First Person Singular
There are some writers you simply either love or don’t. I’d say Haruki Murakami is one of those writers. When you start reading him for the first time, I think page twenty-something is decisive, and then you declare his (any) novel strange and incomprehensible… or it enchants you and draws you into its unusual world. And if the latter happens, then you start ranking his novels into categories “masterpiece,” “excellent” and “okay.”
For me his newest novel “First Person Singular” ended up in the “okay” category. This, in fact, isn’t a novel, but a collection of short stories. These stories were published in the period 2018-2019 in the Japanese (monthly) literary magazine “Bungakukai,” except the last story (after which this collection is named) debuted precisely in this book.
What are these stories united in “First Person Singular”? Let’s go in order:
On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning – the narrator recalls the period when he was 19 years old and when he had one-night sex with an unusual poet, her behavior on that one day and what impression it left on him.
Cream – a man receives an invitation to a piano recital from an acquaintance he hasn’t seen in years. When he arrives at the designated location (Mount Kobe), he sees the hall where the recital was supposed to take place is locked and there’s not a living soul. He decides to rest in a nearby park and there meets an unusual old man.
Charlie Parker Plays Bossa Nova – the narrator recalls how in college he wrote a review (for the university magazine) of a nonexistent music album Charlie Parker Plays Bossa Nova, which was (supposedly) released in 1963 (although saxophonist Charlie Parker died in 1955)… but did that album really exist or not?
With the Beatles – a man recalls a high school event in 1964, when he saw a girl who passed through the school hallway holding the album With the Beatles. Then he recalls his first girlfriend, first visit to her home and meeting with her unusual brother, to whom he read aloud a passage from one story.
Yakult Swallows Poetry Collection – a person named Haruki Murakami talks about his obsession with the (average) baseball club “Tokyo Yakult Swallows” and how at their stadium he began to write unusual poetry which he later independently published.
Carnaval – A man in his fifties recalls an unusual relationship he had with the “ugliest” woman he ever met, but who fascinated him with her charisma and love for music, as well as their shared interest in Schumann’s work “Carnaval.”
Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey – The narrator recalls events from five years ago, when in one small ryokan (traditional Japanese hotel) at a hot spring he met an aging monkey who seems to work “under the table” at that hotel… who by the way also speaks Japanese… and loves women (not females, specifically women)… and likes to steal their names… don’t ask…
First Person Singular – a man put on a suit and went to a bar to have a drink and read a book… and suddenly a woman sits next to him who starts accusing him of a terrible thing he did to their mutual friend… although the man has no idea who this person is nor what terrible thing he did in the past.
Those who haven’t read Murakami before probably thought “what the hell… what was he smoking when he wrote this.” Those who have, probably just nodded their head with the thought “Yes, yes, typical Murakami.”
However, I wouldn’t be surprised if at the end of the book you think “this was quite a strange ‘typical Murakami.'” 😀
What’s common to all these stories (and also the most interesting aspects) is that they’re all told in first person. Also, at no moment are you sure whether the narrator of each story is really Murakami retelling us his events or these are some fictional characters through whom Murakami retells us some events from the past (if you didn’t understand this sentence, that’s quite alright, after all we’re talking about Murakami :D). Also, each story “walks” on a thin (and often thick) line between reality and fantasy, so you’re often not sure what’s really happening to the narrator, and which people he meets are real and which aren’t. What will certainly please Murakami fans is that the stories are connected with events from some of his previous novels (somewhere more, somewhere less obviously). And there’s the expected Murakami walk through themes of nostalgia, aging, life’s transience, memories, unusual view of love, wrapped in typical “Murakami style.”
I’d rewrite the last sentence as a potential flaw for “First Person Singular.” For me this story collection is perhaps the weakest literary work I’ve read by Murakami to date. Maybe it’s just me, but some stories didn’t have so much resonance of nostalgia and life’s transience for me, as much as about death itself, that I felt some depressive vibrations from the book, that my reading went quite slowly. I understand Murakami is getting older and all, but still… this somehow wasn’t typically “Murakami-esque” for me. On the other hand, I can’t shake the impression that the collection “First Person Singular” is one of those titles that will perhaps be better understood by, excuse me, older generations (50+ years). I wouldn’t say some stories and their concept are strange, twisted or stupid… maybe more not my cup of tea…
For me specifically, I liked the stories “On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning,” “Cream,” “Carnaval” and “Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey.” I’d maybe put “First Person Singular” here too, but after finishing reading this story several question marks “appeared” above my head. ^^
Also, I think this is the first Murakami book where a cat isn’t mentioned anywhere. Maybe I overlooked it, please let me know if you saw it somewhere… in the novel, of course…
All in all, “First Person Singular” ended up in the “okay” category as far as Murakami goes. It seems to me the quality of stories varied quite a bit, so I wouldn’t recommend this collection to people who haven’t read Haruki Murakami before, but rather to get to know this writer through some other title. And fans will certainly get this title to complete their collection, though I won’t be surprised if they’re not overly impressed by this work… though they’ll surely never admit that. 😀
And you, dear reader, have you also had the opportunity to meet a talking monkey or an unknown person who accuses you of an event you neither remember nor were probably an actor in? 🙂
Author’s website
Book price: Geopoetika | Delfi | Vulkan | Makart
Ratings (and purchase) on foreign sites: Goodreads | Amazon | Bookdepository | Audible | Waterstones | Penguin Random House
