The pilgrimage of the colorless Mr. Tazaki

The Pilgrimage Years of the Colorless Lord Tazaki ( Japanese 色彩 を 持 た な い 多 崎 つ く る と 、 彼 の 巡礼 の 年 , Shikisai o Motanai Tazaki Tsukuru to, Kare no Junrei no Toshi ) is a novel by the Japanese author Haruki Murakami . On April 12, 2013, three years after its predecessor 1Q84 , the novel was published in Japan and was published in Germany the following year in a translation by Ursula Graefe . From January 27 to February 2, 2014, this was number 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list .

The book sold more than 100,000 copies on the day of publication and had a first edition of 600,000 copies, which was also increased several times and amounted to a million copies published after a week.

content

After studying engineering, 36-year-old Tsukuru Tazaki lives in private seclusion in Tokyo and concentrates entirely on his job, the renovation of railway buildings. He is still suffering from the shock he suffered 16 years ago from the sudden rejection by his four high school friends, two boys and two girls, and the breakup of their relationship, which plunged him into a deep life crisis and great loneliness. He ponders the only mysterious reason given by one of the boys, he knows the reason. Now he has met a woman, Sara, and she advises him to finally come to terms with the past through research before intensifying their connection. So he visits his former friends in Nagoya and Finland one after the other and slowly gets to the bottom of the truth. He learns from Ao and Aka that Shiro accused him of rape while visiting Tokyo. She had mentally crashed and was murdered six years ago. The fourth in the group, Kuro, lives in Finland. She knows the connections: Shiro was traumatized after being raped and was permanently mentally disturbed. She apparently mixed the act with ideas from high school, because both girls were in love with the shy Tsukuru. She, Kuro, had to support her sick friend in the conflict situation and cut off the connection with him.

Acting characters

• Tsukuru Tazaki is the 36-year-old protagonist. He has had a passion for train stations since childhood and works for a railway company in Tokyo.
• Kei Akamatsu (Aka) lives in Nagoya and runs a company that holds seminars for employees.
• Yoshio Oumi (Ao) lives in Nagoya and is a car dealer.
• Yuzuki Shirane (Shiro) is a late piano teacher.
• Eri Kurono Haatainen (Kuro) is a potter who married a Finn who came to Japan to learn to make pottery. The couple later moved to Finland.
• Sara Kimoto, Tazaki's girlfriend, is two years older than him. She works in a travel agency in Tokyo.
• Haida is a student friend of Tazaki who disappeared from Tazaki's life without comment and apparently in a planned manner.

Motifs

As is often the case in Murakami's novels, music plays a major role, piano music by Franz Liszt - Années de pèlerinage (Pilgrimage Years). “Le Mal du Pays” (“Homesickness”), the eighth piece from the first volume "Première année: Suisse" (First year: Switzerland), is a recurring motif.

reception

The book polarizes literary criticism in the German feature pages. The critic of the TAZ is of the opinion that it is a typical Murakami novel, to which he “'Literature of the lowest common denominator': Star Wars sayings pass through as Zen wisdom, an intercultural mix ensures global connectivity made of sushi, Liszt and Finnish design. ”, while the critic from the Süddeutsche Zeitung is impressed by the“ emotional power ”of the novel.

Sebastian Hammelehle from Spiegel is fascinated by the “narrative and aesthetic clarity of the condensed story of a self-discovery”. The book shows that Murakami is unrivaled worldwide, and the novel is "the condensed proof of his art".

For Karl-Markus Gauss from the NZZ , on the other hand, it is difficult to understand “that this novel, riddled with philosophical platitudes, not only tops all the bestseller lists, but has also been critically acclaimed all over the country ...” However, he has a talent, readers where always they open the "pilgrimage", to help out with a sentence that they could write in the poetry album of related young people.

expenditure

• Haruki Murakami: The Pilgrimage Years of Colorless Mr. Tazaki. Translated from the Japanese by Ursula Gräfe. Cologne 2015, 318 pages. Dumont, ISBN 978-3-8321-9748-3

Web links

• Reviews in Perlentaucher.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 村上 春樹 さ ん 新刊 、 早 く も 増 刷 売 り 切 れ 続 出 で １０ 万 部 . In: Asahi Shimbun. April 12, 2013. Retrieved January 22, 2014 (Japanese). 
2. ↑ 村上 春樹 さ ん 新 作 、 １００ 万 部 到達 品 薄 状態 続 く . In: Asahi Shimbun. April 18, 2013, accessed January 22, 2014 (Japanese). 
3. ↑ all quotes from Perlentaucher.de
4. ↑ Sebastian Hammelehle: The pilgrimage years of the colorless Mr. Tazaki: There you are again, Murakami girl! In: Der Spiegel online culture. January 8, 2014. online
5. ^ Karl-Markus Gauss: Depth with wide surfaces. Haruki Marukami's "Pilgrimage Years of Colorless Mr. Tazaki", celebrated for puzzling reasons. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. No. 46. February 25, 2014. p. 21.