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South of the Border, West of the Sun: A Novel (Paperback)

by Haruki Murakami (Author), Philip Gabriel (Translator) "My birthday's the fourth of January, 1951 ..." (more)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (100 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (Mar 14 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0679767398
ISBN-13: 978-0679767398
Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13 x 1.5 cm
Shipping Weight: 205 g

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (100 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #52,148 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

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 he 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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Romance, accusingly bittersweet but still redemptive, is the theme of this novel written by award-winning novelist Murakami, one of Japan's most popular authors. Two only children who were schoolmates and best friends meet again after a 25-year separation. Hajime is now married, the father of two little girls and a successful owner of two jazz clubs. Shimamoto has also changed; she has become a very beautiful woman. She is always immaculately and expensively dressed, but she will not talk about her life or anything that has happened to her. Nevertheless, Hajime believes that he loves her more than life itself; he is convinced that he could leave his family and his business to be with her. After they spend a night together, a night filled with raw passion, she vanishes. Hajime is distraught. After much soul searching, he begins to put his life back together and discovers that he has become a stronger man, one who realizes that looking back is often necessary in order to move forward.?Janis Williams, Shaker Heights P.L., OH
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
My birthday's the fourth of January, 1951. Read the first page

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Customer Reviews

100 Reviews

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(6)

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4.0 out of 5 stars (100 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not the most important, yet not to be marginalised., Dec 1 2002

By	A. Steinhebel (Tacoma, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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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5.0 out of 5 stars Truly amaizing story, May 18 2004

By	Ivana Gazic (Croatia, Europe) - See all my reviews

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.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Good, if not extraordinary., May 14 2004

By A Customer

My first introduction to Murakami came with the "Wild Sheep Chase", which established a pretty high bar to follow. This book, "South of the Border, West of the Sun" had its moments, but overall failed to impress too much upon me.

In retrospect, the book was better than I originally gave it credit for. Perhaps that is the result of me reading pretty quickly and thus my first impressions are sometimes a bit rushed.

Overall, the book the often-repeated Murakami pattern of a boring, or at least static, present triyng to come to terms with a haunted post-WWII childhood. There is the obligatory semi-suicidal <i>femme fatale</i>, and a character who begins feeling more and more out of place in his reality. As the book goes on we delve into the past of the characters and being to understand the events that have shaped them. [spoiler]There is the repeated (from book to book) pattern of becoming estranged from a wife only to come closer to her in the end.[/spoiler]

Like the author's other books, we have two female characters, but in this case I felt The Wife was very well written, with more exposition and finesse than in other works. It is hard to go into details and not spoil the books twists and turns, but for anyone who is a fan of Murakami, or good contemporary literary fiction in general, this is a worthwhile read.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars "Pretend you're happy when you're blue..."
He's usually recognized for his 700+ page epic The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, but in my opinion this book is his masterpiece. Read more

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1.0 out of 5 stars Utterly ghastly
You know, I've been somewhat critical of Murakami in the past, but even if his writing did tend to become formulaic, I would never have anticipated that he was capable of writing... Read more

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