Haruki Murakami: The Magic of Simplicity

With elegant prose, Haruki Murakami conjures magical worlds overlaying ours. Murakami's style of magical realism uses simple language to express feelings of loneliness and nostalgia.

We take a closer look at samples from his works:

Norwegian Wood
Kafka on the Shore
After Dark
A Wild Sheep Chase
1Q84
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Follow me on Twitter for frequent updates:

Special thanks to the incredible Kudasaibeats for his music in the video and all other content creators that made the video possible.

You can check out Kudasaibeats here:

Introduction: (0:00)
Part 1 | Elegance in Simplicity: (1:04)
Kafka on the Shore Reading: (3:45)
After Dark Reading: (5:12)
Norwegian Wood Introduction: (7:50)
Part 2 | Understanding Norwegian Wood: (9:04)
Norwegian Wood Theory | Reiko Ishida: (15:55)
Part 3 | Selected Works and Reception: (20:00)
Conclusion: (27:00)

[Mikadonja]

Great essay! You're bringing up many points that I never considered. Maybe it's time for a reread of these wonderful pieces of literature.

[Natalia]

I love how he writes about cooking pasta, making coffee or any food...

[ZephZero]

Murakami's work sounds like jazz. Free and emphasizing mood.

[Darkking-osft]

Idk what it is but he details it so beautiful that you feel like you want to be in that and after you are the reading it settles in that you not there but you felt it, its jow beautifully he writes it just brings peace to my soul.

[carmentrabulo]

I've just finished reading 1Q84 and I was hypnotized by the simplicity of his writing and the magical atmosphere. I am totally under Murakami´s writing spell!

[fufu]

If you look closely to that Norwegian Wood cover. They're not just trees. They are 3 sets of feet.
Toru, Naoko, Kizuki.
Toru, Naoko, Midori.
Toru, Nagasawa, Hatsumi
Toru, Naoko, Reiko

[joatanpereira]

Prepare to blow up. Amazing editing, calm voice and great sound quality, but most importantly: PERFECT essay. The algorithm lords will definitely help you. Good luck.

[goldenqueens]

I'm not a native English speaker and I enjoyed reading Haruki short stories. Simple words, entertaining and open my eyes to many thing and let me feel like I belong to his stories because they represent many of us lives. I finally found my favorite author ❤

[sonamlamo]

I'm a big murakami fan, the first book I've read was Kafka on the shore and the experience I had while reading that book was surreal, I felt like I was experience everything Kafka taimura was going through, the library, the cottage in the woods, the forest every thing and ofcourse Nakata was my favourite .. then I've real Norwegian woods idk why it's so hyped the writing is 100/10 murakami way of writing is something else like psychedelic but the story was okay Midori is my favourite character in Norwegian woods and now I'm currently on the wind up bird chronicle and I can't explain what it's impact on me going through a worst phase of my life and this is the only book that keeping me through this phase .. for me murakami books are psychedelic without taking any psychedelic my mind is alter and my heart feels beauty of every day life

[庫倫亞利克]

Murakami's works all have a dreamlike/Oneiric feeling to them, which I'm trying really hard to imitate.

[tejasyadav]

I think you perfectly mirrored Murakami's style of writing in the video. Simple and elegant. This was a great video!

[MilesWilliams]

I picked up Norwegian Wood about 6 months ago. It made me fall in love with his writing. It's so simple, but equally beautiful. I've read Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Wind-Pinball, and I'm about 200 pages into 1Q84. So far my favorite has been Wind-Up Bird. What a wonderful book that is! Kafka on the Shore is amazing too! Wind-Pinball is the only work of his that I haven't been crazy about, but it's understandable, being his first two novellas.

[uriah]

I've known about him for a few months now but i just recently bought his book: "First Person Singular".

[robbiewinkler]

Thank you for making this video. I often feel that it is so difficult to put into words what it means to read Murakami, but you have done an excellent job.

[richardedward]

My only Murakami book - 1Q84. read it a year ago. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Unforgettable.

[kidshealthbydrarpita]

It's a different vibe altogether...you just get in to a magical world .... Detailing of everything...may it be a person or a food item is just just mesmerizing

[jane]

I think Murakami's works are in between.
You either like it or hate it. I have met some people in life who agitated that they found it whimsical, over described like an overdressed salad. I don't argue about it with them.

Murakami's books feel like a door. You open it not knowing the landscape within. You embark the dark forest or white forest letting go of all your conscious living. It's surrealism at its extreme to me. I could not sleep for months after reading Kafka on the shore. I love cat's too much that everytime I see a cat running in the streets, I think of Johnny Walker, lurking somewhere with cat food. It's never too much.
I write too. And before I met Murakami's works I thought no one would like my surrealist works but it gave me a sense of proportion." The book chooses its reader"

[rainyjazz]

I started to love him when I was 16 years old. Now I am close to my 40s. Where time flies?

[tentativelonginus]

I used to not enjoy reading books unless they were history books or educational in some way, I’m the kind of guy who can’t imagine the image of an apple in his head so most descriptions felt very vague and unfamiliar to me so I could never relate enough to devour books.
Later in life a friend recommended Murakami, Norwegian Wood to be precise, and his descriptions were so precise yet simple that I could imagine them, his love for music in all his books is also something I can relate to but above all what I really love is how he writes characters, what they go through and how they develop, the simples joys in life, love and how destructive life can be. I’ve since read a bunch of his books and his short stories and I love every single one of them (except maybe Sputnik Sweetheart, that one was enjoyable but not a favorite). With Murakami I feel like I’m reading something that happened in real life even when it gets so silly like a man who can talk to cats and summons fish from the sky. My personal favorite is Men without Women, to this day it remains the most powerful bunch of short stories I’ve ever read and they’ve left a deep mark in me.

[vinyoung]

I really liked this video. I think it is going to help me a lot in my writing. “Write simpler”. I need more of that. I am Half Japanese, and I connected deeply to this video. Thank you for educating me about a Japanese author I haven’t read yet, but now will! :)