Haruki Murakami on his favorite books

We all know Haruki Murakami’s favorite books and authors. That’s because his protagonists usually have a similiar taste to the one of their creator. Care to read some quotes and anecdotes Murakami-san has dropped on his most beloved pieces, though? Siddharth Sarda has collected some of them:

  • Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe: “Philip Marlowe is Chandler’s fantasy but he’s real to me.” When he was younger, he explains, after a turbulent time as a student, “I just wanted to live like Marlowe.”
  • The Great Gatsby: “The Great Gatsby is my favorite book. I translated it a couple of years ago. I wanted to translate it when I was in my 20s, but I wasn’t ready.”
  • The Catcher In The Rye: “It’s a dark story, very disturbing. I enjoyed it when I was seventeen, so I decided to translate it. I remembered it as being funny, but it’s dark and strong. I must have been disturbed, when I was young. J.D. Salinger has a big obsession, three times bigger than mine. That’s why I’m here tonight, and he isn’t.”
  • The Brothers Karamazov: “Most writers get weaker and weaker as they age. But Dostoyevsky didn’t. He kept getting bigger and greater. He wrote The Brothers Karamazov in his late 50s. That’s a great novel”
  • The Castle: “I encountered Kafka’s work when I was 15 years old, the book was ‘The Castle’. It was a great big incredible book. It gave me a tremendous shock”

Notes

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    Rye. I knew it. Always knew it.