South of the Border West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

This book was interesting in that it was different from Murakami's typical surrealist writing. There was no other-world manifestation of the mind and there was no implied resolution. This book was imbued with Lacanian (if that's a word) thought. I'm taking a Literary Theory class and we just went through Lacan and I can't help feeling that this book is completely influenced by his theories.

There's this constant sense of incomplete-ness and then there's the comparison between Shimamoto and Izumi - both who influence Hajime in many ways. They seemed to represent both sides of who he was - his better half (so to speak) and his darker side. I suppose a Freudian analysis could be done, but there's this sense that in the end, there is no self -  Hajime doesn't realize or can't realize who he is - he exists but that core of the self doesn't. There can only be some kind of relational way of creating the self and there is only some kind of resolution through his wife, Yukiko.

Anyway, it's all half-baked and I'd have to read it again to really flesh out these thoughts but it was a pretty interesting read, nonetheless.

I do like Murakami's style of writing - this one was less like his typical writing and had more philosophy (or literary theory if you want to make the distinction) embedded in it and I really enjoyed that.

*warning* SPOILER I think that a lot of people wouldn't like this story because there is a sense of incompleteness (which is completely intentional on Murakami's part) but most people don't like stories like that. There seems to be this almost-resolution, but in the end, something in Hajime's self pulls him back.

Anyway, I'm not sure if I'd recommend this book to other people - simply because it doesn't meet typical readers' expectations. I enjoyed it immensely but I always like Murakami's works.