About Book
As a young man, Haruki Murakami played records and mixed drinks at his Tokyo Jazz club, Peter Cat, then wrote at the kitchen table until the sun came up. He loves music of all kinds—jazz, classical, folk, rock—and has more than six thousand records at home. And when he writes, his words have a music all their own, much of it learned from jazz. Jay Rubin, a self-confessed fan, has written a book for other fans who want to know more about this reclusive writer. He reveals the autobiographical elements in Murakami's fiction, and explains how he developed a distinctive new style in Japanese writing. In tracing Murakami's career, he uses interviews he conducted with the author between 1993 and 2001, and draws on insights and observations gathered from over ten years of collaborating with Murakami on translations of his works.
About Author
Jay Rubin is a professor of Japanese literature at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has written on prewar literary censorship, No drama, and the authors Natsume Soseki and Murakami Haruki. His translation of Soseki's Sanshiro was included in Kodansha's English Library. His other books include Injurious to Public Morals: Writers and the Meiji State. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1984; The Miner, by Natsume Soseki. Translation and study of Kofu. Stanford University Press, 1988; The Elephant Vanishes. Translation of 8 of 17 stories by Murakami Haruki. New York: Knopf, 1993; The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Translation of Murakami Haruki's Nejimakidori kuronikuru. New York: Knopf, 1997; Norwegian Wood. Translation of Murakami Haruki's Noruwei no mori. New York: Vintage, 2000; and Modern Japanese Writers. Edited volume. New York: Scribner's, 2001.