I assume only ActionPants, StillFuchsia, and myself will be posting in here.

So I finally started reading 1Q84. Is Murakami terrible at writing women? Is it the translator? Is it intentional?

I realize there were sex scenes in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle that were intentionally terrifying, but I feel like the "normal" sex in 1Q84 is going to give me nightmares.

The rest of the book is great, though.

5/2/2013 8:12:29 PM

Most men are terrible at writing women, and vice versa

but I haven't read much Murakami: should I?

I think I tried The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but didn't make it very far

I basically came in here to tell you to talk to ActionPants

5/3/2013 8:52:01 AM

I really liked The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but (and?) I took over a year to finish it. It's incredibly episodic up until the end, so it's easy to pick up when you're between other books. I really, really liked it, enough that I didn't dismiss 1Q84 immediately for being 1300+ pages.

5/7/2013 11:47:29 PM

Love me some Haruki.

5/8/2013 6:06:05 AM

I want to say it's a combination of an intentional female portrayal, and also Murakami being hit or miss with female characters. I don't know, I don't fault him too much. I don't think he necessarily does any worse than comparable authors... a lot of his "peers" have the problem of just NOT writing about women, which is not a solution in my book.

I just finished After Dark and I'm working my way back to some older books I haven't read. Will probably start on The Wind-up Bird Chronicle or Hard-Boiled Wonderland soon.

5/30/2013 8:12:49 PM