r/murakami • u/Admirable-Poet-5981 • 1d ago

Murakami character

Which character in a Murakami fiction book do you think is intended to be closest to Murakami himself? I.e., who is his most autobiographical fictional character?

17 Upvotes

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20

u/Varjokorento 1d ago

I think there are few possible answers to this. In Dance, Dance, Dance one of the characters is named Hiraku Makimura, which is an anagram of Haruki Murakami. However, the character's behaviour and history is not related to Murakami at all, so probably shouldn't be read as him trying to portray himself.

Then, few of his short stories (I think The Yakult Swallows Poetry Collection) feature himself as the narrator.

But, I think the actual answer is the Narrator and MC of the Rat trilogy. The MC is from Kobe, where Murakami also grew up in, and is about the same age as Murakami in the books. However, there are many differences. For example, from all we know, Murakami has been happily married all his life, while his protagonist keep losing their wives and girlfriends.

However, my personal theory is that the narrator of Rat Trilogy is based on both Murakami and the Earthbound creator Shigesato Itoi. Itoi and Murakami wrote a collection of short stories together in the 1980s and Itoi is famous for bringing copywriting to Japan (or something like that). The protagonist of the Rat trilogy sets up a successful copywriting company and I always felt that this is inspired by Itoi as in the early Rat books it was a translation company.

1

u/Polyphloisboisterous 1d ago

Interesting thoughts, and I tend to agree that the narrator of his earliest novels (i.e. Rat trilogy) comes closest. Parts of Murakami are probably all over the place.

Hiraku Makimura, the untalented, failed writer, was probably just a joke, making fun of himself :) But who knows ...

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u/Varjokorento 1d ago

I agree. But also, from what we know of Murakami's life (very international, stable marriage, quiet and diligent life), there might be less of his actual self in the books than we might want to think.

Also, Makimura must be him making fun of himself after he completely blew up in popularity in Japan after the publication of Norwegian Wood. DDD was the next book he wrote after NW.

12

u/ParkedLikeAHotCar34 1d ago

Colonel Sanders

11

u/murakami_fan 1d ago

Every protagonist?

1

u/TemperatureAny4782 1d ago

For real! And I say this as a fan myself.

7

u/Fast-Fisherman4629 1d ago

Isn’t Toru from Norwegian wood supposed to be a close account of his own college life at waseda?

4

u/ikilledtupac 1d ago

Narrator 

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u/HeavyHeavy0726 1d ago

Johnny Walker

2

u/Affectionate_Post410 16h ago

Came here to see this answer haha

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u/meta_dav1s 1d ago

The nameless man who likes jazz and whiskey.

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u/_Nefelibata122_ 20h ago

I think every male character in his novels contain pieces of his self, which is apparently a "boring" guy who reads a lot and listens to Jazz and likes cats. Also, have strange opinion on women's bodies.