Dance, Dance, Dance
Haruki Murakami
Vintage International
1994
Translated from the Japanese by Alfred Birnbaum
Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she wanted to read more books by Murakami. She has read several, including the one that is the companion book to this one, A WILD SHEEP CHASE. She read that many years ago, but does not remember it well. She does remember that it was strange, and she liked it.
This novel is about a nameless protagonist who goes to a place called The Dolphin Hotel, where he stayed a few years previously to see if he can find someone he lost there, his girlfriend, Kiki. When he arrives at the hotel, it has been transformed from a dump into a glittering high-class hotel. He wanders the hotel to try to figure out how this happened. He befriends one of the receptionists, Yumiyoshi, and finds a sheep man in the sixteenth floor of the hotel
He travels back to Tokyo with a thirteen-year old girl, Yuki, whose mother, a famous photographer, abandoned. He finds his old friend, a film star home in Tokyo, and asks him about the movie he was in with Kiki. They become friends, but the protagonist does not know what his friend did at first. Our character travels to Hawaii, and strange things happen. He does not understand what is going on.
One thing that struck Ms. Hen about this book is the year it took place, and the technology of the book. It takes place in the early eighties, and the character is a journalist, and he goes to great pains to do research, and find articles. This seems dated to Ms. Hen, but it's the way the world used to be. We are so accustomed to having all the information we need at our fingertips, that it struck Ms. Hen. If this novel took place in these times, it would be completely different.
This is a strange novel, and Ms. Hen didn't completely understand what was happening, but that doesn't mean she didn't like it. The character is a type of jerk, but he means well. It's a little inappropriate that he should be friends with a thirteen-year old girl, and he goes to too many prostitutes, and Ms. Hen find this unsettling. Ms. Hen is not sure he is a typical Japanese man of his time.
The mystery aspect of this novel is done well, with the fantasy thrown in. Murakami is a master of the absurd, and that's what Ms. Hen liked the most. Even though she can't remember the companion novel well, she thinks that it is just as good as this.
Ms. Hen thinks that we need Murakami in times like these. The world is messed up, and it doesn't make any sense, and we have to accept that. A sheep man could be hidden in a hotel, and people could disappear, but we have to understand the in this life some things have no explanation.
