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June 28, 2004
Incremental Reading
Last week, I needed a novel that can distract me but easy enough to read for my tired-out eyes. I chose Tony Parson's Man and Wife and it was clearly trashy, albeit enjoyable. I progressed on to Haruki Murakami's South of Border, West of Sun.
South of Border, West of Sun is probably Murakami's weakest work, or so the critics say. His protogonist is extremely unlikeable - selfish, self-centered and thinks too much with his penis. However, I liked it. It struck a personal chord in my heart. Perhaps his confusion and his need to reach out to people to cover his loneliness felt like mine. Perhaps his selfish-ness was just realistically humane, most storybook characters are abit too infallible for my taste. Hajime is flawed but each mistake he made, each person he hurt filled him up with immense guilt. The inability to repent immediately but dwell on his guilt instead gave him a Claudius-like quality. Something I can definitely identify with.
This is a simple story. A story without fantastical plot-twists or intricate sub-plots. This is a simple story with simply the protogonists thoughts and dilemmas written out. This is a story about a human's mind. It gives me hope. For Hajime chose to do the right thing in the end. I know full well that whether or not life will become better or if he can keep his promise is another matter altogether. But, it's his hope and his want to try again and to right the wrongs he made because of his selfishness that gives the reader hope. Hope that the human race is not that self-obsessed yet.
And next to Parson's excuse-for-a-dick protogonist, Harry Silver, Hajime is very heroic indeed.
Posted by lainey at June 28, 2004 04:05 PM