Hard-Boiled+Wonderland+and+the+End+of+the+World+by+Haruki+Murakami

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 =Book Summary=
 * //First, about the mind. You tell me there is no fighting or hatred or desire in the Town. That this is a beautiful dream, and I do want your happiness. But the absence of fighting or hatred or desire also means the opposites do not exist either. No joy, no communion, no love. Only where there is disillusionment and depression and sorrow does happiness arise; without the despair of loss, there is no hope...// **

The last surviving victim of an experiment that implanted the subjects' heads with electrodes that decipher coded messages is the unnamed narrator of this excellent book by Murakami, one of Japan's best-selling novelists and winner of the prestigious Tanizaki prize. Half the chapters are set in Tokyo, where the narrator negotiates underground worlds populated by INKlings, dodges opponents of both sides of a raging high-tech infowar, and engages in an affair with a beautiful librarian with a gargantuan appetite. In alternating chapters he tries to reunite with his mind and his shadow, from which he has been severed by the grim, dark "replacement" consciousness implanted in him by a dotty neurophysiologist. Both worlds share the unearthly theme of unicorn skulls that moan and glow. Murakami's fast-paced style, full of hip internationalism, slangy allegory, and intrigue, has been adroitly translated.



=About the Author= Japanese novelist, short-story writer, essayist, and translator, whose work combine postmodern techniques and fantasy with influences from American literature. Murakami is one of the most popular and widely translated of all contemporary Japanese authors. > **"I wake up, but where? I don't just think this, I actually voice the question to myself: "Where am I?" As if I didn't know: I'm here. In my life. A feature of the world that is my existence."** (from //Dance, Dance, Dance//, 1988) Murakami Haruki was born in Kyoto, but he grew up in Ashiya, Hyogo. Both his parents taught Japanese literature. However, Murakami himself was more interested in American hard-boiled detective stories and science fiction. "Alone in my room I would listen to American jazz and rock-and-roll, watch American television shows and read American novels," Murakami recalled in an interview. (//New York Times//, September 27, 1992) In 1968 Murakami moved to Tokyo to study theater at Waseda University, graduating in 1975. In 1974 Murakami opened with his wife, Yoko Takahashi, a jazz club, which they managed until 1981. Between 1986 and 1989 Murakami lived in Greece. He has been a visiting fellow in East Asian studies at Princeton University and taught at Tufts University in Medford, MA. After spending years abroad, Murakami returned to Japan in 1995. Murakami now lives near Tokyo. His work has been translated into forty-two languages. The most recent of his many honours is the Franz Kafka Prize.

=Possible Discussion Questions= to be created by the group :)

=Additional Links= Feel free to add additional interesting links as you find them! (or email them to me and I'll add them to the list!)

Haruki Murakami Resources: http://www.exorcising-ghosts.co.uk/endoftheworld.html

Book and Writers - Bio of Murakami: http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/murakami.htm