A biography of Murakami focusing on his fiction, but also discussing his translations and his love of jazz, among other things. Now I want to reread all his books... and in fact after reading this I think I may not have actually ever read A Wind-up Bird Chronicle, so I'd better get on that!

The book is a little repetitive in its choice of quotes somehow and I found it a little weird when the author (Rubin) spoke about himself in the third person in one part, but otherwise it was a good read. But if you aren't already quite familiar with at least most of Murakami's novels, this would probably just be an incomprehensible spoiler party. ( )

Jay Rubin is an American born academic and translator, he has a Ph.D. in Japanese Literature and currently is a professor at Harvard University. Apart from translating some of the works of Haruki Murakami, he has also written a guide to Japanese, Making Sense of Japanese (original title Gone Fishin) and translated books by Soseki Natsume and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.

Jay Rubin is also a self-confessed fan of Haruki Murakami and has written this book as a guide for other fans who would like to learn more about the man behind the books, but who are prevented from doing so by the barrier of the Japanese language. It appears that Jay Rubin has been inundated by a mountain of questions from readers over the years he has been known as a translator of the works of Murakami, combining that with comments on internet forums, has been the inspiration behind this project.

The Translator's Murakami

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

After Dark

Norwegian Wood,

after the quake

1Q84 - first two volumes translated by Jay Rubin and the third by Philip Gabriel, will be released in North America and the United Kingdom on October 25, 2011

Where this book does really well is in breaking down the tales of Haruki Murakami, as Jay Rubin says, that being a translator also means being a critic, and he does a really fantastic job of interpreting the novels and short stories, so much so that he has made me want to reread at least a couple of Murakami’s books. But he kind of scrimps on the autobiographical detail, using just enough to flesh out the exploration of his subjects oeuvre, offering a skeletal history, most of which is either known, or is easily accessible – married whilst at University, opened jazz Bar (peter cat), escaped to America after early success etc. At first I was a bit disappointed with the meagre offerings on the personal side of one of my favourite authors, and yet it soon became irrelevant, I became fascinated as jay Rubin dissected the stories, offering up his diagnosis, his interpretation of a series of works that have mystified readers for a while now, and in doing so shone a light into the many levels of Haruki Murakami’s novels.

http://parrishlantern.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/haruki-murakami-and-music-of-words-... ( )

http://littlegreenbook.vox.com/library/post/book-032-jay-rubin---haruki-murakami... ( )

Probably of interest only to hardcore Murakami fans. Includes some interesting trivia of Murakami and his wife, Yoko, and provides insight to almost all of Murakami's major works. ( )

Jay Rubin has translated several of Haruki Murakami's novels into English and interviewed him extensively over a number of years. But Rubin is not just a mere translator, he is also a fan of Murakami's work and this book is an invaluable introduction to Murakami the person as well as a look at his influences.