I just finished 1Q84, and I started American Gods by Gaiman last night. Sorry to hear about your interview, rinx. Not sure about what a good book to read would be, but here's a brainpickings article. The farmer steadfastly refrained from thinking of things in terms of gain or loss, advantage or disadvantage, because one never knows… In fact we never really know whether an event is fortune or misfortune, we only know our ever-changing reactions to ever-changing events.Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. That evening, all of his neighbors came around to commiserate. They said, “We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “Maybe.” The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening everybody came back and said, “Oh, isn’t that lucky. What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses!” The farmer again said, “Maybe.” The following day his son tried to break one of the horses, and while riding it, he was thrown and broke his leg. The neighbors then said, “Oh dear, that’s too bad,” and the farmer responded, “Maybe.” The next day the conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg. Again all the neighbors came around and said, “Isn’t that great!” Again, he said, “Maybe.”
I was a little bit disappointed with the ending too. The other thing that bothered me was the frequency of sexual sections. Not to say that I mind sexual content, and I see how some of it was important to the story, but it seemed so over-the-top and occurred so often that at times I felt like I was reading an erotic novel. That being said, it was my first Murakami read and I really enjoyed it. If you've read other Murakami, any thoughts on where I should go from here?
I definitely agree with you. Aside from the frequency of sexual sections, they're just written really poorly. Maybe there's something lost in translation... Who knows! I'm pretty sure Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki was on the short-list for the 'Bad Sex in Fiction' award. That being said, I did enjoy it and would recommend both that and Kafka on the Shore if you're interested in more Murakami.