I have finally read a Murakami. I picked this up on a market stall and didn't realise it was part of a series until I listed it on GR and saw "The Rat, #4", but it works as a standalone story, albeit an intriguingly odd one. In conjures exciting unease and bafflement. It is a book of paradoxes and uncertainty, leaving me satisfied with being left, in some ways, unsatisfied. What sort of story?Genre labels can be useful, but can also be an irrelevant distraction. However, with this book, I found myself repeatedly wondering what type of story it was. By the end, I was still unsure, but glad of the tension caused by doubt.At various times, this was magical-realism, murder mystery, sci-fi, political thriller, romance (not too much, thankfully!), Kafkaesque, premature mid-life crisis story, surrealist, spiritual allegory, horror/ghost story, hints of Lolita, and the narrator likens a high-tech hotel to something out of Star Wars... It might have been easier to consider what it was not. Quirk of the '80sIt's a strange time to read a book like this: it was published, and apparently set, in 1988, which is recent enough that it feels more or less contemporary. However, that was just before Google, laptops, mobile phones etc, which means the protagonists do not have the opportunities one now takes for granted. Set it now, and the plot would need tweaking, but in 50 years, it will be historical enough for no one to notice. Reading it now, gave it an intriguing edge that added to the general sense of shifting reality.Connectedness and (un)realityConnectedness is the clearest theme of the book (and one that links it to David Mitchell, a known fan of Murakami, especially Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas). There is perhaps unintended (or prescient?) irony in the fact that a novel that is all about connectness was written and set just before the world became dramatically more connected.Ambiguity about what is real is the other thread: we assume the narrator is reliable (he's a journalist), but there are visions of various kinds, films, vague memories, a bit of mind reading. What is real, and what is not? As things get really weird, the narrator asks, "was the sickness in here or out there?"Plot and MeaningThe unnamed narrator is a divorced man in his mid-30s; a freelance journalist, mostly writing restaurant reviews - a job he describes as "Shovelling snow. You know, cultural snow." It opens with him talking about The Dolphin Hotel, and how he often dreams of it after a previous girlfriend, Kiki, took him there, then disappeared. It was a strange place: "The Dolphin Hotel was conceptually sorry... Normalness it lacked... Its corners caked with unfulfilled dreams." Four years on, he feels as if she's calling him to return, so he does. In its place, he finds the swish new Hotel Dauphin.Dabbling in his past brings him into contact with Gotunda, a high school class mate, who is now a successful (but unfulfilled, divorced and working to pay debts and alimony) actor. They become close friends, which they hadn't been at school. Other key characters are Yumiyoshi, a pretty hotel receptionist, and Yuki, a bright thirteen year old rich drop-out, largely ignored by her divorced parents. Characters, plot lines and reality twist and tangle, aided by dream-like visions, a portal to another dimension of reality, and a character with mild psychic abilities. The title relates to an instruction given to the narrator quite early and that seems as if it will be the key to everything, or at least something, but nothing really comes of it (more details in spoiler).All the way through, and especially towards the end, the narrator is musing on fate and destiny, and looking for meaning in all this - as is the reader. It never really comes, but I think that's rather the point. Had Murakami tied it all together with some ghastly homily, I think it would have ruined the book. After all, a recurring line is " What was that all about?", uttered by Kiki in a much-watched film. In more detail: (view spoiler)[Yumi and then the narrator accidentally (and separately) find themselves in a parallel world, in the Old Dolphin Hotel, where they meet the old owner, who the narrator nicknames Sheep Man because of all the pictures and books about sheep. He resisted selling up, and only gave in on condition the new hotel retained the name. He tells the narrator "Thisisyourplace. It'sthenkot. It'stiedtoeverything. Thisisyourworld" and that he (Sheep Man) works hard "Tokeepthings - fromfalllingapart. Tokeepyoufromforgetting." He stresses, "Yougottadance. Aslongasthemusicplays." It is not the place of the dead, and it is real, "Butit'snottheonlyreality."As well as being drawn to Kiki and wondering what happened to her, he fancies Yumi. He also discovers that Kiki had a bit part in a film of Gotunda's ("Unrequited Love", that the narrator watches obsessively) because Gotunda was a client and Kiki was one of the call girls at a secretive and very high-end agency. Through Yumi, the narrator gets to know Yuki, whose flighty photographer mother had left behind at the hotel to travel abroad! He took back to her home in Tokyo and keeps a (mostly) paternal eye on her. Their relationship ought to be creepy, especially when he comments how pretty she is, but it's actually rather sweet and innocent. Even her parents think so, as they each (separately) get him to take more charge of her.Yuki has also seen Sheep Man, though by some sort of mental connection to the narrator, rather than going through the portal. Gotunda calls the agency to get a couple of girls for him and the narrator. The latter has Mei, who he quizzes about the missing Kiki, but she knows nothing useful. A few days later, he is arrested for her murder and interrogated in a most unorthodox way, slightly reminiscent of Kafka's The Trial, which he had been reading the night before. He denies ever having met her, not wanting to tarnish Gotunda's reputation. Yuki's rich father (Makimura) pulls strings to get the narrator released from interrogation and suggests he takes Yuki to visit her mother (Amé), currently in Hawaii with her new partner (Dick).In one dip to the other world, Kiki shows the narrator a room with six skeletons, one of which has a single arm. Later, when a one-armed man he knows dies, he realises they represent people close to him who have died, and fears for the lives of Gotunda, Yuki and Yumi. Another death seems to confirm his theory, though we never know who the sixth is (maybe the narrator himself).While in Hawaii, another prostitute turns up (June), sent from the same agency, but by Makimura. However, when Gotunda later enquires about her, he's told she'd disappeared three months earlier.Yuki gets spookily sick when they borrow Gotunda's Maserati, and when she sees him and Kiki in the film, is so unwell, she has to leave the cinema. (view spoiler)[She says that the actor (Gotunda) killed the actress (Kiki) in real life and that she "saw" it. Later, when the narrator asks Gotunda if he killed Kiki or Mei, Gotunda is unsure about Kiki (he's not certain which reality it might have been in), but says he did kill Mei because she asked him to) - yet the narrator overlooks this and plans a trip together! (hide spoiler)]
“Dance," said the Sheep Man. "Yougottadance. Aslongasthemusicplays. Yougottadance. Don'teventhinkwhy. Starttothink, onyourfeet, yourfeetstop, wegetstuck. Wegetstuck, you'restuck. Sodon'tpayanymind, nomatterhowdumb. Yougottakeepthestep. Yougottalimberup. Yougottaloosenwhatyoubolteddown. Yougottauseallyougot. Weknowyou'retired, tiredandscared. Happenstoeveryone,okay? Justdon'tletyourfeetstop.” (179)A Rendition of The Sheep ManWhat did you expect? A normal talking conventional character? Of course not. There’s nothing like that here, or anywhere in Murakami’s work it would seem. “I often dream about the Dolphin Hotel."(6)Dance Dance Dance follows a nameless narrator haunted by recurring dreams of a hotel, The Dolphin Hotel, he was brought to by a high-end call girl. Whether it is the hotel or the call girl that keeps bringing him back, he cannot recall, nor seem to totally forget. He decided, after a life of indecisiveness, to finally return to the Hotel, only to find the place to have been lost to a capitalist investment of the same nature and the same name. He struggles to establish connections in the world, as he was advised to ‘dance’, and in these mishaps, went looking for a lost love, was accompanied by stoic-faced laconic-responsed thirteen-year old girl gifted with limited clairvoyance and meets an old high-school acquaintance. I was almost irretrievably tempted to write this review in the Sheep Man’s language above, one without the proper spaces between words, but after trying it on the first few sentences, I found that it is even harder to control actions that border reflex and the subconscious, like that of tapping the space bar. “You're probably right. As you say, I've lost and I'm lost and I'm confused. I'm not anchored to anything.”(87)The idea that the unnamed narrator is drawn to the Dolphin Hotel made me shiver first, for an uncanny reason I quickly associated this with that of The Shining’s Outlook Hotel. The terror and fear which characterized my reading experience with it is exchanged by curiosity and interest in this piece however. Stripping this books plethora of surrealistic aspects, we are left with a bare handed tale of a lost man who has nothing but lost connections. And that is not mere tautology for Murakami’s work’s always concern an individual who is lost or has lost something leading us to narratives which are always unique, lyrical, and impeccably fluid. These narratives, which are always open to unfathomable elucidations of the metaphors and allusions they offer don’t always provide a closure, in fact they hardly ever do, don’t they? "The human mind dwells deep in darkness. Only the person himself knows the real reason, and maybe not even then." (359)The impeccable lyrical prose would, however, seem to me to be, mere icing on the cake. What compelled me to read another Murakami within a week of finishing Kafka on the Shore was how tangible, how alive, he has brought his characters to life in a surrealistic world. They are alive in their search for meanings, in their struggle to make human connections in an unforgiving world, they were the struggles of the everyday individual, they were mine too. Murakami’s style is deftly his own. Me may be in a fickle love-hate relationship considering your other works, but just as you have written, there are certain individuals who exclusively bring you to euphoric places, and in a literary perspective you do fit the bill as one of those authors. Through your words, I am transported into this unique wonderful surreal world and still remain, human, very human indeed. An added bonus is that whenever I finish your work, I get to play this bingo! Now, where does Dance Dance Dance, figure into this.I have reviewed other books by Haruki MurakamiKafka on the Shore (4 Stars)Norwegian Wood (2 Stars)The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle(2 Stars)This review, along with my other reviews, has been cross-posted at imbookedindefinitely
What do You think about Dance Dance Dance (2002)?
Creía que mis reticencias con Murakami eran agua pasada, que por fin le había cogido el tono al escritor. Por desgracia no. Estaba entusiasmado después de leer La caza del carnero salvaje, me había gustado mucho, y esta novela era un spin off de aquella, o sea que debería de gustarme. Lamentablemente no ha sido así. O no del todo. Este Baila, baila, baila, empieza muy bien, pero por desgracia sobre las 100 paginas empieza a no ir a ninguna parte, Murakami empieza a escribir sobre ¨nada¨ (que esta muy bien, pero a mi me aburre) y hace como ya hizo en Tokio blues, escribe sobre el amor y las relaciones de pareja. Y lo hace de una manera un poco adolescente. Eso es lo que no me gusto en Tokio blues. Además hay muchas partes del libro que no se resuelven, que están y no están, el hombre carnero (breve intervención…) , el hotel delfín, Kiki, la policía ¿?, en fin, que entiendo que es una novela cien por cien Murakami y que encantara a todos sus seguidores, y por eso precisamente no me ha gustado a mi tanto como lo hizo la otra…Tres estrellas porque en otro plano, he disfrutado de la escritura de Murakami, de su personaje, que me gusta mucho, de su pasión por el café y los donuts, por esos paseos, por la lluvia….
—Aramys
I can't really justify my love of Murakami. As far as I'm concerned, he writes novels specifically for me to read them. It would probably save us both a lot of time and trouble if he'd skip the publishing process and just slip his finished manuscripts under my door. So I'm biased, you could say.In short: this is early (ish) Murakami. If you dig it you'll dig it, if not you won't. I dig it.Just make sure you've read his "Trilogy of the Rat" before reading this. Seriously. It's important. Or at the very LEAST make sure you've read A Wild Sheep Chase. I realize the first two in the trilogy are near-impossible to find (unless you know someone in Japan or have a lot of money to throw around), but it makes all the difference in the world.
—Keith
رقص.. رقص.. رقص؛؛ رواية آسرة للروائي الياباني هاروكي موراكامي .. كعادته يخلط الواقع بالفاننازيا ولكن بأسلوب تأملي جذاب.. في هذه الرواية قد يكون البطل الرئيس الرأسمالية وكيف تقضي على أرواح الأشخاص وتدمرها.. تشتت أسري؛ ديون؛ انتحار؛ جري خلف متع يظنون أنها ستجلب السعادة ولكنها لا تجلب لهم سوى الضياع.. والبعد عن ذواتهم.. الجميع يسيرون ويلهثون ولا يعلمون إلى أين؟ وحتى متى سيسيرون..! في الرواية حديث وتأملات جميلة عن الزمن؛ الموت والحياة؛ الصداقة؛ الفقد والخسارة.. اقتباس: (فقدت الكثير من الأشياء.. فقدت الكثير من الأشياء الثمينة، ليس بسبب خطأ من أحد ولكن في كل مرة تفتقد شيئا تفقد معه حزمة كاملة من الأشياء).. ولكن لماذا تحدث عن الرقص؟ ربما هو الحالة التي تجعلك تستمتع حقا.. تتحرك وعقلك متصل بالمحيط الخارجي بانسجام دون تفكير عميق منك.. أنت ترقص وتتبع الموسيقى لكن لا تفكر كثيرا ولا تحسب خطواتك وحركاتك وأنفاسك.. تندمج معها وتكون انت والموسيقى شيئا واحدا.. تماما كما فعل بطل القصة الذي يسير مع الأحداث درن تفكير منه.. يتصرف كما لو أنه بلا إرادة.. قد يستجيب لحلم؛ لإشارة من أحدهم أو نداء..
—ابتسام المقرن
