When
I read multiple books by a particular author I start to feel as if,
rather than being set in a new world each time, each successive book
takes place in a land in which all of that author's previous books are
true-life stories. For example, if I was reading David Copperfield I
would fully imagine the events of Oliver Twist to be known in that
world, to the point where Copperfield could walk past the Artful Dodger
in the street and continue on minus his wallet. When I recently read
Haruki Murakami's Dance Dance Dance, the characters of Murakami's other
books (the few I've read) came vividly back to life and left me
desperate to read them again. Even 1Q84, which I was a bit disappointed
with, became much more than the sum of its parts when placed in the
fantastical world inhabited by all his other characters.
I
used to think that if I went to Japan it would satisfy my desire to
visit Murakami-land, but I've come to realise that this clearly isn't
the case, that the world Murakami writes about is much bigger than
real-life Japan. It's not just the fantasy in his writing that sets him
apart from reality: even the bare bones of his vision is something far
removed from anywhere you could ever visit. I'd love to see his
characters interacting across novels. This is something I've always
loved about Bret Easton Ellis' work, how a bit-part character in one
novel can become the central protagonist of his next, how various
inhabitants of his world are name-dropped in books that don't concern
them at all, making the fantasy all the more a reality. Maybe a meeting
of Murakami main characters could become a bit confusing, since they're
always thirty-year-old-odd plain men who have no idea what's happening
around them, but a face-off between the psychics, murderers,
high-powered businesswomen, sheep-men, and prostitutes they hang around
with would make a great party.
