Dance Dance Dance
One of the reasons why I don’t have a favorite author is because I think that authors tend to reach a “low point” in their career and produce works that aren’t as good as their previous ones.
Reading Murakami’s Dance Dance Dance is a good example. I like Murakami’s works in general because he managed (consciously or unconsciously; whether he denies it or not) to combine Western aspects of literature to Japanese ones. Now that I get more familiar with his characters, I think what attracts me more to his works in general is the idea that he has intellectual, and to some extent, idealist characters/protagonist. It’s not much about the “wasakan ng utak” that walrus from Peyups.Com refers to (I don’t even see his works as “wasakan ng utak”, really, but anyway I digress), but mostly because his characters think too much. These aspects of his characters’ personalities make me draw near to them but at the same time it make me feel detached to them. In that way, I admire Murakami for creating “real” people for I believe that human beings are complex creatures that we cannot be compartmentalized in certain personality categories.
Anyhow, let’s go back to Murakami. I didn’t like Dance Dance Dance. In all honesty, I thought that this book was made to just fulfill the call of duty to publish something. Having that feeling is just wrong for me. The plot is centered around boku (an informal version of “I” in Japanese, used by men), now in his 30s, and decided to look for his missing ex-girlfriend (which was introduced in the book A Wild Sheep Chase). But when I read the whole book, I felt that the book went nowhere. It would have been nice if the book just focused more on boku being older and sharing his knowledge to the teenager named Yuki. That, I think, is the most interesting part of the book. But everything else was just… empty.
Boku somehow seemed grown up here, but I still see him as someone who thinks too much, acts like a cool being. But he has some saving grace in this book because he can now recognize the idea that people should take responsibility of what they do; an example is when he pointed out that Yuki’s parents are neglecting their duty as parents to the girl. Other than that… Meh. Gah. And to think this is the first Murakami book I’ve bought.
Angela Solis grew up in the Philippines before moving in to Canada in 2003. She became a Canadian in 2006. Angela is 22 years old and an alumnae of University of Manitoba with a degree in Bachelor of Arts (Adv.) in Psychology and a minor in Asian Studies. She has been blogging since 2002 and occasionally writes for