I saw God Once When I Was Little

books!

This summer was going to be all about reading novels and writing stories. It didn't quite work out that way. I rarely wrote and I only read four novels. :(

I thought I'd share a bit about the two novels I enjoyed this summer. (I liked the other two, but. . .they are by Haruki Murakami, so, yeah)


( The novels )



Other two -

Dance, Dance, Dance: by Haruki Murakami follow surreal - and they are surreal - misadventures of the unnamed narrator protagonist. Quite suddenly he finds himself compelled to return to the Dolphin Hotel, a seedy place where he once spent time with an unusual lover. A lover whose name he never knew. The unnamed protagonist is guided by strange dreams; dreams in which is lover and an odd man appear. The dreams lead him to two very different mysteries. One is more about being and reality. While the second is very real - it involves the murders of call-girls, his middle school classmate turned "pure" actor, a clairvoyant teenager, a one-armed poet, and a receptionist whose found another world via the elevator in the Dolphin Hotel.

Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: also by Haruki Murakami. The story is split between parallel narratives. The odd-numbered chapters follow "Calcutec," a human data processor/encryption system who has been trained to use his subconscious as an encryption key. The even-numbered chapters follow a newcomer to 'the End of the World', a strange, isolated walled Town depicted in the frontispiece map as being surrounded by a perfect and impenetrable wall. (I found the even numbered chapters much more interesting) Residents of the town are told they do not have a mind, though it is hinted that their minds are merely suppressed. Toward the middle of the novel, the two storylines converge, exploring concepts of consciousness, the unconscious mind and personal identity.