South Of The Border, West Of The Sun
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
In South of the Border, West of the Sun the arc of an average man's life from childhood to middle age with its attendant rhythms of success and disappointment becomes the kind of exquisite literary conundrum that is Haruki Murakami's trademark. The plot is simple: Hajime meets and falls in love with a girl in elementary school but loses touch with her when his family moves to another town. He drifts through high school, college and his 20s before marrying and settling into a career as a successful bar owner. Then his childhood sweetheart returns weighed down with secrets:
"When I went back into the bar, a glass and ashtray remained where she had been. A couple of lightly crushed cigarette butts were lined up in the ashtray, a faint trace of lipstick on each. I sat down and closed my eyes. Echoes of music faded away, leaving me alone. In that gentle darkness, the rain continued to fall without a sound".Murakami eschews the fantastic elements that appear in many of his other novels and stories, and readers hoping for a glimpse of the "Sheep Man" will be disappointed. Yet South of the Border, West of the Sun is as rich and mysterious as anything he has written. It is above all a complex, moving and honest meditation on the nature of love distilled into a work with the crystal clarity of a short story. A Nat King Cole song, a figure on a crowded street, a face pressed against a car window, a handful of ashes drifting down a river to the sea are woven together into a story that refuses to arrive at a simple conclusion. The classic love triangle may seem like a hackneyed theme for a writer as talented as Murakami but in his quietly dazzling way he bends us to his own unique geometry. --Simon Leake, Amazon.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"A wise and beautiful book." -"The New York Times Book Review"
"A probing meditation on human fragility, the grip of obsession, and the impenetrable, erotically charged enigma that is the other." -"The New York Times"
"Brilliant. . . . A mesmerizing new example of Murakami's deeply original fiction." -"The Baltimore Sun"
"Lovely, deceptively simple. . . . A novel of existential romance." -"San Francisco Chronicle"
"His most deeply moving novel." -"The Boston Globe"
"Mesmerizing. . . . This is a harrowing, a disturbing, a hauntingly brilliant tale." -"The Baltimore Sun"
"A fine, almost delicate book about what is unfathomable about us." -"The Philadelphia Inquirer"
"Portrayed in a fluid language that veers from the vernacular . . . to the surprisingly poetic." -"San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle"
"Haunting and natural. . . . South of the Border, West of the Sun so smoothly shifts the reader from mundane concerns into latent madnes
"A probing meditation on human fragility, the grip of obsession, and the impenetrable, erotically charged enigma that is the other." -"The New York Times"
"Brilliant. . . . A mesmerizing new example of Murakami's deeply original fiction." -"The Baltimore Sun"
"Lovely, deceptively simple. . . . A novel of existential romance." -"San Francisco Chronicle"
"His most deeply moving novel." -"The Boston Globe"
"Mesmerizing. . . . This is a harrowing, a disturbing, a hauntingly brilliant tale." -"The Baltimore Sun"
"A fine, almost delicate book about what is unfathomable about us." -"The Philadelphia Inquirer"
"Portrayed in a fluid language that veers from the vernacular . . . to the surprisingly poetic." -"San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle"
"Haunting and natural. . . . South of the Border, West of the Sun so smoothly shifts the reader from mundane concerns into latent madnes
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
After reading Norwegian Wood, I found Murakami an author I would like to read much more of. After The Wind-up Bird Chronicle and The Elephan Vanishes, I have to admit South of the Border, West of the Sun is my favourite.
Only 200 or so pages, this book is one of the most touching love stories I have ever read, although at no point does it become overly sentimental.It mixes together fate, love, duty and choice and one man's dilemma between the life he knows and the love he longs for since his childhood.
Enigmatic, beautifully written and utterly brilliant.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you have never read anything from Murakami you might just as well start from here (and then, once you are 'hooked' - which you will be - move on to Norwegian Wood and Dance Dance Dance).
Even the setting eventually reminded me a bit of Norwegian Wood (which I read after this one) it is an utterly magical novel, and if you think you would never read a 'love story', well, read this one and expect to feel deeply shaken.
This is not (only) about love, or lost opportunities, or the constant tension between marriage, love and friendship - this is a book about feelings, about life and, most of all, about everybody's sense of loss when we make "sensible" choices in life, that end up making us, in the end, deeply dissatisfied with our lives...
Really one is without words when it comes to review a Murakami book, all is that to be said is: thanks to those who initally got me to read one, and to those who have never read him, start today!
I have probably already said this on some other reviews, when it comes to Murakami, 5 star is not enough...
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is without doubt my favourite Murakami novel and arguably his most accessible book to date. Essentially a love story; the novel focuses on main protagonist Hajime's fractured love-life, and his ensuing mid-life crisis, as, running a successful Jazz bar and married with two children, he becomes dissatisfied with his lot and promptly - almost wilfully - puts all he has in jeopardy by picking-up with lame childhood sweetheart Shimamoto, who arrives unannounced in his bar, one ordinary day.
Ultimately, Hajime makes a decision, and the tale is resolved. There's not really much more to the story than that; however it is Murakami's dreamy and nebulous prose, and the haunting feel of this novel, that lifts it out of the ordinary and makes it such a compelling read.
Ultimately, Hajime makes a decision, and the tale is resolved. There's not really much more to the story than that; however it is Murakami's dreamy and nebulous prose, and the haunting feel of this novel, that lifts it out of the ordinary and makes it such a compelling read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Typical Murakami
Its a typical Murakami. Brilliant read. I wouldnt read it as a first Murakami though. For that try A Wild Sheep Chase :-)
Published 1 month ago by Mbr
A baffling problem
There is nothing in modern physics as baffling as the puzzle of Murakami's reputation. He is probably the worst writer working today - and yes, I have read Jeffrey Archer. Read more
Published 2 months ago by StuartW2112
hypnotic, rather wistful, and a little dark
This is quite a short novel at around 180 pages, but there is a lot here. Here, Murkami deals with childhood, and its lasting impressions and effects, loneliness, the pull of... Read more
Published 3 months ago by markr
beautiful book about life, fate and connections...
I love this book! One of Murakami's books I really like, and think about a lot...
The key plot of this book is about meeting your childhood friend and falling for her... Read more
The key plot of this book is about meeting your childhood friend and falling for her... Read more
Published 7 months ago by O. Cheng
Power in words
This being my fourth Murakami book (after Kafka On The Shore, After Dark and Norwegian Wood), I had high expectations of one of my favourite writers. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Flying Dutchman
More concept than trance
Murakami rarely disappoints, but this is not his best book. For that, the story is just a bit too 'thin'. Read more
Published 7 months ago by M.B.
Dreamlike, melancholy and mysterious
This is a short novel about a Japanese man - Hajime - who has carried a torch for a childhood crush his entire life. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Julia Flyte
Haunting
When I read this book I really felt I could hear the narrators voice coming out through the book.
A simple masterpiece. Read more
A simple masterpiece. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Noo Noo
Love, Loneliness, Secrecy and Much More
So where would you rather be South of the Border or West of the Sun? South of the Border, supposedly drawn from a Nat King Cole song, is a place - Mexico, terra firma. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Herman Norford
Sombre criticism
Murakami's book offers a sombre description of a post-war generation in Japan; however, he also depicts a male crisis of identity effectively. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Alexei V. Lopez Enriquez
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