After the Quake

There's always something unidentifiably brilliant about Murakami short stories. I'm either imposing my own good opinion on them, or I just really like the atmosphere (japanese atmosphere?), or he really does create something special each time. It could be that there is something lost in translation that leaves me confused and thoughtful... as is probably the case with Manga films that I like ("I don't get it.. but I like it!"). The unidentifiable plays a particularly important role in these stories however.

When Murakami was in self-exile, two very important events to the Japanese collective unconscious occurred: the Kobe earthquake, and the sarin gas attacks on the underground. He returned to write about each of these.

Each of the stories in After the Quake takes is only indirectly related to the Quake itself. Each of the characters is affected, as if by the aftershocks, in unpredictable ways. In one story, a woman mesmerized by the continual footage decides that she must leave her husband - she knew no-one in the quake. In a more ridiculous story, a giant frog needs a debt collector's help to fight a giant earthworm that is going to cause another quake. In each of the stories, the quake stirs something intangible, causing the characters to reconsider their lives. As usual, Murakami is able to evoke quite beautiful friendships and chance meetings (sex included of course), even in these short stories - perhaps this is because he knows the short story is probably best when things are suggested rather than shown.

The Sarin Gas Attacks

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.