIHEI
Yamaguchi University
© 2015 Chikako Nihei
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2015.1006319

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