After The Quake: Stories
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after the quake (神の子どもたちはみな踊る, Kami no Kodomo-tachi wa Mina Odoru, lit. \"All God's Children Can Dance\") is a collection of six short stories by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, written between 1999 and 2000. First published in Japan in 2000, it was released in English as after the quake in 2002 (translator Jay Rubin notes that Murakami \"insisted\" the title \"should be all lower-case\").[1]
The stories were written in response to Japan's 1995 Kobe earthquake, and each story is affected peripherally by the disaster. Along with Underground, a collection of interviews and essays about the 1995 Tokyo gas attacks, and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, a complex exploration of Japan's modern history, after the quake represents part of an effort on the part of Murakami to adopt a more purposeful exploration of the Japanese national conscience.
The stories in after the quake repeat motifs, themes, and elements common in much of Murakami's earlier short stories and novels, but also present some notable stylistic changes. All six stories are told in the third person, as opposed to Murakami's much more familiar first person narrative established in his previous work. Additionally, only one of the stories contains clear supernatural elements, which are present in the majority of Murakami's stories. All of the stories are set in February 1995, the month between the Kobe earthquake and the Tokyo gas attacks. Translator Jay Rubin says of the collection, \"The central characters in after the quake live far from the physical devastation, which they witness only on TV or in the papers, but for each of them the massive destruction unleashed by the earth itself becomes a turning point in their lives. They are forced to confront an emptiness they have borne inside them for years.\"[2]
Komura, an early-thirties salesman living in Tokyo, comes home from work five days after the quake to find that his wife of five years has left him. She leaves a note saying that living with him is like living with a \"chunk of air\" and that other women would be lucky to be with him down the road. About a week later, he takes a week-long leave of absence. Before he leaves work that day, his friend Sasaki asks him if he would like to take an all-expenses-paid trip to Kushiro to deliver a small package to Sasaki's sister Keiko; he says yes.
At the airport, he is greeted by Keiko and her friend Shimao. After a slight confusion regarding Keiko thinking that his wife has died rather than left him, they go to a noodle house for a meal. There, the two women tell him the story of how a woman left her husband after a UFO sighting. Afterwards, the three go to a love hotel; Keiko knows the owner and says he can stay there for the duration of his trip. After taking a bath, he finds that Keiko has left, leaving him and Shimao alone. He asks Shimao about a \"bear story\" he heard them mention earlier; she tells him the story: when Shimao was in high school, she and her boyfriend had sex in the woods and they perpetually rang a bell during intercourse to keep bears away. After finishing the story, she goes to take a bath.
At the beach they talk about a number of things, including the recent quake, Miyake's Kansai dialect, and why Miyake likes lighting bonfires on the beach. Junko also thinks about Jack London's \"To Build a Fire\" and her contrarian interpretation of how the man fundamentally longs for death. They also drink Suntory together; Keisuke leaves after a few drinks leaving Junko and Miyake alone. The two then talk about Miyake's family and a recent painting Miyake finished, Landscape with Flatiron, and its cryptic meaning. As the bonfires dies, they talk about dreams and death; Miyake says he often dreams that he horrifyingly dies trapped in a refrigerator and mentions that Jack London also thought he was going to drown to death so he killed himself with morphine instead. As they sit together thinking about death, Junko drifts to sleep.
Yoshiya goes to work late after waking up with a hangover. That evening, while transferring between subway lines to get home, he sees a man in his mid-fifties who has a missing earlobe and decides to follow him surreptitiously.
Before she returns home, she gives Nimit a gift of $100 and asks if he wants to have coffee; he agrees. While they drink at the cafe, she begins to tell the story of her father but Nimit interrupts her and tells her to have her dream first. He then tells the story of her former employer, a Norwegian gem dealer from Lapland; Satsuki wonders if they were lovers. He then tells the story of how polar bears mate once a year and how the males run away afterwards and both wonder about the existential meaning of the story. As the plane takes off, Satsuki thinks of a fond jazz piece as she falls asleep.
A few days after the quake, a six-feet-tall frog waits for Katagiri to come home from work. Frog tells Katagiri that he is going to save Tokyo from an earthquake and needs his help. Katagiri learns that he can help by cheering for Frog as he battles with a Worm under the Tokyo Security Trust Bank, Katagiri's workplace. To prove his loyalty to Katagiri, Frog resolves a bank case for him; after this, Katagiri agrees to help Frog. They plan to meet on February 17 (the day before Worm will cause the earthquake) under the bank but on that day as Katagiri is returning to the bank from his rounds, he is \"shot.\"
Junpei grew up in Nishinomiya and, after graduating from high school, went to study literature at Waseda University. During his first term there, he meets Takatsuki and Sayoko; the three become close friends. Not wanting to ruin their friendship, he suppresses his feelings for Sayoko. A few months later, he learns that Takatsuki asked Sayoko out. He is unsure how to feel, but does not harbor any enmity towards Takatsuki; however, he stops showing up for class. Worried, Sayoko shows up at his place to check up on him and convinces him to return to school. After graduation, Junpei finds solace in writing short stories and submitting them for publication. His parents also discover that he lied to them about studying business and they disown him; nonetheless his literary careers shows promise. Sayoko studies literature in graduate school and Takatsuki becomes a journalist. Sayoko becomes pregnant with Sala shortly after she turns thirty and shortly before Sala is born, Takatsuki reveals that he knows Sayoko likes Junpei more than she likes him when they were in school; nonetheless, he admits that she is the \"greatest woman in the world.\"
BBC Radio 3 broadcast a dramatized adaptation of after the quake on September 16, 2007.[3] The single 88 minute episode covered four of the six stories from the book: UFO in Kushiro, Thailand, Super-Frog Saves Tokyo and Honey Pie.
Honey Pie and Superfrog Saves Tokyo have been adapted for the stage and directed by Frank Galati. Entitled after the quake, the play was first performed at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in association with La Jolla Playhouse, and opened October 12, 2007 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.[4]
Charles, I am touched that you posted a response to my question AND so quickly. Thank you. Your descriptions of some of the stories reminded me of Banana Yoshimoto's stories in \"Asleep\"...which I loved. I am checking out \"after the quake\" from the library today.
Murakami is one of my favorite writers. Thanks for the post, Charles. I especially enjoyed his stories from the The Elephant Vanishes including \"On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning\" and \"The Second Bakery Attack.\" While there is still the sense of disconnection and emptiness, the stories are far more hopeful.
Do you think that Murakami explores a sense of questioning one's purpose through the characters in these stories I believe that all of the characters reassess their lives through explorations of their past. They all seem to be at a turning point in their lives in which they accept or attempt to change their futures. I think the ideas of imagination and dreams repeated in these stories are used by the author to emphasize this.Do you think that an event such as an earthquake works to draw his characters to similar conclusions I have a sense that Thailand is reflective of Murakami's own experiences.
The English title of this collection, After the Quake, refers to the devastating earthquake that hit Japan in 1995, centered around Kobe in the Kansai region. It is not one of the story titles, but rather a summing-up overview. (The Japanese title is the same as one of the stories, \"All God's Children can Dance\".) The earthquake is a presence in each of the stories, an event that is mentioned and that has had some sort of lingering (though usually only tangential) effect on at least some of the characters. Murakami never really ventures to earthquake-country, or describes what the effects were there: he is more interested in the larger effects, on the country as a whole and those peripherally affected. The earthquake is merely another symptom of the general unease and uncertainty faced by contemporary Japan. There are six stories in this small collection. Most of it is the usual Murakami-stuff: lost souls, odd encounters, late nights, unlikely and inexplicable creatures and occurrences, some jazz music, some unfulfilled love, disappearances, and at least one Murakami-like author. The book is sparsely populated: characters often meet late at night or in isolation. There are few crowds, and people have few friends. Particularly striking is the trust found in the novel, with strangers forming unlikely bonds. Friendships also are reliable, the rare bond (unlike marriage or family relationships) that holds. But even where there are divorces these are not rancorous. Murakami's interpersonal relationships are pleasant but so unlike most people's experience that they help give the collection a very surreal feel. In \"UFO in Kushiro\" the central character's wife leaves him, a sudden and complete break -- without, of course, any personal confrontation: he just returns home to find she has gone. The man, Komura, then travels to Hokkaido at the suggestion of a colleague, who has him deliver a mysterious small box. The Kobe earthquake plays a large role here, both in his wife's leaving and as a reflection of his own unsettled state. \"Landscape with Flatiron\" is dominated by a late-night beachside bonfire lighting. Not much happens, the most tense moments involving the question of whether the collected driftwood will catch fire. Yet it still manages to be a nice reflection of youthful life and concerns:What's important is now. Who knows when the world is gonna end Who can think about the future In \"All God's Children can Dance\" Yoshiya is the son of a woman who found religion (and is, during the story, down in Kansai helping with the earthquake relief). He only learnt the 'secret' of his mysterious birth when he was seventeen. Here he believes to see the man who might be his father. He follows him, and finds release from some of what oppressed him. The story verges on the mystical. \"Thailand\" represents a rare foreign foray for Murakami. After attending a conference, Satsuki takes a vacation at a resort. Her driver, Nimit, is the perfect care-taker for her, taking her to a secluded swimming pool away from the hotel where she can rest and swim in peace. Nimit is also an unusual man, having worked for thirty years for a Norwegian who fled to Thailand. The two form an odd bond, and help each other in a way. Again, the story moves towards the mystical. \"Super-Frog saves Tokyo\" tells of an odd relationship between Katagiri and a frog that appears to him and asks him to help save Tokyo from an earthquake far more devastating than the one in Kansai. What sounds ridiculous at first unfolds in neat turns into a surprisingly appealing tale, each advance never quite the expected one. Note also that the frog is just called \"Frog\" or \"Mr.Frog\" in the story itself; the name \"Super-Frog\" is from another story, \"All God's Children can Dance\": it is what Yoshiya's girlfriend called him in college ..... Frog -- who spouts Nietzsche and reads the Russian greats -- tells Katagiri:The whole terrible fight occurred in the area of imagination. That is the precise location of our battlefield. It is there that we experience our victories and our defeats. So it is often in Murakami's work, but here far more explicitly than usual. The final story, \"Honey Pie\", presents a familiar wistful Murakami-scenario: an odd threesome (two men who love one woman), a small child (to whom stories are told), and a somewhat successful writer. The writer is looking to the new -- in his personal life, in what he wants to write. He takes a first stab at action, but it's never that easy. Here an 'Earthquake Man' interferes ..... But there is hope at the end. A nice collection, more resonant than it might first appear. Deceptively simple, with the familiar Murakami tropes, there is more to these stories than first meets the eye. 59ce067264
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