
After the Quake ~Haruki Murakami
–2002
–147 pages, Vintage Books
–4/5 stars
[Note: The Jan-Ai Scholarship Drive will conclude with a forthcoming interview with artist Anne-Julie Aubry. Technical difficulties have caused this drive to extend beyond the originally planned week. In the meantime I need to start catching up with a long list of overdue book and movie reviews. Don’t adjust your sets.]
Murakami… the name is and has been hot on the lips of internet book bloggers for some time now. In addition my friend Cameron has often sang his praises at our weekly comic shop gatherings. And yet I was reluctant. Partially because of the fear of reading his work and not being as impressed by it as many others have been. It is never pleasant to go tell someone that one of their favorite authors/books just didn’t do it for you. Never.
Yet honesty in book talk is highly valued and I would never feel good about myself if I didn’t tell it to you straight. Credibility and integrity must be prized. And so I stayed away from Haruki Murakami. Until last Thursday, that is…



