Monday, October 29, 2018

Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami

I am going to be up front with a full disclosure that I am a huge Murakami fan. After reading 1Q84 for the first time, I went through all of his books in a row and he moved to the top of my purchase anything he writes list. So, when I heard about this book coming out in Japan, I waited impatiently for the translation to come out and grabbed it on day one of release.

I am writing this because I can fully see how someone might not enjoy this book. It is slowly pace, gets very strange, and there are inappropriate conversations about breasts between a young girl and an older man.

For the Murakami fan, this book is probably the most Murakami that he could be. It contains the typical Murakami man- a main male character who is mostly detached from life looking in on it as a curiosity and loves sex, even though he is detached from that too. It contains a Murakami world- some might call it magical realism, but I would say it is mostly fantastic with a little bit of realism to give the reader an anchor. It also contains talking paintings, bells which ring mysteriously, trips into the unknown, and moments that will leave you scratching your head. To me, if this is your first Murakami, I would say try a different one before taking the plunge into the 700 pager that this is.

In Japan, this came out in two separate books which is important because book 1 is mostly a slow trudging setup, while book 2 takes the world which was slowly built and crumbles it with so many fantasy scenes that one begins to question what was real.

At its core, it is about a painter- Tomohiko who is known for his portrait paintings. After he and his wife separate and he takes a “find yourself” camping trip for a few years, he settles into the home of an artist who is dying. In the attic, he finds a painting titled “Killing Commendatore.” One day, a rich man,  from on top of a hill comes to his house to commission a painting of himself. After resisting, Tomohiko decides to take the painting on, but does a technique he has not done before. At this point, a mysterious bell begins ringing, but I won’t say why. As time moves forward, the rich man become bolder and asks for another portrait. This time the portrait is of a young girl who may or may not be the rich man’s daughter. After accepting and as the girl poses, more strange things begin to take place which will lead Tomohiko down a path into another world wrapped around his current world.

Let me re-emphasize, this book is about 700 pages and at times is mind numbingly slow, but stick with it! By the time you get to book 2, whoa nelly!

What I enjoyed most about this book is it feels as autobiographical as Murakami is going to get. As Tomohiko talks about his painting process and what it feels like to create, I believe we get a glimpse into Murakami’s writing process. As the paintings begin to beacon and call to the painter, I think we see what writing is like for Murakami. In fact, there was a line in the book where Tomohiko states how he feels he is in a fantasy world with bits of reality peeking in. To me, that easily describes a Murakami book.

It is a trudge and this book took me about a week+ to finish because of that slowness, but the payoff in book 2 makes it all worth it. This shouldn’t be your first Murakami though. Become a fan first and then dive head first into this one.

Thursday, October 4, 2018

The Parking Lot Attendant by Nafkote Tamirat

If it were not for Book Riot’s All the Books Podcast, this book would not have been on my radar. One of the hosts, Liberty, said this is a book she has read 10 times so far this year. I usually trust her picks, so I grabbed it the first chance I could.

What a strange little book!

I have been sitting at the keyboard trying to think of how to describe this book- do I focus on plot? On characters? On overall theme? And still am unsure where to begin with this as one of my goals is to convince you this is a good book, but there is nothing within any of the things mentioned above which will do that, even though it is a good book.

The book largely centers on an Ethiopian girl, her father, and a mysterious hustler named Ayale, who runs the local parking lot, which seems to have more cars in it than it can hold. Our protagonist is drawn to Ayale and her father is not happy about it.

Ayale is very mysterious and there is a wonderful chapter where our protagonist lists all the things she knows and doesn’t know about him. He is opinionated, seems to sleep with tons of women, and has lots of friends who come and go often.

As the relationship grows, our protagonist, become a courier for Ayale delivering mysterious packages for not quite small amount of money. While she likes Ayale, her trust begins to wane as she realizes she does not know what is in these packages and Ethiopians in Boston keep getting murdered around the neighborhood. The question is what exactly is our protagonist doing for Ayale?

As I read the book, I too kept being drawn to Ayale. Tamirat has written a truly remarkable character who lures the reader in with his opinions, his strange lifestyle choices, and his job. It is strange, but for me, the plot became secondary as I wanted to spend more time with Ayale.

The one distracting part of the book is Tamirat will go into a conversation with two people by having a quick back and forth and doesn’t let the reader know which person is speaking. If you lose count, you will forget exactly who is speaking and often times I had to go back to re-read the conversation. Part of it is the writing is so good and the conversation draws one in.

Definitely read this one with an open mind and knowing the book may not be for you. I wound up loving it though, largely due to Ayale.