Haruki Murakami is a difficult writer to characterize. Broadly, his style falls under magical realism with an occasional absurdist streak. His writing is simple yet dense, filled with lush imagery, richly drawn characters, and a deep well of underlying emotion.
There’s often an ethereal, almost dream-like quality to his stories. They pull a reader into this extraordinary flow of a character’s internal life and all the emotional intricacies that entails. As a writer, Murakami is fascinated with big philosophical questions. His novels deal with themes like the nature of identity and the self, the meaning of happiness, the soul, and humanity’s constant struggle with the concept of society.
Although his works and his profoundly introspective style are influenced by his Japanese heritage, there is a universality to the stories he tells. It is the reason Murakami is an international bestselling author and basically a perennial Nobel contender. The quality of his work is of such a level that picking the “best” or “most quintessential” is really a matter of splitting hairs. However, you have to start somewhere and the novels below are as a good place as any.
The post A Reader’s Guide to the Works of Haruki Murakami appeared first on Signature Reads.
