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Comment by bertil | Hacker News Reader

He's a fantastic author, but beware: most of his books say… nothing? It's about someone, possibly a man, to whom something happened. And he meets someone he used to love at the time. Not sure he still love her. She looks more beautiful now. That's it: I just spoiled the entire plot, in every detail. And there's a house, too. Looks smaller now. I believe that makes it easier to translate (I read them in the original French) but the absolute lack of detail, story line, makes it incredibly either relatable (if you are in that mindset) or frustrating (Whyyy?! Why did she leave him? Or he left? Did he? You can't tell.) I love it - but beware, it's very tacit.

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The lack of a conventional plot is nothing unusual in literature since Joyce. I've never heard of him, and would be more interested in learning what you find fantastic in him - can you compare him with some other authors, perhaps? (Aside from what we know from the fact the he won the Prize: that he espouses leftist politics, for example.)

So, this is the literary "Seinfeld"?

I've never read any of his literature, so I may be either really misinformed/clueless but hopefully with some objectivity.

I think that your comment corroborates the Nobel committee's decision: "for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation"

Despite what you say about a lacking plot, which you may have exaggerated, you still call him a "fantastic author." Which is either irony or there's something to that.

Despite what you say about a lacking plot, which you may have exaggerated, you still call him a "fantastic author." Which is either irony or there's something to that.

It's not necessary for a book to have a great plot, to be a great book. I haven't read any of this guy's work, but Murakami has a similar "thing" going on... the plots in his books are often fairly dull and leave a lot of plot-lines unresolved... but yet the books are very enjoyable and thought provoking. It's almost like it's the atmosphere that matters, not the plot itself. Perhaps this author writes something similar?

Yes, and as a musician, there are strong and compelling parallel aesthetics. I totally understand it.

I would love to check out this author's work now.

reminds me of some of the criticisms against Murakami, who is also pretty international.

I read a literary essay years ago touching on plot and how it affects narratives. Basically, the essay claimed that plot can be a trap. You introduce characters and actions and they must be explained. The reader wants to know what comes next. You frustrate them if you don't tell them.

You started out, perhaps, with other goals, but you've become tied up in explaining how and why everything happens.

Exactly! Do you have a link? Maybe the following illustrates your point: for me, watching an episode of curious george is much more fun than watching curious george the movie because the former has a plot and the latter has a PLOT.

Read two books by him, both had the same exact plot except for locations. There's a man, loses his cat, loses his wife, loses his job, and then there's something magical that is somehow related to the Manchuria war.

The only Murakami novel that has the author lose a cat, his wife and encounter "something magical that is somehow related to the Manchuria war" is The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I can only assume you read it twice by mistake.

Several of his novels do feature a man with a cat, and several novels feature distant women. But if I remember correctly, the only other married narrator is the protagonist in South of the Border, West of the Sun, and there is a character in 1Q84 who is married and divorced.

To say that the plots of any of his books have exactly the same plot would be a huge mischaracterization, though. The only two books that are even vaguely similar are Wind-Up and the earlier Dance Dance Dance (the last part of a quadrilogy about the "Sheep Man"); the latter feels a lot like a preliminary sketch for the vastly superior Wind-Up, in particular the fascination about hotel rooms and shared dreams. But the plots are completely different.

Kafka by the River is also related to missing cats (killed), ancient wars and something magical. I loved Kafka by the River, but couldn't finish The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Kafka by the Shore. It is very different from Wind-Up Bird even though there are cats in it.

I recommend trying Wind-Up again. The first ~100 pages are difficult to get through at times (the narrator is infuriatingly apathetic), but one you get past that, it's an incredible page turner. I liked Kafka a lot, but Wind-Up is his masterpiece.

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