Novelist as a Vocation
Ratings12
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings12
Average rating3.5
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • An insightful look into the mind of a master storyteller—and a unique look at the craft of writing from the beloved and best-selling author of 1Q84, Norwegian Wood, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. "Murakami is like a magician who explains what he's doing as he performs the trick and still makes you believe he has supernatural powers" —New York Times Book Review A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK: Esquire, Vulture, LitHub, New York Observer Aspiring writers and readers who have long wondered where the mysterious novelist gets his ideas and what inspires his strangely surreal worlds will be fascinated by this engaging book from the internationally best-selling author. Haruki Murakami now shares with readers his thoughts on the role of the novel in our society; his own origins as a writer; and his musings on the sparks of creativity that inspire other writers, artists, and musicians. Here are the personal details of a life devoted to craft: the initial moment at a Yakult Swallows baseball game, when he suddenly knew he could write a novel; the importance of memory, what he calls a writer’s “mental chest of drawers”; the necessity of loneliness, patience, and his daily running routine; the seminal role a carrier pigeon played in his career and more. "What I want to say is that in a certain sense, while the novelist is creating a novel, he is simultaneously being created by the novel as well." —Haruki Murakami
Reviews with the most likes.
Murakami offers a refreshing, unromantic view towards the work of writing, revealing the difficulties and luck necessary in reaching the point of writing as a vocation. A lot of things have to fall in line for one to make it as a novelist, and not all of those things are in the hands of the writer. Regardless, Murakami's passion for writing is evident throughout the book and is contagious. Maybe the point of it all is to not focus so much on any dream of "success" but instead to focus on story itself.
Kinda left me cold at first but those last few essays were really insightful glances at his literary history, which was basically what I was hoping for.
This book has more personal anecdotes rather than Murakami discussing his writing that's why I was not invested in some chapters (I have no interest in personal life tbf). The chapters where he discussed about originality and how he writes were my favourites other than that it was a decent read. 3.5 stars out of 5.
Author Haruki Murakami talks about how he came to be a writer (he just decided to write a novel one day...out of the blue), who he writes for (himself), what he does to overcome writer's block (he doesn't get writer's block), what process he used to write his first novel (he wrote it in English and then translated it into his first language, Japanese), and much more in this little book of essays.
