Born in 1949, he is a post-war baby. Changes in Japan include the humanization of the god-like emperor, Westernization, and migration to Tokyo (25% of Japan’s population--30 million--live in 5% of land), paying the equivalent of $200,000/yr for 600 sq. foot apartments and commuting up to 6 hours a day. One newspaper writes: “No one seems to know in which direction to turn; all we know is that we are dissatisfied.” Japan is a blank slate to be filled, and Murakami’s protagonists ricochet from one American artifact to another.
One novel, Norwegian Wood – sold two million in 1987—making Murakami the equivalent of a “rock star”!
His stories are a postmodern mutation of comedy, science fiction, magical realism, detective story, film noir, the surreal, the deadpan. His protagonists are nameless, rootless loners – “nowhere men” (Beatles)-- downwardly mobile, disconnected males, worn out, lethargic, suffering ennui, often leaving careers on a quest for meaning that winds up having many layers. They are not caught in the corporate trap or mindless consumerism. They stand apart and watch objectively. But if we look too long into the abyss, says Nietzsche, it may look back into us.
Critics say his is an “export-style fiction,” stripped of anything culturally specific to Japan, therefore conspiring in an “erasure of history.”
Linguistic minimalism—Murakami’s formula for a new Japanese story to replace the loss of the old. Cadence, complex syntax, and literary rhetoric is burned away; technological acceleration and abbreviation are the keys. He actually began writing in English (but had only rudimentary language) and then translated that style into Japanese! He found that he could move weighty ideas through insubstantial words.