Listen to Haruki Murakami’s Song of the Wind

Review of the book “Listen to the Song of the Wind” by Haruki Murakami

(Novel)

Do you like Haruki Murakami novels? If so, you may be interested in knowing his first work, “Listen to the Song of the Wind”, published in 1979. In this book, the Japanese author introduces us to his particular literary universe, full of lonely characters, musical and cultural references, and surreal situations.

The story focuses on a young biology student who returns to his hometown during the summer holidays. There he meets his friend the Rat, a girl with four fingers on her left hand, and a bartender named J. The figure of a fictional writer, Derek Heartfield, also appears, serving as a common thread between the chapters.

The novel is a mix of humor, nostalgia and reflection on life, love and literature. Murakami creates his own style, which combines the everyday with the fantastic, the realistic with the metaphorical. His prose is simple but elegant, and his dialogues are agile and natural. «Listen to the song of the wind» is a short but intense work, which shows us the talent and originality of one of the most influential writers of our time. If you want to discover the origin of the Murakami myth, don’t miss this book.

The novel is short and can be read in two afternoons, and it has no greater objective than to entertain you. The plot develops through short chapters in which, for the most part, we see scenes that are unconnected with the others or that have no continuity. Many of these chapters are reflections that, although they leave traces of what the Murakami we know today will be, contribute little or nothing to the plot.

In “Listen to the Song of the Wind”, we see a Murakami who is measuring himself, who writes what comes out to him with no other intention than to see what comes out. Although some critics consider that the novel is not representative of Murakami’s style, others see in it the author’s first steps in narrative.

In general, “Listen to the Song of the Wind” is a novel recommended for Murakami followers, for those who want to know the germ of his writing and not for its discovery.

In addition to “Listen to the Wind Song,” the book “Listen to the Wind Song and Pinball 1973” includes another short novel by Murakami, “Pinball 1973,” which takes place three years after the first novel.

In “Pinball 1973”, the same young man from the first novel now lives in Tokyo, with two identical twin girls, while the “Rat”, his best friend, continues to see life go by at J’s Bar. The novel is melancholic, with cats , wells and old girlfriends, in a poetic atmosphere, which contains the best pinball scenes in the history of literature.

In summary, “Listen to the Song of the Wind” is Haruki Murakami’s first novel, which takes place during the vacation of a 21-year-old young man in Tokyo, and is recommended for fans of the author. The book “Listen to the Song of the Wind and Pinball 1973” also includes the novel “Pinball 1973”, which takes place three years after the first novel and is a melancholic work, with cats, wells and old girlfriends, in a poetic atmosphere.