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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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
My birthday's the fourth of January, 1951. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truly amaizing story,
By Ivana Gazic (Croatia, Europe) - See all my reviews
This review is from: South of the Border, West of the Sun: A Novel (Paperback)
I am totally hooked on Murakami. Although culture he is writing about is so distant for me, being from Croatia, I find it amazing how people have similar worries all over the world.Murakami is definitely one of the greatest living authors. I adore his style, and I can only dream how good it sounds in his native language. This book is such a sad story about being married, about taking responsibilities and about loosing love due to that. What makes Murakami big is the message he leaves with you after every book and the ease with which he presents in front of you one of the biggest doubts in almost everyone's life.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Every word is a tear in the fabric of happiness...,
This review is from: South of the Border, West of the Sun (Hardcover)
At first read, this would appear to be among the weaker of Murakami's recent works - perhaps a self-indulgent tour of sentimental moods from the past as an antidote to the gravitas of books such as "Wind-Up Bird." The translation, as well, seems hastily done, with the protagonist speaking in a loose, casual tone we're not quite used to. And character-wise, we really have only Hajime and Shimamoto to guide us, rather than the usual cast of unusual everybodies.That being said, "South of the Border..." indeed packs a punch as substantial as Murakami-san's other work, when read with the same intimacy and closeness with which it was written. Sure, there are the usual basic motifs: sex-mad women, drinking alone, vintage American jazz, and heartbreak. Something is a little off-key, but buried beneath candy-like prose. So what? What distinguishes this book is what churns beneath the surface. It happens when Murakami, with his readers mesmerized, brings in his prosodic "heavy artillery" to lift the tale skyward. Physical and metaphysical transformation, deep body/soul trauma, and on-the-dot symbolism round the story out as a deep-structural tragedy that unravels itself with a devastatingly effective certitude. Frighteningly well done. It's as much about destruction and selfishness as it is about togetherness and harmony. Two only children are in love - then come apart - then unite with shaken souls and memories of things completely irretreivable, much later in life. Hajime and Shimamoto, in another space-time, stayed in touch, married, and conceived an only child as a mirror of themselves. In this world, perhaps, they were happy - perhaps Hajime's idealism was intact and Shimamoto's intelligence given more room to breathe. Instead, at the sound of the crow, we infer this child's birth and death and realize that its presence in this world is limited to that of ashes in a remote stream. Murakami's device of bodily transformation, which also shows up in "Sputnik Sweetheart" for example, is most poignantly realized in "South of the Border" when Shimamoto becomes the beautiful woman and mother in a lopsided universe. Ultimately, with the death of the child who never really lived, readers unwary enough to have liked Hajime and Shimamoto (and held hope for their future) are mercilessly slammed to the ground. It's often said that tragedy is distinguished by the fact that it leaves more questions open than are resolved in the narrative; this tragic tale, though, answers every question with a profound finality. Even the final breath is anticipated and confronted, until there is really nothing more that can be said. So read it carefully and watch for the crow. Ashes floating downstream were never so sweetly devastating.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not the most important, yet not to be marginalised.,
By
This review is from: South of the Border, West of the Sun: A Novel (Paperback)
The last two Murakami novels I read were Norwegian Wood and Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. These two novels, in my mind at least, stick out as the most down to earth. Not necessiarily because they are realistic (though Norwegian Wood is infact his most realistic, Hard-boiled Wonderland is amongst his most fanciful) but because they give, or at least attempt to, order to their world. South of the Border, West of the Sun thus is to me a return to the Murakami that is best linkened to base myth. Together with Norwegian Wood, this novel ranks as one of his few attempts at a creation of a pure romantic-literary novel. As stated before, Norwegian Wood is far and away Murakami's most realistic work, so it succeeds far better at being romantic. But this novel does add something to Murakami's cannon that, I believe is lacking in the other novels; that is to say, eroticism. Love in Murakami's works is treated as a transcendental force that no man or woman can control. It grabs hold of you and will not let go. South of the Border, West of the Sun takes that idea and analysis it heavily. But in the other novels, that love is treated as something higher then the mundane. In this novel, it is brought to the mundane, which is where the eroticism comes into play. I'm noticing that my comments on this book are coming out a little rambling. I could attribute that to the caffine at 2 in the morning, but I think it is more a testament to the effect that Murakami has on the dedicated reader. His works crave to be read and pondered. Well, to give my basic, simple opinion on this book...It is not his best. It is excellent, yes, but really nothing more then a minor footnote in the career of Murakami. Wind up Bird it is not. So I can not suggest this book to the person who has never read any Murakami. To them, I would suggest reading the "I" duo, A Whid Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance. After that, you should tackle The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. And by that point your'll be so enamoured with him that you'll want to read every minor foot note he has.
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