I can't upvote this enough. I have a degree in physics, but even so every year around this time for about the past decade I pay more attention to the literature prize, waiting for him to get recognized. The last chapter of Colorless Tsukuru hit me so hard I cried, and immediately went out of my way to get an autographed copy. His novels have certainly helped me transition into adulthood, and I think he definitely deserves the prize.
I wish I had a reaction as emotional as yours, but I still understand your sentiment. They're quirky, yet so relatable. Ultimately, Haruki literature resonates with the loneliness felt in the cold, detached 21st-century society.
Yeah, I just happened to read that last chapter of Colorless Tsukuru at the right time in my personal life where I could relate directly to just about every sentence, and at the end I just felt empty in a satisfying way, if that makes any sense. Then again, I find that with age I'm becoming more susceptible to melancholic or sappy fiction, even if it's not particularly well done (as in the case of some TV shows).
Unpopular opinion, but they're both overrated. DiCaprio just overacts and people interpret it as a sign of good acting (c.f.: "he cut his hand and kept acting!"; method acting is also given too much credit these days as well) I've read Murakami and it just felt soulless and bland, like he was just appealing to "lonely and lost" people, but not in any meaningful way. Just my personal opinion.
Lastly, if someone keeps getting passed up for an award, it just signifies that there are people who deserved the award more, not that they deserve the award by virtue of not receiving it. That's why I think it's silly that he won the Oscar for The Revenant, which was certainly not his best performance. You can make a case for someone deserving an award for cumulative achivement, but then there are even more worthy candidates.
>if someone keeps getting passed up for an award, it just signifies that there are people who deserved the award more
I would be less salty if another author received it over Murakami, but to make the jump to songwriter sets a precedent I don't particularly like. You can make a reasoned argument for authors who deserve it more than Murakami, but to switch genres sort of implies that either all the Nobel caliber authors have been exhausted, or that nobody cares about literature anymore, or that the Nobel committee made this pick to satiate the complaints over the lack of American laureates, and Bob Dylan was the best the US could offer. In any case I find it troubling.
Yes, I totally agree. I like Dylan's music a lot, but I cringed this morning when I read the news. Murakami deserves the prize. I suspect he'll get it one of these years, but I think his body of work has already made the case.
Wild Sheep Chase and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle are also quite good. His tone can vary a lot from book to book, from absurdity (Wild Sheep Chase) to straight up nostalgic, umm, romance(?) (Norwegian Wood).
