Today I finished Murakami’s book “Dance Dance Dance”, originally published in 1988 in Japanese as “Dansu Dansu Dansu”. Murakami has published quite a few fiction novels and the non-fiction novel “Underground” about the Tokyo Gas Attack on March 20th, 1995. I haven’t read all of Murakami’s work, only two other novels: “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” and “Norwegian Wood” (his most grounded fiction from what I’ve heard).
When I started reading “Dance Dance Dance”, I knew to expect some things from
Murakami. First of all, I knew not to get attached to characters. Murakami is a writer that is not afraid to stomp out a character as quickly as they came. And the swiftness of one character’s disappearance will not discourage the same fate for another. When reading “Norwegian Wood” (spoiler alert), I couldn’t believe the death toll that such a calm book could rack up. Maybe it’s a sign that I’m used to death in books filled with action and war. Or maybe it’s a sign that my culture is less comfortable talking about suicide and death without passion. It’s not going with a bang, it’s being silently snuffed out and life going on.
Another thing to expect from Murakami is frustration. There will be questions unanswered. Mysteries left unsolved. And if you don’t know that this is just his style, it will drive you insane. Hell, if you do know it’s his style it could still drive you insane. You will want to shake your paperback and yell: Why are you telling me about his dinner? I want to know about the murder! But in all likelihood, you won’t find about the murder/missing person/other compelling mystery. The book will never be as neat as you want it to be. The book doesn’t stand for you as a reader, it stands on its own.
The one new thing that came to me in “Dance Dance Dance” is that Murakami is a clever comedian. His style can be paralleled by a character’s description of acting for a funny commercial. The commercial (about antacids) involves the actor (Gotanda) jumping between trains and scaling skyscrapers like it’s a normal Monday: “‘There’s something to be said when a straight man like me can bring out the humor of a routine like that. You try to live in this crazy, crooked, mixed-up world – that’s what’s funny’”.
When I thought about it, that described Murakami’s style perfectly. The writing is usually serious, sometimes grim, breaching on topics of loneliness and confusion. And while this sounds like a basic and depressing read, the worlds of Murakami’s novels are insane – almost hilariously so. They have magic and other dimensions and strange nonsensical occurrences.
In “Dance Dance Dance” there is a Sheep Man, a sassy 13 year old who can sense death, and magical ears. But all the characters skate through the nonsense, spending just as much time worrying about their monthly budgets as they do with mystical forces. Murakami manages to make his books fit the category of insane comedy while simultaneously playing it straight.
The Lonely Book Club 