Contemporary Literary Criticism


Murakami, Haruki | Alan Wearne (review date February 1994)

Alan Wearne (review date February 1994)

SOURCE: “Adventurous,” in Australian Book Review, Vol. 158, February, 1994, pp. 43–44.

[In the following review, Wearne provides an overview of Murakami's works and career through Dance, Dance, Dance.]

Every adventurous reader of fiction ought to have a private hoard of novelists, preferably from a non-English writing background, who have escaped the appalling nonsense of Booker style PR hype. Luckily publishers like Collins Harvill set about promoting such writers; unluckily for Australia though our major literary pages often neglect to review the bulk of such output. You will have your favourites in such a category but let this reviewer recommend the following: Jose Donoso, Etienne Leroux, Jose Saramago, Eduardo Mendoza, Saiichi Maruya and Haruki Murakami.

If I see a bookshelf containing a Murakami I feel assured that its owner is probably a person of vigorous taste and intellect. The...

[The entire page is 746 words long]

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