The Thousands

There’s this awesome part in the movie Frequently Asked Questions about Time Travel, where protagonist Ray disputes the term "sci fi", contesting that it’s actually "science fiction, or SF, a.k.a. Speculative Fiction". Sure, guy. Whatever feels right, right. Anyway, it reminded me of this novel The Hardboiled Wonderland at the End of the World, which is also a bit like that movie Cube, though with less science and more fiction. Haruki Murakami is a little like that. You’re inclined to leave bestsellers to retirement, fair enough. Literary big-wiggery aside, Murakami knows how to write.

This guy has owned a jazz bar, written countless stories, and boy can he run. His two best novels, in my humble opinion, are The Wind Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore. Jack Daniels and Johnny Walker, Colonel Sanders and an imaginary boy named Crow, raining fish and feline communication. They’re all there, waiting for your firm inflection. Watch out for the film adaptation of Norwegian Wood, allegedly coming out later this year. Defying sci-fi is a hard thing to do. Speculative fiction writer or surrealist, if someone can make a critic stumble, you know there’s something there.