The Gallery

Characters

Fictional characters who walk through the conversations. 19 entries.

A

  • Albus DumbledoreEp 4

    The Harry Potter headmaster. A Dumbledore-like figure of higher wisdom pulls Samantha out of her grocery-store lucid dream, and Dumbledore's King's Cross line is cited on whether dreams are…

  • AomameEp 10

    Heroine of 1Q84; Salih cites her as a strong female character, and Tamir recalls her climbing down from the expressway into 1Q84.

C

  • CinnamonEp 10

    The mute son of Nutmeg in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle; the full German retranslation restores additional Cinnamon passages.

  • Colonel Sanders (Kafka on the Shore)Ep 10

    The KFC mascot who appears as a pimp in Kafka on the Shore; Salih reads him and Johnnie Walker as symbols of Western influence on postwar Japan.

  • Creta KanoEp 10

    The psychic's sister in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle who recounts her life of pain to the protagonist, one of Tamir's favorite one-on-one 'portal' scenes.

G

  • GollumEp 3

    Ian modelled his 'needy' shadow on Gollum, embodying the grasping creature at a retreat as a way of bringing that part of himself into the open.

J

  • Johnnie Walker (Kafka on the Shore)Ep 10

    The Red Label whisky figure in Kafka on the Shore, read by Salih as another emblem of Western/American influence through which Murakami processes war trauma.

K

  • Kafka TamuraEp 10

    Fifteen-year-old runaway protagonist of Kafka on the Shore, unusually mature for his age; Salih pairs him with the childlike Nakata as two halves who enter limbo.

  • KikiEp 10

    The woman with the extraordinary ears whom the unnamed narrator searches for in Dance Dance Dance, which Tamir says is the novel's only real plot.

L

  • Lieutenant MamiyaEp 10

    The veteran in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle whose war story about Manchuria Salih links to Murakami's treatment of WWII trauma.

M

  • May KasaharaEp 10

    Teenage neighbour in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, mentioned as the closest the book comes to Murakami's coming-of-age young-love trope.

  • MenshikiEp 10

    The enigmatic wealthy neighbour in Killing Commendatore, Tamir's favorite character; their whisky-and-bell scene exemplifies Murakami's 'portal' conversations.

  • MiuEp 10

    The older woman in Sputnik Sweetheart who, from a stalled Ferris wheel in a French town, sees herself in her apartment and whose hair turns white overnight.

N

  • NakataEp 10

    The elderly man in Kafka on the Shore who lost his faculties in a childhood incident and calls himself stupid. Salih's favorite Murakami character, who 'touched me on a different level'; he…

P

  • Peter RileyEp 6

    Protagonist of Troll, known online as 'Petrol' (inflammatory fuel with 'troll' inside it). He is terrified of an ordinary nine-to-five life and stays neutral on the issues, farming outrage…

S

  • SumireEp 10

    Aspiring novelist in Sputnik Sweetheart; her conversations with the narrator K are Salih's example of Murakami's organic, realistic dialogue.

T

  • TamaruEp 10

    The dowager's bodyguard in 1Q84; Salih's favorite scene is Tamaru dispatching Ushikawa ('Don't take it personal. It's just business').

  • Tengo KawanaEp 10

    Protagonist of 1Q84 whom Tamir describes as out of shape, balding, migraine-plagued and traumatized; his final meeting with his father may echo Murakami's own father.

U

  • UshikawaEp 10

    The investigator in 1Q84 who becomes a point-of-view character in Book 3; a menacing presence finished off by Tamaru with a plastic bag.