Review: Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

 

            “To tell the truth, I do not know this thing called ‘mind’, what it does or how to use it.  It is only a word I have heard.”

“The mind is nothing you use,” I say.  “The mind is just there.  It is like the wind.  You simply feel its movements.”

Murakami’s surreal imaginings deservedly earn him an international following.  He possesses the skill of making even his most fantastical ideas seem familiar: in Hard-boiled Wonderland we delve into an underground tunnel hidden in an office-block closet and discover mythical golden beasts, yet we don’t even flinch.

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Review: Timeskipper by Stefano Benni

On a beautiful late-winter morning in the Italian mountains, Timeskipper – a boy with a vivid imagination – has a chance encounter with a god. A god with a talking dog. 

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

A strange book this one.  I suppose I’d have to describe it as magical realism with a really brutal kick.  It reminded me of Angela Carter’s novels and fairy tales, which allow the reader to live in two different versions of the same story – one set in the ‘real world’, where the narrator’s or a character’s sanity is called into question, and the other set in a fantastical place where absolutely anything can happen.  What’s great about these types of novels are that you’re never sure who or what to believe, and that is the case with The Gargoyle.