Murakami Haruki

[nhk9]

I've been studying Japanese for quite some time now. When I read Murakami Haruki's books I feel that I can get a strong grasp of what is being written. However sometimes I do feel the need to use an electronic dictionary while reading those books. Normally on average I would have to look up the English equivalent for a couple words on each page. The number significantly jumps up when I am reading a soliliquay. He is often branded as a "popular commercial writer", but is his writing easy to read for native speakers? I see how sometimes he likes to use more obscure words/phrases like "ほの暗い" or "取り立てて。。。ない".

How do natives think about his writing style? Grammatically and technically speaking, would his books be considered easy to read, or difficult?

Thanks

P.S. I have been reading this new book called "after dark"...

 

[JimmySeal]

仄暗い appears in the title of a book by 鈴木光司 (仄暗い水の底から, it was made into movies in Japan and the US), and I've seen the expression とりたてて...ない used more than once in books intended for primary school children, so I don't think that they are all that uncommon. Besides, since 仄暗い is simply 暗い with a prefix, and とりたてて is a sentence adverb, one can easily grasp the meaning of the sentence without knowing those words, and it's not all that hard to figure out their meaning from the context.

 

[undrentide]

村上春樹の文章はとりたてて難しいものではないと思い ます。
To me his writing style including wordings is rather easy to read and I assume that is one of the reasons his books are so popular.

 

[epigene]

村上春樹の文章はとりたてて難しいものではないと思い ます。
To me his writing style including wordings is rather easy to read and I assume that is one of the reasons his books are so popular.

禿同… ごめん、遊んでます。

禿同／はげどう【はげどう】[成句]
「激しく同意！」の略。
元々、２ちゃんねらー言葉

 

[nhk9]

仄暗い appears in the title of a book by 鈴木光司 (仄暗い水の底から, it was made into movies in Japan and the US), and I've seen the expression とりたてて...ない used more than once in books intended for primary school children, so I don't think that they are all that uncommon. Besides, since 仄暗い is simply 暗い with a prefix, and とりたてて is a sentence adverb, one can easily grasp the meaning of the sentence without knowing those words, and it's not all that hard to figure out their meaning from the context.

Yes, especially when combined with kanjis, it is not hard to grasp the overall meaning of what is being said. When I go for a quick read on the bus I would not try to use my dictionary, but when I am at home I would try to figure out the nuance between words that are ever so similar.

It seems like school books in japan have rather obscure words. You just don't happen to see とりたてて...ない anywhere else other than literary pieces. I've gone through a couple of high school books and it amazes me at how they try to teach so many obscure words to them.

 

[JimmySeal]

The place where I saw とりたてて was in the Japanese translations of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, but they are intentionally written in a stiff, fairytale-like style. Still, it's a pretty useful expression, eh? Though I fear that it's probably confined to that large mysterious realm of "書き言葉."

Have you read these articles yet?
I
Vocabulary Learning 2

If they are to be believed, no dictionary can really make you understand the difference in nuance between words. The only way to really understand is to see the word several times.

 

[Elizabeth]

It seems like school books in japan have rather obscure words. You just don't happen to see とりたてて...ない anywhere else other than literary pieces.

I've personally received emails that used it, but wasn't quite sure either so I just asked a friend. He said the phrase was comparatively conversational and not normally intended in a literary sense at all.

Just my two cents on the author : Murakami has written a few novels very well (Wild Sheep Chase, Hardboiled Wonderland), most are so-so readable and ones like Norwegian Wood are total clunkers (trash) in my opinion. Probably though I wouldn't care so much about the literary value if it helps my Japanese...

 

[senseiman]

I've found Haruki Murakami novels to be very easy to read (as a non-native Japanese speaker). The first person narrative style is very easy to follow, as is the more contemporary language used.

Its the historical novels by writers like Shiba Ryotaro and Yoshikawa Eiji that I can't get through. Way too difficult.

 

[Glenn]

Just last night I had a Japanese native speaker tell me that he wanted to read Murakami's works in English translation because he thought the Japanese was easy, so the English probably would be too.

 

[JimmySeal]

I've generally heard that Murakami is easy too. I'm hoping to read some sometime in the near future.

 

[JimmySeal]

Reviving an old thread here. I've now read just over halfway through ノルウェーの森 and my personal opinion is that it's not all that tough to read, though Japanese people around me have been saying that his writing is tough (they're probably just being condescending).
One thing that does fascinate me is that he uses slews of non-joyo kanji with no furigana, where most authors would provide it. In fact, in the ~350 pages that I've read, I have only seen three words with furigana (and all of these occurred within the first 50 pages):
辺土 - リンボ
修道尼 - シスター
角 - かど
What also sticks out in my mind is that he always spells ほとんど out with kanji: 殆ど, and the same goes for たいてい: 大抵. I am much more used to seeing these words in kana.