only murakami pushes me to write something

"I was always attracted not by some quantifiable, external beauty, but by something deep down, something absolute. Just as some people have a secret love for rainstorms, earthquakes, or blackouts, I liked that certain undefinable something directed my way by members of the opposite sex. For want of a better word, call it magnetism. Like it or not, it’s a kind of power that snares people and reels them in." 

— Haruki Murakami (South of the Border, West of the Sun)

last night, i watched the movie Keith. last night, i also watched Under the Tuscan Sun for the nth time. today, i finally finished reading South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami.

i wasn't particularly pleased with the film Keith. all i can think of is i wasn't feeling it. maybe like all things in this world, it's all about timing. i wondered because it contains all things i like in a love story: argumentative characters, mystery and an ambiguous, unhappy ending. but somehow i couldn't bring myself to like the two main characters. i missed the passion so to speak. Under the Tuscan Sun, on the other hand, is my happy pill. i love it when women characters still manage to find joy without a love interest. and i love it even more if there was a glimpse of a love interest but it doesn't work just yet. just yet. the combination of southern Italy, a remodeled house and lots of existentialist quotes brings a smile to my face.

but i digress.

speaking of love stories, i'm here to talk primarily about haruki murakami's novel. i can't get enough of murakami's love stories. now that i think about it, it's not the story he tells but the way he tells it. he evokes a certain kind of nuance. it's like watching a wong kar wai film. i just can't put my finger on it. the story is pretty simple. he has a childhood sweetheart, named Shimamoto,  who reappears at a time when his life was already in order, meaning he already has a wife, kids and two jazz bars of his own. this childhood sweetheart is enveloped with so much beauty and mystery. and like any affair, it started out innocently. the woman would visit her in his bar, and they would talk for hours. after several weeks, the woman disappears again only to return after three or more months. this became addictive to the main character, hajime. he was hooked.

i loved the conversations that Hajime and Shimamoto have in the bar. murakami has a way of describing a woman in red, sipping a cocktail, smoking Camel cigarettes, while talking music, art, feelings to an eager man. the air of mystery in Shimamoto affects me too. you want them to get together, lash all the desires out of their system but at the same time, we can't help but sympathize for the wife of Hajime. Murakami thrives in keeping the suspense alive, and the events of the finale certainly delivers. would they or wouldn't they?

Hajime, the main character, strives to be a good guy, a normal guy actually. but the impulses that he has and his unmistakable human character for insatiability speaks to me more than anything else. he went through the motions of working for a job he doesn't like until he met the woman he marries. he was given the opportunity of his life to put up his own bar. unknowingly, he was living the life most of us would want for ourselves, a married life with kids and a successful business. through it all, the story also incorporates his past loves. how he had hurt most of the women he loved in his life and in turn he ends up hurting himself.

the story ends the way i didn't imagine it would. a brief moment of anger inside me was suspended. i would like to think it was the mature way of putting things to rest. i love this book because it's supposes a simple love story told beautifully, at least in my opinion.

i like how murakami acts like an observer of people, of individuals, of men and women, of how they live their lives and how they really feel about things sometimes. there's this certain theme of being stuck. sometimes people are stuck in the monotony of everyday living, some are stuck in the past, some are reminded of the pasts that they become stuck in the present, unable to move forward. murakami succinctly describes the longing of being complete, real and happy. for me, he is a really keen observer of human behavior, and i like that a lot in his novels whether it's a love story or a coming of age story or both.

i'm still in awe of Murakami's words, just like the effect he had on me in Norwegian Wood and Sputnik Sweetheart.