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South Of The Border, West Of The Sun [Paperback]

Haruki Murakami (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Publication Date: 1 Jun 2000

Growing up in the suburbs in post-war Japan, it seemed to Hajime that everyone but him had brothers and sisters. His sole companion was Shimamoto, also an only child. Together they spent long afternoons listening to her father's record collection. But when his family moved away, the two lost touch.

Now Hajime is in his thirties. After a decade of drifting he has found happiness with his loving wife and two daughters, and success running a jazz bar. Then Shimamoto reappears. She is beautiful, intense, enveloped in mystery. Hajime is catapulted into the past, putting at risk all he has in the present.

(20021018)

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South Of The Border, West Of The Sun + The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle + Kafka On The Shore
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Product details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New Ed edition (1 Jun 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0099448572
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099448570
  • Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 1.3 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 12,974 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon 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 story of love in a cool climate, intensely romantic and weepily beautiful...it is startlingly different: a true original" (Guardian )

"Casablanca remade Japanese style...It is dream-like writing, laden with scenes which have the radiance of a poem" (The Times )

"This wise and beautiful book is full of hidden truths" (New York Times )

"This book aches...an eloquent treatise on the vertiginous, irrational powers of love and desire" (Independent on Sunday )

"Impressively written and structured... Above all, the novel is memorable for its unflinchingly extreme treatment of romantic love" (Times Literary Supplement )
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars My favourite Murakami so far 7 Mar 2006
By Ms. A. Voulgari
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.

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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning novel, a must-read for all Murakami fans 13 Sep 2004
By M. Massenzio
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...

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Nebulous love story 26 May 2009
By Captain Pugwash
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars Book Club Recommended
If you enjoy books which lack substance, are interminably slow, have virtually no plot, and have a stilted written style, then this is the ideal book to wile away the midnight... Read more
Published 2 months ago by John
3.0 out of 5 stars A short and easy read
...but not Murakami's best. I did enjoy this tale of one mans love, confusion and borderline self- obsession, but I have to say, it is not the best story from Murakami. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. Simon Paddon
2.0 out of 5 stars Sadly disappointed compared to Murakami's other work
I am a huge fan of Murakami's novels - and this is the fifth one I've bought because I enjoy them so much. But I felt sadly let down by this one. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Meaghan Fitzgerald
4.0 out of 5 stars What reality do we live?
As ever with Murakami a book that leaves me thoughtful, even a little disoriented. The complexity of relationships woven together with the apparent certainties of our lives reveal... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Ian Hobbs
4.0 out of 5 stars Haruki Murakami South of the Border, West of the Sun
A skilled writer with an ability to explore human nature. A story woven around characters that are solid and believable.
Published 4 months ago by J D Geraghty
5.0 out of 5 stars Good book
Good book, another great little from Haruki Murakami and I great scape from the everyday would with his books, worth a read
Published 7 months ago by MoAbs
5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favourite books
This is just fantastic. Murakami is an amazing writer, able to capture in written form, aspects of life that we often take for granted. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mr. A. J. Crook
5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful literary novel
This book is really sublime and captures the essence of yearning for your first love and love lost. Wondering what could have been. Lyrical writing makes this a majestic read.
Published 11 months ago by Rachel Weaver
4.0 out of 5 stars 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 13 months ago by Mbr
5.0 out of 5 stars 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 14 months ago by markr
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