Murakami and Ishiguro

I have never been to Japan. In fact I never have had a proper conversation with a Japanese, just the occasional professional meeting with Japanese expat managers.

However that does not prevent me from having two Japanese at the very top of my list of favorite writers: Haruki Murakami and Kazuo Ishiguro.

Murakami and Ishiguro in many ways are poles apart while embodying the same quintessential quality which I presume reflects being Japanese in spirit.

Both belong to my generation: the baby boom generation.

Murakami born in Japan in 1949 has lived in Japan all his life. He writes in Japanese.

Ishiguro, born in Japan in 1954, left it at age 5, didn’t visit it again until thirty years later, is a British citizen and writes in Queen’s English.

Murakami’s books (he has had 12 published during te period 1979 to 2009 all except the last available in English translations: the 2009 book, IQ84 will be available in English in 2011) gives play to a society’s pain and gain through a cast of characters who live on its margins.

His 2007 book ‘Kafka on The Shore” has a 15 year old who runs away from home, has a split personality and is obsessed by a prediction made by his father that he will be responsible for his (the father’s) murder and then will sleep with his mother and his only sister.

And a 50 year old who loses most mental faculties in a mysterious incident at the age of 6 and now lives on a government subsidy, completely ignored by his well-to-do brothers and spending his time using his one special ability: the ability to converse with cats.

“Kafka on The Shore” can be read as a meditation on the loss of Japanese family values but coming from an angle that simply refuses to make any value judgments while being written with a verve that would keep even a hard-boiled reader of pulp fiction engaged if only he (the reader that is) is ready to give up any preconceived notions about high-brow writing.

Ishiguro’s books (he has published 6 in the period 1982 to 2005) are always in the first person. The first-person point-of-view take on the air of an unfolding mystery as the protagonist gradually reveals fundamental character flaws that both hinder and define his life. The resultant pathos draws the reader into an intimate sympathetic relationship with the protagonist.

His 1995 book, "The Unconsoled", is written from the point-of-view of a famous pianist who is visiting an unfamiliar European city and is quickly loosing large chunks of his memory as he struggles to prepare and give the concert he has come for.

The sense of menace in this book, in my experience is matched only in the book “The Turn of The Screw” and the movie “Vertigo”.

Ishiguro and Murakami are very different. However every book of theirs is a labyrinth in which you are lost in while building it, turn by twisted turn, yourself.

Read them if you are inclined to invest in books. The ROI is high.

Two closing thoughts:

- Mumbai these days has a hoarding campaign running all over town. It read: “Help! MCGM to keep Mumbai clean!”!. This subtle transformation of a run-of-the-mill civic message to an appeal and a warning of impending doom is a rare gem. Here is a standing invitation for a drink to the copywriter who got this copy past some hapless English-challenged bureaucrat.

- In some corner of my conscience I do feel that I should not be doing this but here is an idea for the next MNS campaign. How dare the Mumbai IPL franchise be named Mumbai Indians! It should be immediately shift to being called the Mumbai Marathas. And while at it lets get that inveterate Indian- Sachin- out of the captain’s seat and get amchi Sunil out of retirement and in the saddle ( One more thought: Will the creation of Mumbai Marathas be the explosive issue that will give impetus to the rise of a new political force- the Konkan Nirman Sena?)