Review by Haruki Murakamis "The assassination of the commander".

For all readers who love Haruki Murakami, there are many who are deeply skeptical about his writing. In the country of origin of Japan, he is the subject of controversy in some circles, because he believes that it is too vain for his Western readership to the detriment of the Japanese tradition.

In the West, it has a large and enthusiastic audience, but the most discerning readers and perhaps the professionals generally consider it a little light, both stylistically and ideally.

A writer like It is undoubtedly interesting to follow the opinion. As a Swedish reader, you can follow it closely enough because most of the fictional Murakami literature artwork is worthy of translation.

The new novel, which today is translated into Swedish by the prominent Vibeke Emond is the first part of a trilogy. Haruki Murakami wrote a previous trilogy: "1Q84" (in Swedish 2011), which was perhaps a too ambitious project to reconcile realism with fantastik, and which finally got into the feeling that it was a little more fun for Murakami to write as readers to read.

This feeling is reinforced by the new novel "The assassination of the commander". With reservations that it is actually quite slippery, in a generally silent way. This first part of the trilogy is subtitled "An idea is revealed". It is said that the next part will be "Changing Metaphors" – if I correctly interpreted Japanese. This tells us that Murakami's ambition to let the abstract gesture of everyday life last.

I've read twice the novel titled "The Commander's Murder", to the scent of Agatha Christie: a first time with goodwill and a second time more sparse to satisfy both sides.

But first a preview.

A portraitist has Surprisingly, he went to his wife's door after a six-year marriage and settled in an isolated house in the mountains southeast of Tokyo. The house belongs to a friend of a good friend who is one of the most born artists of Japan, but who suffered from senility and who was placed in a house. The unnamed narrator will contact a financier who has a sumptuous villa on the hill opposite.

The plot is developing at a slow pace, with many backstrokes. Questions and riddles are revealed. Why do ceremonial bells ring the forest night on the site of the former artist? Who is the mysterious billionaire across the way and what does he want? What does the picture of a murder – the assassination of the title commander – mean that the narrator finds hidden in the wind? What is the connection between the old artist owner, the painting and an attempted murder under Anschluss in Vienna in 1938?

Yes, the mysteries hope so, and we feel that Haruki Murakami, with the greatest desire, has settled down with pleasure in front of an empty garment to try to understand all this, just like the portraitist he dresses to seize the essence of the image.

Benevolent reading indicates that it is a classic Murakami. He takes his time I would probably call his style too polite. He does not want to leave a reader afterwards, because we can be sure that it is a rather comfortable plot. He repeats the information, tries as a good educator to propagate such so-called elements as being an idea suddenly reveals itself in a reasonably human form that only the portraitist can see.

Yes, an idea, a black suit and sixty centimeters long. We still do not know exactly what the idea is, but it depends on the hunt for stories and Koan wisdom. Murakami has a habit of sneaking into the meanders that catch the eye almost without warning; Deep sensations that a normal novelist had exhibited with hello and firework, he murmurs as well as at a bishop's.

You really want to know what all this is about and it is clear that this novel can not be read independently. Put the nuts on it, do not read it, but wait for at least the next part. You can also read the introduction and discover how Haruki Murakami builds a daring plot. Moreover, you will discuss between the lines of controversy between traditional Japanese art (nihonga) and the influential western dito (yoga) in which it participates.

Anyone else who could call Murakami's pictorial equivalent of polar work with traditional / western culture and high / popular culture is also strangely known as Murakami, but with the first name Takashi.

To change the page: The persistent prose of Haruki Murakami can lead to madness. You often feel that you have at least three lengths ahead of its protagonists and that you become wildly impatient for their abstinence. His resemblance is often clichés, but he delivers them as he was the first to use them (the narrator rubs on his wedding: "But, finally, a slow reversal has occurred, as when a great liner change course to the sea ").

His compulsive enthusiasm for car brands, Beatles songs and conversations that sound like a person talking to the reader is an idiot ("We need professional help if we move these rocks away." I have a familiar here in the funeral gardener I know him well.As a gardener, he has the habit of handling big stones ") can go anywhere on the nerves.

One more page, on the other hand. It is impossible to say where Murakami is heading for this trilogy project. He probably likes it, probably, and it's a good sign. And, overall, the writing of a writer such as Murakamis is more interesting than most other great international writers, because he fears so much that he expects from him. to write.

In other words, it's a very exciting author.

Read all book reviews by DN right herefor example, Maria Schottenius, critic of The new book of interviews of Leila Slimani.