Murakami is a serious athlete. He has completed more than 30 full marathons, one 100km, and several triathlons. What I talk about when I talk about running is a memoir of Haruki Murakami, not as a writer but as a runner.
If you are a runner, this must be a great book which describes what it is like to run a full marathon, a feeling which you might find it difficult to describe and often get away with "you'll see when you do it". If you are not a runner, this is a great book to know what people are really going through when they run a full marathon. I imagine that running a full marathon is a very personal experience and thus each has a different perspective. Nevertheless, when you read this book, I can assure you that you feel as if you are running along aside of Murakami for 42 km.
My faviourite chapter of the book is Chapter 4 where Murakami tells us how he learnt how to write a novel from a learning process of running a long distance. There is no magic there but he explains the basic properties required to be a professional writer with an analogy to be a long distance runner.
A bonus is that you can see many photos of Murakami running, which in my opinion, is very rare. Before going to a wrong direction in this book review, I just say that, as usual, this book is highly recommended. To be honest, I don't know how much of his essays has been translated into English. This book contains several episodes which he wrote elsewhere as parts of essays. If those pieces have not been translated yet, then this book would be a really good opportunity to learn about him.
What I Talk about When I Talk about Running will be available this summer with the translation by Philip Gabriel.
By the way, if you grinned when you heard the title of the book, you must be a Murakami nerd.
1 comments:
Eager to read this one too... I'm sure it would as unusually interesting as his other works have been.
Post a Comment