Haruki Murakami - Novelist as a Vocation -Comment.

Reading about a successful novelist's career, particularly when they write about themselves, is fascinating to me on many levels. Novelist as a Vocation is really a selection of essays published at various times in the author's life as a writer. 

Murakami's beginnings as a novelist started quite late in his life. I believe he was in his late twenties, owning and managing a jazz club/cafe and doing quite well. One of his great loves is baseball. During a game, he heard that well-known crack of the ball hitting the bat. (one of my favorite sounds) an epiphany "You need to write a novel." His first published work, his first try, was Hear the Wind Sing. This book gave hin critical acclaim as a promising new writer in Japan. 

Murakami's humility is obvious throughout the text. He attributes most of his success to lady luck. Something of a miracle. He writes:

What has been (and continues to be) most important for me is my direct, physical awareness that some special power has given me a chance to write novels. I have been able to grasp that opportunity and, with no little help from Lady Luck, turn it into a career. Looking back, I have no idea who granted me this license, only that someone or something did. All I can say is that I am truly grateful. (p.41.)

As we read the essays, we see his transformation as a novelist. Moving from the first person to the third person came gradually. Kafka on the Shore, for example, combines both. I've read that many great novelists have experienced the same: when creating a character, the character takes over and takes the narrative in a new direction at some point in the writing. One of the great mysteries of the art form. 

Many people ask a novelist about their habits and procedures as a writer. Many are different and somehow the same. A professor I had the pleasure of meeting proclaimed: "Writing is all about rewriting, to then write the whole damn thing again." At the time, I thought this was a bit harsh. All the good writers do this. Joyce, Hemingway, Joyce Carol Oates, and Murakami. It's necessary hard work before the novel is thrown into the world. 

I love Murakami's stories. The man's writing style and subject matter are original. I connect to his characters, life's vagaries, and unanswered questions about our world. 

Novelist as a Vocation is a novelist's account of his writing and view of life.