Due to leaving the computer at work, debilitating migraines, compulsive house-hunting, and Zelda walk-throughs for Ellie, I am super-late on this post! But to be honest, it's also because I didn't know what to say about this book. Haruki Murakami's Underground. It was such an emotional book, and it caught me off guard. For a while, I just didn't know what to say. When I started this book, I didn't even know what it was about, and you probably don't either, so I'll give you some back-story. On March 20 of 1995, a cult called Aum released a toxic gas in the subway system in Tokyo. The gas was sarin, which has been classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the UN. Hundreds of people were injured, and several died. Obviously, a book with domestic terrorism as its subject matter would be pretty sad. However, Murakami knows how to get under your skin with the story. Should I be calling this a story? It's actually a series of interviews, interspersed with Murakami's own thoughts. The interviews are of people who were on the subway that day. Details about their lives, their families, everything they saw or tasted or smelled. How it's still affecting their lives now. It's so personal, so intimate, that I sometimes felt like I was intruding. And then come the interviews with the Aum cult members... and they are pretty personal, as well. And more than a little uncomfortable. Even though there are plenty of instances of absolute idiocy in the Aum interviews, there are just as many that I could empathize with, if not relate to on a personal level. All in all, it's an interesting window into Japanese culture, and a window into all of human culture: how we see eachother, how we hurt eachother, the ways we grieve, and the places we find comfort.
I wish I had more to say about it, but I think I'll be processing this book for a while. Read it, and let me know what you think!
Tomorrow, farmer's market and canning!
