I was oblivious to the historical event that is the Sarin Gas attacks before I started reading Underground. The book is a collection of interviews with survivors of the attacks, some only indirectly affected by it, as well as interviews with members of the cult that perpetrated the terrorist act.
Although I read some of it wanting to understand a little bit more about what happened, I feel like this is the most authentic way to write about such an important event in the Japanese psyche. Murakami makes only a few side-comments, concerning features of the individual he is interviewing rather than any commentary or judgment. I found some of the accounts terrifying (reading it, as I was, on the train), and some of them bizarre (admin workers dying of gas poisoning, just trying to get to work on time).
The book was released initially in Japanese without the accounts of cult-members, however I think the version published here, with these included, adds something important. Rather than detract from the victimhood of those involved, these latter interviews allow some kind of explanation to be cast over such a disturbing event - not explanation via excuse, but rather a deeper look into how things could go wrong.
I can't help but admire Murakami for collecting these essays. I don't know whether he has been criticised at all for glory-seeking or anything like that, but I think the book shows enough integrity to descredit any such attacks.
