Who We're Reading When We're Reading Murakami. David Karashima
>
Praise for Who We’re Reading When We’re Reading Murakami
“When a work of fiction touches someone, it becomes contagious, swimming into new worlds through the lives and spirits of its readers; when a work of fiction is translated, it is reborn. There is something intensely human in this miraculous process, though that something is often lost in the larger currents that surround it. This book shows us, in all their warmth and sincerity, and through their own earnest words, the people who make translations possible.”
—SAYAKA MURATA,
author of Convenience Store Woman
“An astonishingly thorough and illuminating look at the way that Murakami became recognized, and at all the people—translators in particular—who made it possible by the decisions they made. Karashima’s book is a hands-on and very frank look at the social construction of a literary reputation.”
—BRIAN EVENSON,
author of Song for the Unraveling of the World and Raymond Carver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
“The result of years of research and countless interviews, Who We’re Reading When We’re Reading Murakami offers an engaging, thought-provoking behind-the-scenes look at the people whose enthusiasm, dedication, and vision paved the way for Haruki Murakami’s emergence as one of the world’s great contemporary writers. This book will make you see literature, and translation, in a whole new light.”
—MICHAEL EMMERICH,
translator and author of The Tale of Genji: Translation, Canonization, and World Literature
“Karashima, a Japanese novelist and translator, has conducted a profound riff on the art of translation in considering the work of Haruki Murakami, and how it differs in English from its original publications in Japanese. Like William H. Gass’s book, Reading Rilke, this will probably become a must read for translators and fans of Murakami alike.”
—JOHN FREEMAN,
author of Dictionary of the Undoing
“Murakami fans will particularly revel in Karashima’s comprehensive coverage, but anyone curious about the alchemy and sheer amount of work that goes into making a single author’s success will be entranced by this fascinating work.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A lively account of the many people involved in bringing Haruki Murakami’s writings to English-speaking readers . . . A fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of publishing.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“A fascinatingly detailed account that enables the reader to gradually grasp how winding and tricky the trail bends from one culture to another, and how dependent individual literary success is on the creative and logistical whims of a selected team of enablers . . . A book not so much about 村上春樹, the Japanese writer, but rather about ‘Haruki Murakami,’ the English variant of his moniker, and also not-so-coincidentally the brand name that has spread throughout the whole globe . . . About how international bridges are built, one sympathetic brick at a time.”
—nihongobookreview
Who We’re Reading When We’re Reading Murakami
Copyright © 2020 by David Karashima
All rights reserved
First Soft Skull edition: 2020
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Karashima, David James, author.
Title: Who we’re reading when we’re reading Murakami / David Karashima.
Description: First Soft Skull edition. | New York : Soft Skull, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020010744 | ISBN 9781593765897 (paperback) | ISBN 9781593765903 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Murakami, Haruki, 1949– —Criticism and interpretation. | Murakami, Haruki, 1949– —Relations with editors. | Murakami, Haruki, 1949– —Translations—History and criticism. | Literature publishing—Japan—History—20th century.
Classification: LCC PL856.U673 Z7555 2020 | DDC 895.63/5—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020010744
Cover design & Soft Skull art direction by salu.io
Book design by Jordan Koluch
Published by Soft Skull Press
1140 Broadway, Suite 704
New York, NY 10001
Printed in the United States of America
13579108642
For M, H, and T
Contents
1. Pinball, 1973 and Hear the Wind Sing
The Making of a “Bohemian” Translator
Elmer Luke “Starts the Engine”
Kyoto to New York (By Way of Cambridge, New Mexico, and Philadelphia)