The Best Writer Alive
It all started in December of 2008. I turned 22, my ex-girlfriend and I had recently broken up–again, and I was stuck with my brother in the geriatric little Israel that is Boca Raton, FL.
The country club is always a relaxing time, Atlantic Beaches are nice, my grandmother’s banana trees were keeping me…regular, but there comes a point after being there for a while when a dangerous level of boredom sets in and the sun gets you thinking crazy shit like:
“Damn, sans the loose skin and her inability to walk without a constant supply of O2, that chick would be hot!”
..mmmm yeeaahh.......
To curb the monotony, I started reading this book that a friend let me borrow.
This friend is also crazy and used the margins of nearly every page to write some sort of nonsense manifesto about the ‘cloth industry’ and other random ‘bright ideas’ like the “tooth staple.” (?)
It was the Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami and it was the best book I’ve ever read in my life. I finished it in a couple days and since December I’ve read:
Murakami’s words and ideas are congruent with most of our experiences. The mundane protagonist leads his mundane life: makes spaghetti, feeds the cat, meets strange women — and then out of nowhere a giant talking frog bursts into a thousand tiny pieces that morph into insects and crawl up the protagonist’s anus inside of a downtown-Tokyo hospital room.
I just finished Dance Dance Dance. It was great; I beyond suggest it. The protagonist has a crazy sexual/psychic/artistic journey that takes him all over Japan and Honolulu. It all starts when he sees a movie in which a girl (his ex-girlfriend whom he hadn’t seen for 4 years) is naked in bed with a former classmate, a successful Japanese actor. Lots of cool locales, great sex scenes, food, beer, wine, women, it got it all!
He is wildly popular in Japan and his writing has gained some US acclaim in the past few years. Mental floss included WUBC among the 25 most influential books of our generation, and he regularly speaks at UC Berkeley (definitely checking one of those out!)
A new book is due out this year. Its called “1Q84″ (ichi-kew-hachi-yon). It was very recently released in Japan where it was an instant best-seller. Its not due out in English for some time. I’m gonna learn Japanese.
The writing’s sexy, the story’s fun, and the author’s message rings true: “Live your life, you steady chasin’ that paper, just live your life. Ain’t got no time for haters, just live your life.”
Trivia tidbit: Haruki Murakami is actually international hip-hop sensation T.I. and he carries a gilded pistol which he keeps locked to his diamond-encrusted jock strap.
