MADreads

Murakami keeps going

September 25th, 2008 Jon - Central Library

Novelist Haruki Murakami has finished twenty-five marathons, winning none, which I think makes him an authority on running for the rest of us. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is a memoir built on a running log made while training for the New York City Marathon in 2005. It details Murakami’s changing relationship with running as he grows older. Even as his times begin to slide, the inevitable result of aging, he keeps at it, adding triathlons to his schedule to keep things interesting.

It’s a wonderful little book, a great response to the fearful prospect of physical and literary decline. There’s lots of talk about running, but it isn’t the only theme. Murakami talks about owning a jazz club and about his early novels, and about different types of writers-those who blaze brightly and die young, and those who have to reckon with longer careers. The Great Gatsby makes an appearance, and so does Raymond Carver, of course; Murakami is retranslating his stories into Japanese.

My favorite chapter is about when Murakami ran a sixty-two-mile ultramarathon. The process he undergoes as he’s running reminded me the most of his novels, and left him with “runner’s blues” at the end of the race; to me, it sounded a lot like one of those changes that occur in any long-term relationship. You either get through it, or you don’t. Murakami gets through it.

Though Murakami states in the book he doesn’t recommend running to others (he runs simply because it suits him, he says) I am happy to recommend this book to runners and to fans of his other books. You might also check out A Wild Haruki Chase: Reading Murakami Around the World. I think I might reread After Dark.

Entry Filed under: Memoir & Biography