Murakami, Haruki | Phil Baker (review date 23 July 1999)
Phil Baker (review date 23 July 1999)
SOURCE: “Old Sweet Songs,” in Times Literary Supplement, July 23, 1999, p. 21.
[In the following review, Baker comments on the role of popular Western music in South of the Border, West of the Sun, focusing on the novel's motifs and use of simile.]
Books like A Wild Sheep Chase, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World have established a distinctive image of Haruki Murakami as Japan's most contemporary writer, a man in love with all things Western, who writes slightly off-the-wall postmodern novels influenced by science fiction. South of the Border, West of the Sun should modify that picture considerably. Plainly and beautifully told, it is a sad love-story with a more traditionally Japanese feel to it, despite its immersion in Western popular culture. Just as the protagonist rediscovers his childhood sweetheart, so the author seems to be re-exploring his...
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