Pinball, 1973

The Rat #2

by Haruki Murakami, Alfred Birnbaum (Translator)

The plot centers on the narrator's brief but intense obsession with pinball, his life as a freelance translator, and his later efforts to reunite with the old pinball machine that he used to play. He describes living with a pair of identical unnamed female twins, who mysteriously appear in his apartment one morning, and disappear at the end of the book. Interspersed with the narrative are his memories of the Japanese student movement, and of his old girlfriend Naoko. The plot alternates between describing the life of narrator and that of his friend, The Rat.

Genres: Fiction, Japanese Literature, Japan, Magical Realism, Contemporary, Novels, Literature

215 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1980

About the author

Haruki Murakami (村上春樹) is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been best-sellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Gunzo Prize for New Writers, the World Fantasy Award, the Tanizaki Prize, Yomiuri Prize for Literature, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Noma Literary Prize, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Kiriyama Prize for Fiction, the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Fiction, the Jerusalem Prize, and the Princess of Asturias Awards.
Growing up in Ashiya, near Kobe before moving to Tokyo to attend Waseda University, he published his first novel Hear the Wind Sing (1979) after working as the owner of a small jazz bar for seven years. His notable works include the novels Norwegian Wood (1987), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994–95), Kafka on the Shore (2002) and 1Q84 (2009–10); the last was ranked as the best work of Japan's Heisei era (1989–2019) by the national newspaper Asahi Shimbun's survey of literary experts. His work spans genres including science fiction, fantasy, and crime fiction, and has become known for his use of magical realist elements. His official website cites Raymond Chandler, Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan as key inspirations to his work, while Murakami himself has named Kazuo Ishiguro, Cormac McCarthy and Dag Solstad as his favourite currently active writers. Murakami has also published five short story collections, including First Person Singular (2020), and non-fiction works including Underground (1997), an oral history of the Tokyo subway sarin attack, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (2007), a memoir about his experience as a long distance runner.
His fiction has polarized literary critics and the reading public. He has sometimes been criticised by Japan's literary establishment as un-Japanese, leading to Murakami's recalling that he was a "black sheep in the Japanese literary world". Meanwhile, Murakami has been described by Gary Fisketjon, the editor of Murakami's collection The Elephant Vanishes (1993), as a "truly extraordinary writer", while Steven Poole of The Guardian praised Murakami as "among the world's greatest living novelists" for his oeuvre.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

Haruki Murakami tends to write two kinds of novel: ones with a story and ones without; Pinball, 1973 is unfortunately the latter.

A translator with twin live-in girlfriends (I know, just humour the author’s sad wish fulfilment fantasy) develops an obsession with pinball, specifically a pinball machine called Spaceship. One day his machine disappears. He half-heartedly goes looking for it…. zzz…

This is part of Murakami’s Rat series where a character called The Rat appears. It’s even more underwhelming than it sounds. The Rat is just a moody barfly who drinks beer and doesn’t do much else – I really don’t know why Murakami kept putting him in books as a recurring character given how dull he was. It’s not even clear why he’s called The Rat, unless it’s a description of his general uselessness.

The Rat chapters read like the worst kind of pretentious arthouse movie scenes – he drinks, he smokes, he says inane drivel that I guess is intended to be profound wisdom – and I have no idea what his inclusion added to the novel; far as I can tell, it’s nothing.

There are bits and pieces of the book that are intermittently interesting like the section on the country well digger, the history of the pinball manufacturer and the twins, who were just strange as they didn’t seem real. And the book overall is as clearly written as most of Murakami’s work is.

This being Murakami’s second novel, readers familiar with his later, much better books will recognise here what will become trademarks of his storytelling style: cats, wells, jazz, The Beatles (the book closes with the protagonist playing Rubber Soul, the second track of which, Norwegian Wood, would become the title of his breakthrough novel).

His female characters though remain as one-dimensional as ever. Besides a minor character at the start, none of the female characters are named – the interpreter’s colleague is simply referred to as “the girl”, as is the college girl in his flashback, while the twins are numbers, 208 and 209!

I’ve tried deciphering it but I’m completely clueless as to what this one was supposed to be about. The narrator talks about meeting people from Saturn and Venus at the start, the pinball machine is called Spaceship, so… ? Is the pinball machine meant to symbolise something, like a lost love – is that what that hallucinatory sequence at the end was about? No real point is established and the book just stops so it’s fairly unsatisfying. What I’ll charitably call “the story” as a whole was a bit too obtuse for me and could’ve been more focused.

It wasn’t a total bust but Pinball, 1973 is definitely one of Haruki Murakami’s lesser novels – fans only. For those who’d like to start reading Murakami, I recommend checking out A Wild Sheep Chase or The Strange Library instead.

[Liong · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just updated the book edition to match the original one I read.

I read this Taiwan edition after finishing almost all of Murakami’s English-translated books.

I collect Haruki Murakami's works. 😍

[Jenna ❤ ❀ ❤ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, what a ride! 

This is the second book in Haruki Murakami's "The Rat" tetralogy, and the fourth I read. I love this guy's writing! 

While reading these books, I kept wondering what it is that I love so much. It's not that there's this awesome plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat. In fact, there's not much of a plot at all. The story just goes along without a whole lot happening, and yet these books are mesmerizing and un-put-downable. 

I couldn't seem to pinpoint what it is about these books that are almost addictive, so I did what I always do when I don't know something. I googled it.

To the question "Why is Haruki Murakami so appealing?":

Antonio Muñoz-Torralbo gave this answer on Quora, "He is able to create a magic atmosphere that allows the reader [to be] immersed into the story forgetting everything he/she has around. Then Murakami's plots are interesting and easy to understand, there are not too many actors and the story flows steadily providing surprises in a gradual form".

And from a review of this book by Ian Sansom in The Guardian, "What keeps the reader engaged are the Murakamian swerves, the long shots, the non sequiturs and the odd adjacencies".

I agree with both these men and thank them for putting it into words for me. Murakami has a unique and magical style that is entrancing. He's probably not for everyone and seems to be one of those authors people either love or hate. I'm obviously in the former category.

In my review of the first book Hear the Wind Sing, I suggested starting the series with book 3. Now, having read book 2, I will amend that. I think the order to read is 2,1,3,4.  In the first we meet the Rat, but we get to know him much more in this second book. He does not play so heavily in the 3rd and 4th books but I think it would have been good to know him before reading those. 

Anyway, no matter the order they're read, these are just some really good books!

[Maziar MHK · Rating 3 out of 5]

از این جور خنده ها که از دختری انتظار داری که تویِ مدرسه همیشه بیست گرفته، ولی به یک دلیلِ نامعلومِ عجیبی، خنده اَش تا مدتی طولانی بعدِ رفتنش هم هنوز مانده بود، عینِ خنده یِ گربه هِه تویِ آلیس در سرزمین عجایب. - صفحه 11


اولاََ
این دومین اثری بود که از موراکامی خواندم. من یکی که تا اینجا، "موراکامی" را به اصلِ هماهنگیِ قلمِ شیوا و ذهنِ زیبایش شناخته اَم. اصلی که کتابِ حاضر هم از آن مستثنا نبود. متنِ پین بال 1973، هرچند به صورتی مقبول ترجمه شده اما از قرارِ معلوم، سانسورِ شدیدی را از سَر گُذرانده و همین هم باعث شده تا خطِ داستانی اَش، اندکی بی سَروتَه به نظر برسد. توصیف و تصویرِ موراکامی از ثانیه هایِ زندگی، گاهی چنان ساده، عجیب وصَدالبته غیر منتظره اَند که انگاری تویِ دل کویرِ مسیرِ یزد-میبد، یِکهو نمک آبرودی دلفریب و سَرسبز ظاهر شده و طوری تِکانت دهد که یادت بروَد این دو اقلیم را به هَم چِکار؟!. این کتابِ موراکامی مثلِ "کجا می توانم پیدایش کنم"، در قیاس با ذهنیتی که تعریف و تمجیدهای رُفقا از او برایم ساخته، هنوز فاصله ها دارد. امیدوارم زودتر از آنی که باید، موراکامی برایَم "ما+را+کامی" شود و کامی ازخوش خوانیِ دیگر آثارش به ما بدهد

دوم
چند مشخصه یِ نثرِ موراکامی را حینِ مطالعه یادداشت کرده بودم که حقاََ زاده یِ شِلتاقِ توامانِ ذهنِ باز و قلمِ نازِ اوست، که البته، هر یک را با شاهدِ مثالی از متن اینجا می آورم

الف- تَلنگر به درکِ ظرافت و"غیرعادی" بودن بسیاری از روزمرگی هایِ ناشی از تکرار

اگر طرزِ فکرِ کسِ دیگری خیلی متفاوت از من بود دیوانه می شدم، اگر خیلی نزدیک بود، غمگین. کُلِ ماجرا همین بود. - صفحه52

ب- توصیفاتِ فانتزی و حیرت آوری که از بَس دوست داشتنی اَند، معنایِ "واقعیت" را در اَذهان به چالش می کشند

درونِ سیاهیِ ظُلمانیِ قلبش، چیزی رو آمده بود، مثل باریکه ای دودِ سفید از شمعی خاموش شده، و بعد ناپدید شده بود

ج-شوخی با شوخی ناپذیرترینِ مفاهیم -چون مرگ و نیستی- ، که درثانیه و آنی، آدمی را غَرقه یِ خویشتنِ خویش می سازد

بیشتر از نصفِ مساحتِ گورستان خالی بود، چون آدم هایی که برنامه داشتند آن جاها بیارامَند، هنوز زنده بودند و بعد از ظهرهایِ یکشنبه، همراه خانواده هایِ شان می آمدند تا محلِ قبرهایی که قرار بود اِشغال کنند، نگاهی بیاندازند. - صفحه 71

د-ریختنِ فلسفی ترین ایده ها در ساده ترین قالب های روایی

چیزی که قراره از دست بِرِه، هیچ معنی ای نمی تونه داشته باشه. افتخاری که موقتی باشه، اصلاََ افتخار واقعی نیست. - ص124

[Mark Porton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haruki Murakami writes about the ordinary, the bland, and he makes it readable and enjoyable. I am riveted reading this stuff. This ordinary world he paints throws up some extra-ordinarily bizarre events. Non sequiturs of the highest order are thrown around too.

Life can be like that, hey?

Pinball, 1973 (The Rat #2) follows on from Hear the Wind (The Rat #1) with the nameless narrator and his drinking buddy The Rat, spending considerable time at the bar tended by “J”. Again, there is a lot of smoking and drinking beer in this novella. Murakami sometimes describes the act of smoking or lighting a cigarette in great detail – just as a person (in real-life) may sometimes observe these actions in great detail, maybe unintentionally.

The themes here are similar to The Rat #1 these include, loneliness, loss, relationships, and the ordinariness of life. There is a striking blandness of the lives of our main characters. Interestingly, this is interspersed with some truly unusual happenings – such as our narrator one day finding twin sisters in his bed, they stay with him for two months, they all sleep together. However, the author mainly focusses on the fact they make good coffee and spend their time looking for balls at the golf course ‘next door’. He also started a thriving translation business, the admin assistant has a penchant for repairing holes in the armpits of his sweaters. But, our guy never seems happy, or sad – just neutral, indifferent and cruising through life.

Where there is an entrance, there is usually an exit. That’s the way things are made. Mailboxes, vacuum cleaners, zoos, saltshakers. Of course, there are exceptions. Mousetraps for instance.

However, the one thing he does seem passionate about is pinball. He played a particular machine at J’s bar, and developed quite a skill for it, the machine was called ‘Spaceship’ and had three flippers (3 flippers back then was new and exciting - believe me).

One day, the machine isn’t there – so our protagonist engages the services of a university lecturer in Spanish to search for this machine – bizarre right? I think this is one thing our main character is truly obsessed about.

Almost nothing can be gained from pinball. The only payoff is a numerical substitution of pride.

Murakami’s musings of pinball are considerable – something I can relate to as I played a lot of pinball, usually on Sunday nights during my university days. I remember those days fondly. Life was simple.

The Rat seems to carry on where he left off from the first book of the series – living a dull life. Drinking and smoking, much of his time spent at J’s bar. He does have a brief encounter with a woman – which doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, probably due to The Rat’s ambivalence. Surprisingly, The Rat makes an important decision towards the latter part of this book – something I will look forward to following in The Rat #3.

Her breasts were small, and though her trim body was beautifully tanned, it was a reluctant rather than a boastful tan, as if it had been acquired without her approval

This plotless wonder, where nothing much really happens, apart from the pinball odyssey – is so interesting because Murakami pulled me in several surprising and unexpected directions throughout.

If you do read this, expect the unexpected as you proceed through a dark fug of banality.

4 Stars

[Mutasim Billah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I took a long look at my reflection in the window. My eyes were a bit hollow with fever. I could live with that. And my jaw was dark with five o’clock (five thirty, actually) shadow. I could live with that too. The problem was that the face I saw wasn’t my face at all. It was the face of the twenty-four-year-old guy you sometimes sit across from on the train. My face and my soul were lifeless shells, of no significance to anyone. My soul passes someone else’s on the street. Hey, it says. Hey, the other responds. Nothing more. Neither waves. Neither looks back.

Another one of Murakami's earlier works, Pinball is just his second novel. Here, the narrator from Hear the Wind Sing describes his brief obsession with pinball. The book contains some of the elements that we eventually relate to as part of the Murakami aesthetic. The metaphor of the switch-board, the twins that mysteriously appeared, a girl who kills herself and some details about his friend Rat make up most of the novel.

[Ayman Gomaa · Rating 1 out of 5]

الجزء الثانى من سلسلة الفار لا يختلف كثيرا عن الجزء الاول فى السوء و التشتت لكن قراته فقط فى محاولة لمعرفة سير احداث السلسلة قبل ان اصلا لاخر جزئين الذى نالوا تقييمات ايجابية جدا من القراء .

عمل اخر من الاعمال المطبخية لهاروكى , الاعمال التى لا يفخر بها و التى ادخلتنى فى حالة من الجمود بسببها و الاسباب كثيرة , اعتقد من اهم الاسباب انى اتركها فى المنتصف كثيرا و عندما ارجع لاستكمالها لا اتذكر اى احداث بها و لا يعلق بذاكرتى اى شئ .

تشتت واضح فى الاحداث و لا يوجد قصة او حبكة الا بعد منتصف القصة عندما يبدا الراوى الذى يعمل كمترجم للانجليزية فى بالبحث عن لعبة " البينبول " التى تتعلق كثيرا بطفولته و التى كانت من طراز نادر يسمى سفينة الفضاء لا يوجد منه الا اعداد محدودة جدا فى اليابان ف يستعين ب خبير فى هذة الالات لمساعدته فى البحث عنها .

الرواية تسبح فى الاحداث اليومية للرواى من بداية مقابلته للاختين التوائم الذي يعيش معهم و لا يستطيع التفرقة بينهم الا عن طرق التيشيرت الذى عليهم و ايامه المعتادة المملة و من جهة اخرة فى يوميات الفار فى بار " ج" الشخصيتين الذى كانوا بالجزء الاول من السلسلة و نرى يوميات الفار من شرب بيرة و سجائر و حياته الرتيبة حتى ياخذ قراره ب ترك المدينة و البحث عن العيش فى مدينة اخرى .

“So many dreams, so many disappointments, so many promises. And in the end, they all just vanish.”

هذا هو ملخص الاحداث , لا يوجد حرق لانه لا يوجد قصة و اعتقد ان سطورى القليلة كفيل ان يجعلك تشعر بالنعاس .

العمل الاول كان رتيب مثله لكن علي الاقل احتوى الكثير من الجمل الجميلة عكس هذا الجزء الذى كان سرد بلا معنى .

[Megha · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Pinball, 1973' is not a particularly engrossing novel. There are still the following good reasons to read it.

1. It is short, simple and a quick-read.

2. Its Murakami-ness. The novel itself is not as strong as his later novels, yet a flavor of familiar Murakami elements is present which grew and developed into his later work. The seeds which were planted here, blossomed into the novels which we love and respect. There is a beer-drinking, cigarette-smoking nameless narrator who is detached and apathetic and has a strange-ness about him. There is one Naoko trying to find the right words; wells and cats make an appearance; ears, spaghetti cooking, music, literature all find a mention as well. The recurring theme of loneliness, conscious-ness, purpose of existence is fairly prominent. Interesting and unusual metaphors, lovely descriptions of natural scenery, moving passages about human desire and feelings are a delight to read.

This is certainly a worthwhile read for anyone interested in understanding the development of Murakami's body of work.

PS: A soft copy of the book can be found here: www.betz.lu/media/users/charel/pinbal...

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this after A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance. At the time, it was INCREDIBLY hard to find in English or French translation (as was the first of the series Hear the Wind Sing!) I finally found it in a PDF I believe and loved it. It has some of the same characters as the later books and - although early Murakami - has the stylistic idioms that became part and parcel to Murakami's writing later on. I believe this book and Hear the Wind Sing are now available in a single volume. I would probably recommend reading The Rat series in the order he wrote it: Hear the Wind Sing, Pinball, A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance. They are all wonderful!


Fino's Murakami Reviews - Novels
Hear the Wind Sing (1979/1987-2015)
Pinball, 1973 (1980/1985-2015)
A Wild Sheep Chase (1982/1989)
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985/1991)
Norwegian Wood (1987/1989-2000)
Dance Dance Dance (1988/1994)
South of the Border, West of the Sun (1992/2000)
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1995/1997)
Sputnik Sweetheart (1999/2001)
Kafka on the Shore (2002/2005)
After Dark (2004/2007)
1Q84 (2010/2011)
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (2013/2014)
Killing Commendatore (2017/2018)

Fino's Murakami Reviews - Short Story Collections and Misc
The Elephant Vanishes (1993)
After the Quake (2000/2002)
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (2006)
Men Without Women (2014/2017)
First Person Singular (2020/2021)
Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (2007/2008)

[Neale · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second short novel opens with an unnamed protagonist again. He is pondering what his life was like ten years earlier. Remembering how he used to love to hear people’s stories.

The main narrative starts with the unnamed protagonist waking up to find two female twins in his bed. Guess what? They don’t have names either. We don’t know where they came from or why. They know next to nothing about the world, but I think after reading the first novel, this is par for the course. Murakami seems to excel in the enigmatic.

It is the spring of 1972 the protagonist and a friend start up a small translation company. Almost immediately their business is a roaring success and the money starts rolling in.

Chapter two sees the return of “The Rat”. I was delighted to find him returning as he was my favourite character in the first novel. Also returning is J’s bar and this is where we find Rat sitting and talking with the Chinese bartender who is simply known as “J”. For me the dialogue between these two characters is a highlight of the novel. There is just something “real” and gritty about their conversations, even though they are really about nothing at heart. Or are they?

The narrative will switch back and forth between the protagonist’s story and the Rat’s. Interestingly we learn of Rat’s past and why he left university from the protagonist’s side of the narrative. Rat is depressed, lonely, deep in a trough of melancholy. Subsiding on beer and smokes. Each day a replica of the one before it.

The protagonist remembers a pinball machine, that the Rat and he used to play in J’s bar. When it was taken from the bar, he tracked it down to an arcade until the arcade was replaced with a doughnut shop. One day he wakes, and he is obsessed with tracking down this pinball machine. He hears it calling to him.

Just like his debut novel, Murakami has a way of segueing seamlessly into an entirely different subject. An example,

“Like the Siberian penal camps for thought criminals they had back in Imperial Russia. Speaking of penal camps, I remember reading about one of them in a biography of Leon Trotsky. Can’t remember much, just the parts about the cockroaches and the reindeer. So let me tell you about the reindeer…”

Along with his beautiful poetic prose, I think this is a major strength of Murakami and this novel. The reader has no idea where they will be taken, what they will find out, sometimes in the very next paragraph.

His writing is also enigmatic and riddled with hidden meaning. When a character talks about how on Venus (yes, I did say Venus, one of the characters the protagonist talks to claims to be from Venus), there is no hatred, envy, or contempt, only overflowing love, is he describing an idyllic Earth, criticizing the state of our planet? With Murakami I am quickly finding that you can never be sure.

Then before you know it, Murakami is off talking about wells again. What is it with the wells?

The protagonist,

“I love wells. Whenever I come across one I toss in a pebble. Nothing is more soothing than hearing that small splash rise from the bottom of a deep well.”

I’m pretty sure that the protagonist is giving voice to Murakami’s own feelings.

Murakami certainly has his own beautiful unique style of writing. How about this sentence,

“The undulating hills resembled a giant sleeping cat, curled up in a warm pool of time”.

I think that most of my enjoyment from these two short novels came from the sheer joy of reading sentences such as this.

I enjoyed this novel better than the debut and I can see myself becoming a Murakami fan. His style will not be for everybody though. 4 Stars!

What is the significance of the pinball machine? I think the protagonist answers this question best himself,

“Pinball?”
“Yeah. You know, hitting balls with flippers.”
“Of course I know. But why pinball?”
“Why? This world is rife with matters philosophy cannot explain.”

This was buddy read ten with the wonderful Nat K and she has read much of Murakami’s work and is a big fan. Please check out her super review here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Robert Khorsand · Rating 3 out of 5]

پینبال۱۹۷۳، دومین رمان از سه‌گانه‌ی «رت» و البته دومین رمان(بهتر است بگوییم داستان بلند) نوشته‌ی هاروکی موراکامی‌‌ست که پس از نوشتن این رمان او به این نتیجه می‌رسد که باید کافه‌ی خود را بفروشد و تمام وقت به نویسندگی بپردازد و این ابتدای راه زندگیِ حرفه‌ایِ او در دنیای نویسندگی‌ست.

موراکامی بارها از دو کتاب اولش (به آواز باد گوش بسپار و این کتاب) به عنوان تنها یک نقطه شروع برای دورانِ نویسندگی‌ش یاد کرده و حتی تا پایان نوشتن این کتاب، نویسندگی را شغل اصلی خود نمی‌دانسته و برای امرار معاش مشغول به مدیریت یک کافه‌ی موزیکال بوده، همچنین در مصاحبه‌ای گفته که چندان از آن‌ها خوشم نمی‌آید و حسم نسبت به آ‌ن‌ها چیزی به مانند حس عشقِ اول می‌ماند اما به نظرم با این گفتار خواسته سطح انتظار خواننده‌ها‌ را از این دو رمان تا حد معقولی پایین آورده تا وقتی به سراغ‌ آن‌ها می‌روند انتظار دو کتاب خاص را نداشته
باشند.

شخصیت اول این کتاب(راوی) همان شخصیت اول رمان «به آواز باد گوش بسپار» هست و در این کتاب به همراه دوست خود اقدام به تاسیس یک دارالترجمه می‌کند، او همچنان با دوستی به نام «موش» که در رمان اول با او تصادفی آشنا شد رابطه دارد و همچنان رفت و آمد به کافه‌ی مردِ چینی(جی) ادامه دارد، شخص اول داستان به شکل عجیبی با دو خواهر دوقلو آشنا می‌شود و با آنها زندگی می‌کند و داستا‌ن‌هایی از زندگی این شخصیت‌ها می‌خوانیم. نام کتاب برگرفته از یک دستگاه پینبال است که شخص اول کتاب در دوره‌ای معتاد به این بازی می‌شود و با آن بازی ارتباطی عمیق و معتادگونه پیدا می‌کند. خواندن این دو کتاب همانطور که در ریویوی کتاب اول نیز عرض کردم وقت زیادی از خواننده نمی‌گیرد و برای رفتن به سراغِ سومین کتاب از این مجموعه(تعقیب گوسفند وحشی) که یک ابر رمانِ سورئال از موراکامی‌ست و قطعا پر از سوال و ابهام خواهد بود را پیشنهاد می‌کنم.

[Ramin Azodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

سه روز طول‌اش دادم. اوایل سخت جلو می‌رفت. کمی نامفهوم و شلخته بود. نیمهٔ دوم کتاب اوضاع بهتر شد. در انتها به این فکر کردم که اگر کسی بخواهد دربارهٔ پوچی زندگی مدرن چیزی بنویسد؛ حتمن این شکلی از آب در میاد و بعدتر به بودا فکر کردم به بینش شرقی در تقابل نگاه علت جویانهٔ غرب، این که چقدر به دنبال چرایی چیز‌ها هستند. در مقابل به قول بودا: به جای فکر کردن دربارهٔ ذات زندگی، تنها در رودخانهٔ زندگی شنا کنید.
این کتاب توصیف خوبی بود از شنا در رودخانه‌ای که مدرنیته، گندآب‌اش کرده است.

[مجیدی‌ام · Rating 3 out of 5]

این کتاب دومین کتاب از مجموعه چهار جلدی رت هست،، که البته من اسمش رو مجموعه نمی زارم، بغیر از چند شخصیت که اسم هاشون در کتاب اول اومده بود و به سری اماکن، بقیه کتاب کتفاوت بود و اگر کسی کتاب اول رو نخونه و مستقیم بیاد سراغ همین کتاب چیزی رو از دست نمی ده و کاملا شخصیت ها رو خواهد شناخت و تمامی داستان رو کشف می کنه.

اگه طرفدار موراکامی هستین، سعی کنید که مجموعه رو به ترتیب بخونید، اگر طرفدارش نیستید و حوصله ی موراکامی خوندن ندارید، می تونید از هر کتابی که خواستین شروع کنین، این مجموعه چهار جلدی، هر کدوم از کتاب هاش می تونن به تنهایی و بدون رعایت ترتیب خونده بشن.

از لحاظ محتوا، من به شخصه کتاب رت یک رو بیشتر دوست داشتم...
حالا باید سومی و چهارمی رو هم بخونم و بعد مقایسه کنم، ولی برای من که طرفدار موراکامی هستم، از خئندن کتاب خیلی لذت بردم :)

[Mayk Can Şişman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Murakami'yi çok sevsem de onun ilk dönem eserleriyle aram hiç iyi değil. Büyük beklentiler içinde olduğum ‘Pinball 1973’ maceram hüsranla bitti. Kitap çok savruktu, hiç keyif alamadım maalesef.

[Jaclyn~she lives! catching up on reviews~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part 2 of my mission to read everything Murakami has written in publication order

This is the second book in the tetralogy of The Rat. Despite this, I don't think you need to read the first novel Hear the Wind Sing before reading this novella. They focus on the same characters, in the same town, but in different stages of life. Where as Hear The Wind Sing focuses on the characters as they are around college age, Pinball, 1973 focuses on the ennui that occurs with the mundane existence of work life. Doing the same thing every day, seeing the same people, going no where fast. If you identify more with the Hear The Wind Sing stage of youth, you could read that one and skip this one. Of the two, Pinball, 1973 is the more forgettable read.

Murakami is still his characteristically weird self. Our narrator attends a funeral for an electronic panel, lives with two very empty and cardboard character twins. All the while The Rat is busy staring off across a dock at a light on the other side of the water that marks where his lady friend lives. Very Gatsby like, but it lands flatly for me, as if he is merely copying and not giving homage to The Great Gatsby. The Rat really is the Murakami-esque Great Gastby. He's a rich man unsatisfied with his riches, looking for something more, suffering from a lack of purpose and loneliness.

I think readers that can identify with the loneliness and lack of purpose the narrator and the rat feel can find their story relatable.

Many of Murakami's signature motifs and symbols are rife in Pinball, 1973, like he was playing with these ideas but still not so sure what to do with them. Wells, cats, weird women, weird sex, even the unfortunate ear fetish (not to yuck anyones yum), wonderful jazz selections, the ever present urban ennui.

I enjoyed this one less than Hear The Wind Sing, but there are pieces of prose that really stood out to me. Here is a collection of quotes:

"i enjoyed listening to stories about faraway places so much that it became a kind of sickness."

"a riotous profusion of narcissus bloomed by the pond, where little birds gathered to splash about in the mornings."

"The Rat looked up at the roof of the car and slowly closed his eyes. As if flipping off a switch, he extinguished the remaining lights in his head and descended into a new sort of darkness."

"She had begun to blend with the autumn air too."

The grass beneath our feet was filled with the premonition of its approaching death until the next spring."

“From his shoulder on down, the Rat felt the supple weight of her body. An odd sensation, that weight. This being that could love a man, bear children, grow old, and die; to think one whole existence was in this weight.”

Overall, there are dark moments of greatness. Unfortunately those brilliant moments are awash with the presence of cringe-inducing twins (early Murakami writes women like they are empty dolls).
I was feeling like this was a two star read until about half way through the novel. The scenes really seemed to improve after that, and it seemed to me like Murakami was hitting his stride. It reminded me of someone with a wet matchbox, taking out a damp match and trying repeatedly to get them to strike fire, and finally succeeding, only for it to burn out and then they have to try again.

I enjoyed the melancholy of the ending; the sadness but sense of purpose that comes with parting ways when it is time to move on. I felt Murakami encapsulated that feeling well.

See you around (if you know you know)

[Darwin8u · Rating 3 out of 5]

“So many dreams, so many disappointments, so many promises. And in the end, they all just vanish.”
― Haruki Murakami, Pinball, 1973



Like Murakami's first novel Hear the Wind Sing (The Rat, #1), 'Pinball, 1973' (The Rat, #2) contains many of those elements that would define Murakami's fiction in the future. In someways this novel is both a story of loneliness and a love story between the protagonist and a specific Pinball machine. 'Hear the Wind Sing' seems to show early signs of Norwegian Wood, but 'Pinball, 1973' seems to be an early protonovel that would develop into Murakami's strange, dream-like later novels.

My first exposure to Murakami was in my early college years. I checked out A Wild Sheep Chase (The Rat, #3) one summer from a military library and after I read it, but before I returned it, the library had mysteriously burned down. I'm not sure if I still owe the library a late fee or not. I had no way to return the book, and after reading it, I didn't ever want to. I saved it from the fire. I saved it from oblivion. It was now mine.

Both 'Hear the Wind Sing' and 'Pinball, 1973' are novellas best left to Murakami completists. There are better novels to start with and unless you are going to read more than ten Murakami novels, I wouldn't begin here. Start with 'Wild Sheep Chase' or Dance Dance Dance, or Norwegian Wood.

If you check out Murakami and the bookstore or library burns down, watch out, you won't be able to rest until you've stalked every novel and read every page.

[Sanaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

همان سبک نوشته های هاروکی جان ولی این داستان حجم اون غم عمیق رو که اکثر داستان هاش داره رو نداشت ولی همچنان لذت بخش بود برام. چندتا از قسمت های مورد علاقم از متن رو مینویسم.
-دردش هم جای دیگری نداشت برود، کنارش دراز کشید.
-به خودش می گفت پای کاری که کرده ای بایست. تو کسی بودی که پل های پشت سر را خراب کردی. تو کسی بودی که دور خودت دیوار ساختی و راه را بستی، درست است؟
-تنها چیزی که ما میتوانیم درک کنیم، همین لحظه ای است که بهش می گوییم حال، و حتی خود این لحظه هم هیچ نیست جز آنچه می آید از درونمان عبور میکند و می رود.

[Chris_P · Rating 3 out of 5]

"It’s like Tennessee Williams said. The past and the present, we might say, “go like this.”
The future is a “maybe.”
Yet when we look back on the darkness that obscures the path that brought us this far, we only come up with another indefinite “maybe.” The only thing we perceive with any clarity is the present moment, and even that just passes by."

This is Murakami's second book. Like its predecessor, this one is also nostalgic, in a whole different way though. I also found it darker and a bit trickier. Like any Murakami, god knows how many symbolisms I didn't get...
Say what you will. Murakami is the Man!

[Donakrap Dokrappom · Rating 4 out of 5]

คำเตือน! รีวิวนี้มีเนื้อหาหยาบคาย อย่าอ่านจะดีกว่า!!

โดยส่วนตัว หนังสือมูราคามิไม่ใช่หนังสือประเภทที่จะแนะนำให้คนอื่นอ่านตาม ไม่ใช่หนังสือประเภทจะหยิบมาอ่านเมื่อไหร่ก็ได้ถ้าหากว่ารอบตัวยังมีสิ่งบันเทิงอื่น ๆ ให้เสพ หรือมีหนังสือดี ๆ เล่มอื่นที่ต่อแถวรอคิวให้อ่านบนกองดอง เว้นแต่ว่าไม่มีทางเลือกจริง ๆ เช่นไปเที่ยวต่างจังหวัดหรือติดเกาะและต้องบังคับตัวเองให้เลือกหนังสือไปได้แค่เล่มเดียว นั่นแหละถึงจะได้อ่าน

เคยอ่าน Hear the Wind Sing มาแล้ว สไตล์การเขียนยังคงเอกลักษณ์ ประมาณวัยรุ่นขี้เหงาอยากลองของ ขอเขียนนิยายขำ ๆ แก้เหงา ไม่มี plot อยากบ่นอะไรกูบ่น นิยายกูจะต้องเหงา ๆ ให้เข้า theme แดกเบียร์แม่งทั้งวัน เท่ชิบหาย! ยังไม่นับเพลงที่มึงฟังแต่ละเพลงนะ เขียน ๆ ไปเนื้อเรื่องเริ่มจืด กูเติมตัวละครลับเข้า���าแม่งเลยดีกว่า ต้องเป็นผู้หญิงลึกลับด้วยนะ มาแบบดื้อ ๆ นี่แหละ แต่เดี๋ยวก่อน! กูไม่ได้เติมผู้หญิงเข้ามาเพื่อคลายเหงาหรอก กูเติมเข้ามาเพื่อให้พวกแม่งเหงาหนักกว่าเดิม เป็นไง เท่ป่าวววว! (มึงเหงายังไงให้คนอื่นอิจฉาวะกูถามจริง) ความรู้สึกตอนอ่านคือโครตหมั่นไส้ตัวละคร มึงจะคำคมอะไรนักหนา อย่ามาทำเป็นเข้าใจชีวิตที่คอยสั่งสอนคนอื่นมากนักเลยไอ้ฉิบหาย!

ผมแดกเบียร์ไปอ่าน pinball ไป ไอ้ห่า!! ชอบซะงั้น บ้าจริง หรือเป็นเพราะเบียร์วะ

[Caro the Helmet Lady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have I not read A Wild Sheep Chase last year, I would probably find this book less engaging than any other of Murakami's later works. But this one is a prefect chain in the evolution from "slice of life" of Hear the Wind Sing to the bonkers of the Wild Sheep. And it's as always cozy, funny and warm in the only possible Murakamish way. Still, I prefer my Murakami with more supernatural to the story. No ice, but well shaken, so to say. 3,5.

P.S. Fun fact - Rubber Soul is the only album by The Beatles that I own.

[Rimantė :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pagaliau užpildžiau spragą Murakamio The Rat sagoje (?). Pradėjusi skaityti pamaniau, kad čia turbūt prasčiausias Murakamio pasakojimas, kurį skaitau, bet nuomonė pradėjo keistis, kai įpusėjau "1973-iųjų kiniškas biliardas". Turbūt dėlto, kad pagaliau pajutau tą pasakojimą ir nustebau, kokios artimos veikėjų išgyvenamos būsenos mano dabartinėms. Būtent to iš pradžių to ir nepastebėjau. Pastebėjus - truputi sukrėtė.

Reikalingos knygos pačios patenka į rankas, atėjus tam laikui. Taip ir su šia buvo.

Nemanau, kad ši knyga patiks daug kam. Net mėgstantiems Murakamio kūrybą, ši knyga gali nepatikti. Galimai dėlto, kad nesate buvę tokioje gana savotiškoje būsenoje, nesatę patyrę kažko panašaus, kas šioje knygoje neramina veikėjus. Jei visgi skaitysite, tai pabandykite pažvengti giliau to vienišumo, kuris knygoje ir taip akivaizdus.

[Sgrtkn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Klasik murakami kitaplarına göz kırpıyor ama o kitapların yerini de tutmuyor. Yıllarca çevrilmesini istememekte çok haklı. Başlangıç kitabı olmak için kötü. Murakamiye alıştıktan sonra okunabilir ancak.

[Mojtaba · Rating 3 out of 5]

مدرنیته، تکرار و پوچی


به نظر می رسه که تم اصلی این رمان، پوچیِ ناشی از توسعه مدرنیته است. داستان، به نظرم کلا سر درگم و تا حدی بی سر و ته بود. شاید نویسنده، برای نمایش پوچی و سردرگمی مدرنیته، عمدا اینطور نوشته. اگر برداشت من از این متن نسبتا مبهم و رمز گونه درست باشه، اون موقع باید گفت که موراکامی سعی می کنه با تصویر کردن برهه ای از شهر توکیو در سالهای قبل و بعد از سال ۱۹۶۹، تغییرات و گسترش مدرنیته رو تا سال ۱۹۷۳ رو در این شهر به نمایش بزاره. داستان با مرگ دوست دختر نسبتا سنتی راوی بی هویت، در سال ۱۹۶۹ آغاز میشه که شاید نمادی از مرگ سنت باشه. در ادامه نویسنده سعی می کنه مدرنیته، تکرار و پوچی رو در طی موقعیتهای مختلف به نمایش بزاره. در این میان وصفی از یک دستگاه پین بال خاص هم می شود که نمادی از نوستالژی سنتی است که در سال ۱۹۷۳ رسما بازنشست شده. در داستان، علاقه و استمرار گیمرها برای بازی با دستگاهی که فایده خاصی نداره، پدیده ای معرفی شده که با عقل مدرن همخوانی ندارد.
میشه گفت با این توصیفات مدرنیته:
دوست دختری برنزه، با بدنی به بوی رایحه صبحگاه تاکستانه،  که دستای لاغر و کشیدش رو، دور تن تو حلقه می کنه و حلقه می کنه و حلقه می کنه و تا یک روز که  تکرار تو را حلقه می کنه.

شایدم تازه سگ تازی تعلیم دیده ای باشه که توپهای گلف که از زمین بیرون افتاده رو جمع می کنه وقتی قبلش پولدارای گلف باز ، توپهای بیرون افتاده رو دنبال نمی کردند.

یا پایان نامه ای که پرداختش خوبه و بحثش هم روشنه، ولی حرفی برای گفتن نداره.

شایدم دعایی برای مراسم فوت جعبه کلیده که این دعا، نقل قولی از کانته. "وظیفه فلسفه باطل کردن طلسم همه اوهام برامده از بد فهمیهاست، آرامش در اعماق دریاچه همنشینت باد ای جعبه کلید".

و البته مدرنیته دنیایی از دو، سه ، چند قلوهاست که همه شبیه همند و با عدد مشخص می شن.

ابجو رو یادم نره. مدرنیته بطری ۸ ام ابجوه و البته بالا اوردن بعدش و البته از دوباره شروع کردن بعدش.

و اما مدرنیته قطعا دستگاه پین بال فضایی نیست که با معیارهای مدرن، بازی سودآوری نیست و در سال ۱۹۷۳ به خاطره پیوست.

اولین تجربه خوانش کتابی از موراکامی که خودش قبولش نداره

[Mohammad Ali Shamekhi · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب رو در یک روند بطیء خوندم - البته اواخرش سرعت گرفتم. آغازش حس خوبی نداشتم. به خودم می گفتم حقش واقعا دو ستاره ببشتر نیست اما رو به پایان که رفتم بهم بیشتر و بیشتر چسبید تا اینکه وقتی تموم شد دیدم که نه، کتاب خوبیه. فصل گفتگو با ماشین پین بال در انبار بهم خیلی چسبید. خلاصه اینکه به عنوان دومین کتابی که از موراکامی می خونم - بعد از "به آواز باد گوش بسپار"، که هر دوی اینها از آثار اولیه ی موراکامی اند - تجربه ی خوبی بود

ترجمه اشم خوب و معقول بود - یه جاهایی فارسی اش فقط به دل نمی نشست. از اونجا که عبارات سانسوریش هم تقریبا هیچ بود، مشکل حذفی خاصی هم نداشت

حاشیه: البته اینم بگم که از غربی بودنش لذت نمی بردم. به خودم می گفتم بابا تو ژاپنی هستی چرا همه ی ارجاعاتت غربیه آخه

[Razvan Banciu · Rating 3 out of 5]

You're never sure what's for real in Murakami's writings, as he always navigates on the border of reality.
Sometimes "he finds you home" and let you savour his travels through your mind, but there are times when his symbols don't work enough for you and become quite exhausting. And that's the story with Pinball...

[Mohammad Hanifeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

«کتاب دوم از مجموعهٔ موش»

کتاب اول (به آواز باد گوش بسپار) رو اخیراً خوندم ‌که دوستش داشتم. این کتاب هم تو همون حال و‌ هوا بود؛ تقریباً همون‌طور ساده و روون بود. منتها چندان حرف تازه‌ای برام نداشت.

[Nazi · Rating 3 out of 5]

به کتابی که ۵۰ صفحه اش سانسور شده چه امتیازی میشه داد آخه؟چطور روشون شده یه همچین کتاب بی سرو تهی رو چاپ کنن؟

[Shaza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Idk how murakami makes every day life so interesting, his writing is just my fav.

[Yulia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hurray! Finally, I have the Holy Grail of Murakami reads, available to you for $5000 in print form, or free online. I'm so excited to read this. Or should I temper my expectations, lest they mar the experience? Okay, I promise to calm down.

***********************************************************

Aha, here are the true first sprouts of the Murakami we know and love, the thoughtful, shy musings on routine, emptiness and evil, the very beginning of his interest in cats, the occasional well-chosen metaphor that makes you think, "I bet no one ever though it just like that until he came along."

This is a love story, between a man and a pinball machine, the Space-ship with three flippers. And between another man and a bar, no flippers. The mood reminds me of the end of Casablanca, tear-less but stirring. Think of it. It's beautiful pain.

This is the missing link to all his later works. it needs to be republished. Anyone hear me?

[Meltem Sağlam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yazarın “Rat” üçlemesinin ikinci kitabı ve “yazarlık” döneminin ilk kitaplarından. Bu nedenle bence Murakami’ye özgü unsurların bir çoğunu taşısa bile, henüz tam bir Murakami kitabı gibi değil.

“Mayıs Sıkıntısı” gibi bir roman.

Sıra ile okunmasını öneririm. Bununla birlikte, bağımsız olarak okunması durumunda da keyifli bir okuma sağlayacaktır.


“...yaşadığımız sürece severiz biz. Sonradan pişman olmamak için...”, sf; 23.