The book-club pick that made Tamir think 'I didn't know a book could do that to me' and pulled him into fiction.
Where it appears 3
the forbidden wonderland of murakamiMurakami's 1985 novel and Tamir's first Murakami (via audiobook, finished on a long walk). Salih ranks it in his top three; both discuss the shadow's goodbye at the end, which Tamir reads aloud, and the shadow's critique of workers drained of emotion during Japan's bubble economy. Tamir notes Murakami reportedly once named it his favorite of his own novels; a new Jay Rubin translation reverses the title.
don't pretend you aren't confusedRecommended in Neil Strauss's pandemic book club, it was Tamir's first Murakami. He listened to it on walks and was floored by the silence afterward. It alternates a programmer storyline with a surreal walled town where a man reads dreams from unicorn skulls; Tamir says it is Murakami's own favorite.
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- Discovering Murakami in a pandemic book club
In early 2020, still reading heavy classics like the Odyssey, the Ramayana and Siddhartha, Tamir joined a book club so he wouldn't control the picks. When Murakami came up, he chose…
- Sad goodbye to the shadow
Salih read Hard-Boiled Wonderland in winter and was left sad and melancholic by the shadow's hard goodbye at the end. Tamir reads the passage aloud and Salih recalls the narrator staring at…
- Tamir's first Murakami on a long walk
During COVID in 2020, Tamir, then reading only business and self-help, joined a book club. After Neil Strauss's online club chose Hard-Boiled Wonderland, Tamir proposed it to his group. He…
- A book club pulled him back to fiction
Tamir, a software entrepreneur with a shelf of non-fiction, joined a book club in 2020 to read fiction. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World made him feel transported, with…