Jay RubinRecensioni

Great selection of stories and writers.

Provides an excellent jumping off point into further reading of Japanese literature. I bought about five novels and collections of short stories by writers featured in the book as a result.

‘Hell Screen’ by Akutagawa Ryunosuke and The Smile of a Mountain Witch by Ohba Minako were particularly memorable.

A tidy little book on Japanese language and usage, which I looked into as a possible pathway to the intermediate level after working through the two volumes of Genki. It is not a textbook in the usual sense, but a set of concise essays or expositions of particular parts of the language. The section on the use of the particles wa and ga, usually called 'subject matters' in a loose sense, is particularly detailed: the author demonstrates the subtle, but very real differences in the sense conveyed by the two particles respectively, and the misunderstandings that can arise if they are used mechanically. It's a short book, so you don't mind if it doesn't actually drill you in higher grammar or new vocabulary. At the end of this short but dense essay, one realizes that an average Japanese sentence has a number of particles and connectors, that are probably not covered in an introductory course, but which have to be sorted out if any sense is to be made! So this book is not for the beginner.

What a treat! Almost 5 stars, if only I wasn't lost for most of it. I don't know how to speak Japanese, and am a rank beginner in terms of learning to read it, so some of the trickier bits sailed past me--but it was astonishing how much I grasped, and how enjoyable it was to read about the intricacies of this language from an opinionated, humorous, knowledgeable author.

I even ran around quoting bits of it to uninterested friends, colleagues, and family, that's how much I liked it. It reads like a series of blog posts of varying lengths on several subjects, and you're sure to find a few of them to your taste, if not all.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!

Since I've read every word Haruki Murakami has published in English I felt obligated to read his introduction once it showed up in the preview on Amazon. People saying "Haruki Murakami is my favorite author" has now become a cliche. But cliches can sometimes be true.
His introduction was nice and long and juicy. My impression of the collection of stories was that they were chosen, as Mr. Rubin explains, for the casual reader. Maybe it's pretentious but I consider myself more than a casual reader of Japanese fiction. I have an entire bookcase devoted to Japanese literature.
I like to imagine what stories I would have picked if I had the opportunity to compile an anthology of this kind.
There are new translations, which are sorely needed in this day and age. Akutagawa's previously untranslated short story "General Kim" was my favorite inclusion. Out of Akutagawa's 300 works only 77 have thus far been translated into English. Since he's one of my other favorite authors I've actually gone to extremely nerdy lengths to read them all. I wish Rubin would just translate all of Akutagawa already. And maybe Bakin while he's at it.
I am glad that he put a lot of translating into this volume, but why include "Patriotism" and the first chapter of Sanshiro? Not only do they take up valuable space but they are available almost anywhere. I buy anthologies because they contain stories on the brink of obscurity. Where are all the translations of Hiromi Kawakami or Junnosuke Yoshiyuki? I would have liked to see something new from Ryu Murakami, who never gets anthologized but is one of the best Japanese writers of all time.
I gave this book four stars because it was excellent, but it really could've gotten five. The two stories by Haruki are previously available, but luckily we get something new by Banana Yoshimoto and Akutagawa which save this collection, in my opinion, from being a rehashing. It's hard to find Kenji Nakagami and we are treated to a new story by Mieko Kawakami, which was appreciated, so while I would not recommend this for your shelf if you can only have one Japanese literature anthology - it's hard to beat the two volume Columbia anthology - I'd put it in my top 5 Japanese literature anthologies. Yes, I am that much of a geek that I would create a top five.
Though this is a step in the right direction there's about 3000 miles of stepping left to do if we are ever going to get the most out of J. Lit. I keep asking myself, why can't I just read Japanese? Oh yeah, it's insanely difficult. Anyway, check it out if you are a fan.

Docking a star for misogyny and general douche-baggery.

This novel is a compilation of the memories of Kaim, an immortal who's lived for a thousand years. The eternal traveler is mostly a quiet observer, witnessing the extraordinary events in the lives of otherwise ordinary people. The stories have a strong moral core opposed to violence and contain many life lessons. I had originally read some of the "dreams" on the X-box game and was shocked by the literal quality and moral lessons contained.

It's too bad this awesome book is out of print because it really helps you to learn to think in Japanese. It should be a required text for every college Japanese course!

It does not seem possible that a book providing a rigorous comparative grammar for Japanese and English could be funny, well paced, and well written. But Making Sense of Japanese does just that. For those in the first three years of the difficult climb to proficiency in Japanese, this book will give you a pleasant lift. Rubin's concept of the "zero pronoun" provides an elegant answer to the enigma of the particles は and が。

A biography of Murakami focusing on his fiction, but also discussing his translations and his love of jazz, among other things. Now I want to reread all his books... and in fact after reading this I think I may not have actually ever read A Wind-up Bird Chronicle, so I'd better get on that!

The book is a little repetitive in its choice of quotes somehow and I found it a little weird when the author (Rubin) spoke about himself in the third person in one part, but otherwise it was a good read. But if you aren't already quite familiar with at least most of Murakami's novels, this would probably just be an incomprehensible spoiler party.

Jay Rubin is an American born academic and translator, he has a Ph.D. in Japanese Literature and currently is a professor at Harvard University. Apart from translating some of the works of Haruki Murakami, he has also written a guide to Japanese, Making Sense of Japanese (original title Gone Fishin) and translated books by Soseki Natsume and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.

Jay Rubin is also a self-confessed fan of Haruki Murakami and has written this book as a guide for other fans who would like to learn more about the man behind the books, but who are prevented from doing so by the barrier of the Japanese language. It appears that Jay Rubin has been inundated by a mountain of questions from readers over the years he has been known as a translator of the works of Murakami, combining that with comments on internet forums, has been the inspiration behind this project.

The Translator's Murakami

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

After Dark

Norwegian Wood,

after the quake

1Q84 - first two volumes translated by Jay Rubin and the third by Philip Gabriel, will be released in North America and the United Kingdom on October 25, 2011

Where this book does really well is in breaking down the tales of Haruki Murakami, as Jay Rubin says, that being a translator also means being a critic, and he does a really fantastic job of interpreting the novels and short stories, so much so that he has made me want to reread at least a couple of Murakami’s books. But he kind of scrimps on the autobiographical detail, using just enough to flesh out the exploration of his subjects oeuvre, offering a skeletal history, most of which is either known, or is easily accessible – married whilst at University, opened jazz Bar (peter cat), escaped to America after early success etc. At first I was a bit disappointed with the meagre offerings on the personal side of one of my favourite authors, and yet it soon became irrelevant, I became fascinated as jay Rubin dissected the stories, offering up his diagnosis, his interpretation of a series of works that have mystified readers for a while now, and in doing so shone a light into the many levels of Haruki Murakami’s novels.

http://parrishlantern.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/haruki-murakami-and-music-of-words-...

Good Western perspective of this enigma of a language.

Very good book on Japanese grammar for intermediate students and those wanting a refresh on the difference between "wa" and "ga."

Probably of interest only to hardcore Murakami fans. Includes some interesting trivia of Murakami and his wife, Yoko, and provides insight to almost all of Murakami's major works.

Jay Rubin has translated several of Haruki Murakami's novels into English and interviewed him extensively over a number of years. But Rubin is not just a mere translator, he is also a fan of Murakami's work and this book is an invaluable introduction to Murakami the person as well as a look at his influences.