[OberynM]

Hello everybody,

I am currently reading Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood and i love it .. Especially the erotic parts ( it gets me high). Do you have any idea if any other of his novels have so much erotic in them?

[amphibian]

I have read only 1Q84, which treats sex as something other than erotic most of the time. It's detached, yet still prominent in the book throughout.

1Q84 is really close to being a trash book for me though - because he deals with sexual assault of children in a manner that I view as somewhat betraying the trust of the reader. It's right on that line of "This guy doesn't understand what he's dealing with and he's not using it in a way that makes a real point." The thing that gets me about this is that he does a great job working in and around publishing scandals, political groups, cults and other institutions in Japan with some pretty solid takes on them - yet THAT is the take he uses on the topics of sex and children. Either he doesn't know how to deal with the topic or he has a personal belief that is...

I'll read some of his other books and see what happens regarding my speculations.

[OberynM]

Thanks Amph thou i did not get that feel in this book regarding sex( maybe because he doesn't involve children). I see it more as erotica in a space of mind, meaning western culture has not adapted to this openess regarding sex and the historical culture of sex in japan.

[JPK]

So, I'm currently on my sixth book by him and sex is a very much a recurring theme for sure. The thing is, he handles it differently in each one and it's almost always in a darker tone. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World would be a safe one, and to a slightly lesser extent Sputnik Sweetheart (not really erotic, but not as cringe-inducing as most of the others either. A large theme of the book is unrequited desire.).

[Grief]

Yeah, it's a recurring part of his work, with varying degrees of strangeness and/or relevance to the novel. Norweigan Wood is in most respects one of his more normal books. Most of his work blurs together in my head so it's hard to remember specifics. South of the Border West of the Sun is probably the most similar, in terms of relative normality, to Norweigan Wood (I don't think it's particularly erotic, but then I can't really remember how much that applies to Norweigan Wood either as his work goes). Kafka on the Shore and Wind-Up Bird Chronicle are on the weirder end of the spectrum with most of his other work tending in that direction (those two are deliberately uncomfortable on the erotic front iirc). Wild Sheep Chase isn't very good, and I didn't like Hard-Boiled Wonderland much either. Dance Dance Dance (technically a sequel to Wild Sheep Chase, but it doesn't matter, they can be read seperately) and South of the Border are underrated; Wind-Up Bird is overrated. I've not read 1Q84. I probably will at some point, but I don't feel a really pressing need. His writing reads very easily, but his books start feeling very repetitive and honestly I kind of wonder if my preferences with them aren't just down to which I read first.

[worry]

50 Shades of Alienation

[OberynM]

Thanks for the feed. I'll move on now to south of the border as i just bought it. I also finished in a day sexual beeings by kenzaburo oe. Seems like a murakami novel but at the end it was more visceral and hyperrealist. If you get the chance read it.

This post has been edited by OberynM: 13 February 2015 - 10:33 AM