Apologies
If you were being blocked from the site recently, that should be fixed now. A plugin I use changed the thingie that it uses to make sure spambots and other malicious scripts can’t access it, and started blocking everyone. Even me.
That’s sorted out now. Expect a review of After Dark soon, as well as a few musings on Hear the Wind Sing, Murakami’s first novel.
Wow — how’d you get a copy of Hear the Wind Sing? That hasn’t been released in the US and I just didn’t know about it, right?
Also, I enjoyed After Dark quite a lot too, though I thought it was interesting you put it at-or-near the top of the heap. For me, it’s still Hard-Boiled Wonderland.
ALSO ALSO: W/r/t Pynchon — I think I liked Crying of Lot 49; there were parts that sort of annoyed me but on the whole it was pretty difficult to actually put down. I’m kinda thinking that I’d like it a lot more if I hadn’t read a lot of folks clearly influenced by him, though, because I think I’m attuned to some of his tricks already from reading folks like DFW, say. HOWEVER — I am still planning on reading Gravity’s Rainbow soon.
I managed to get Hear the Wind Sing off eBay for stupid cheap. Like 13 bucks with shipping. I doubt I’ll be anywhere close to that lucky in acquiring Pinball, 1973.
After Dark seems to be getting slagged off a bit on Amazon.com which I don’t get. Yes, it’s a stylistic change, yes he’s stepping out of his comfort zone, but I think he does it well. And besides, how many Murakami novels end with everything wrapped up nice and neat? Hint: It’s less than one.
Lot 49 is certainly a book with its quirks. I don’t recall being frustrated, but I’d read V. first, which was really Pynchon’s proving ground, so I got used to his peculiarities pretty quick. Gravity’s Rainbow is a masterpiece. You’ll enjoy it.