Dance Dance Dance

The strangeness and mystery was lost when H.M.'s kept going on about a character f...he should have killed off earlier.! I couldn't even finish the book even though I read the previous Sheep novel...I just gave up...

Strange, very Japanese but filled entirely with Western references from music to art. I will read another Murakami forming a better opinion. He is pretty imaginative but his esoteric mussing can be a bit lengthy, even boring.

"Dance, dance, dance" is one of my preferite book and I like to collect it in different languages.
Unfortunately the book in this version has been so heavily and bad cut(several pages) that is making me wondering:
- did the author really approve this version?
- can be still considered a translation of the original book?

While I still love this novel, I suggest to whoever interested in it to looking for another translation.

I found a web site that ranked Haruki Murakami's novels. Dance Dance Dance came in first. Most other sites rank it in the middle single digits (among his couple of dozen novels). This is the first of his novels I've read. I picked it up after reading his wonderful memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Even though he's a respected, award-winning novelist, I didn't particularly enjoy Dance Dance Dance. It's not terrible, it was just sort of pointless.

I thought Murakami, a Japanese novelist, would give me a window to contemporary Japanese culture. But the vast majority of the references to movies, music, and literature are Western. The whole story seemed very American, from my American perspective. This tells me that people in advanced cultures around the world share many cultural similarities, and/or that the Japanese embrace American culture.

I won't recount the plot (such as it is) itself. It involves some sort of supernatural portal in a hotel. It involves a middle-aged man's friendship with a teenage girl. It involves a writer who is unhappy writing ad copy and restaurant reviews. It involves the lost loves of the writer. Murakami comments on consumerism, pop culture, and longing in love. It all comes together in a hodgepodge of existential aimlessness and dream-like narrative. Truthfully, I don't get the appeal of this book.

I’ve been working my way through Murakami’s works at the rate of two or three a year. He’s not the sort of writer whose books you can zip through one after another. And I was well into this one before it dawned on me that it’s a semi-sequel to _A Wild Sheep Chase_ -- but that’s okay. It’s perfectly enjoyable as a standalone novel.

This is the story, in part, of the Dolphin Hotel in Sapporo, which the nameless narrator had visited several years before with his girlfriend, Kiki, and from which she suddenly disappeared. The Dolphin back then was “a pathetic place woebegone as a three-legged black dog drenched in December rain.” He’s been making good money as a contract commercial writer, but he’s been on hiatus for month, hardly leaving his small apartment. Then he’s suddenly taken by a need to visit the Dolphin again and to try to discover what happened to Kiki.

The Dolphin is now a very different kind of hotel, eviscerated, rebuilt, and heavily westernized. He makes the acquaintance of Yumiyoshi, a rather shy and rule-following receptionist at the front desk, who becomes part of his quest, and the principal love interest. She’s had some decidedly weird experiences up on the Sixteenth Floor.

Later, through an odd series of circumstances, he becomes the friend, confident, and informal guardian of Yuki, the thirteen-year-old daughter of a great but personally remote photographer and a once-great but now decadent and money-fixated novelist (whose name happens to be an anagram of Murakami’s). She’s sullen, like most teenagers, but also very perceptive and perhaps even clairvoyant. Another major player is Gotanda, with whom the narrator went to school, and who is now a famous film actor. The guy is naturally elegant and charming. Even as a student, “if he lit a Bunsen burner with those graceful hands of his, it was like the opening ceremony of the Olympics.”

The key to everything, though, is the Sheep Man, who lives in “a small time-space warp” at the Dolphin. He’s the keeper and manager of the narrator’s entire existence. He keeps the forces of the world in balance. “Likewesaid, it’sallhere. Webeenwaitingforyou.” (Yes, he speaks without word-breaks, at least in the English translation.)

As you can see, the plot isn’t really the most important part of this book, so don’t worry if you have trouble following it. What’s important is the complex net of relationships among the cast of characters, and the author even provides a diagram to help keep track of that. And then there are the murders. Plural. But don’t worry. You can write it all off as expenses.

But to be honest, I read Murakami as much for his use of the language as anything. The man’s prose is amazing. Like, what we all seek in life is “some kind of compensation for what we have to put up with.” Or, “Humans achieve their peak in different ways, but once you’re over the summit, it’s downhill all the way.”

His descriptive passages are very nice, too: “The air was exhilarating. High school girls came bustling along, their rosy red cheeks puffing white breaths you could have written cartoon captions in.” Or, “The telephone is a time bomb. Nobody knows when it’s going to go off. But it’s ticking away with possibility. And it looks like it’s dying to say something.” Beautiful stuff.

"Dance Dance Dance" is a sort of follow-up to Murakami's "A Wild Sheep Chase." Although I didn't like "A Wild Sheep Chase" as much as this one, the stories in the two novels are somewhat interconnected and reading "Sheep" first enhances the story here in "Dance, Dance, Dance."

Here we return to the multidimensional Hotel Dolphin, with Murakami walking the tightrope between reality, the surreal, and dreams. The protagonist (still with no name) returns to the Hotel Dolphin, which has been transformed from seedy to a slick modern hotel catering to business clients. While in search of his previous girlfriend who has disappeared, he encounters a new cast of characters who could only rise from the mind of Murakami. There is the attractive hotel receptionist who keeps accidentally finding dingy floors of the old hotel while walking the floors of the new one on her shift. We meet the protagonist's old school friend who has become a famous actor with a hollow personal life. We also encounter my personal favorite, the troubled 13 year old psychic girl Yuki with successful yet inattentive parents. There is a trip to Hawaii, a one-armed poet, and the ever-recurring Sheep Man who speaks with no spaces between his words.

As always, Murakami's turn of phrase is striking. Some of my favorite quotes from the novel:

"What we seek is some kind of compensation for what we put up with."

"I was jealous of Yuki. Here she was, 13 years old, and everything including misery looked if not wonderful, at least new."

"She didn't respond, and in her silence I could hear the slight cross talk of a woman speaking as if at the end of a long corridor. Quiet yet crisp, strangely charged electricity with what I took to be a tone of bitterness."

I always find that some of the most enjoyable passages in Murakami novels are during the quiet times. The protagonist might be making spaghetti, picking up dry cleaning, listening to music, or otherwise "doing nothing." In these quiet times we let our minds wander and wonder with the author, making observations about the everyday world that are both insightful and intensely personal. Nobody does "nothing" more interestingly than Murakami.

"Dance Dance Dance" is on its face a supernatural detective story. We are on the trail of a missing girlfriend, the killer of a murdered call girl, and an explanation for the eerie goings on at the Hotel Dolphin. Underneath we face metaphysical questions and recurring Murakami themes of loss, alienation, the absurd, abandonment, and finding human connection in the most unlikely of circumstances.

Written with joy and wonder, I loved "Dance Dance Dance" and count it as one of Murakami's best. Highly recommended.

Reading Dance Dance Dance is like wandering through a dream. It's a sticky spider web of unique characters and various locales that often leaves the reader feeling entangled and confused. The novel follows an unnamed narrator on his surreal search for a mysterious former lover, while following the cryptic instructions of the one known only as "The Sheep Man". If you're looking for a book that will lay everything out for you on a silver platter, Dance Dance Dance is not for you. On the one hand, even though the novel does not insult your intelligence by spelling everything out, it still manages to leave you feeling stupid after its conclusion - a sense of emptiness and a vague suspicion that you missed something. I never felt like I actually got anything out of this book - no sense of closure. And even so, the novel seems to paint a near-perfect picture of the disconnect and apathy that so many suffer in a fast-paced modernizing society. The writing is rich and descriptive. Yet in the end, it feels like wading through a sea of molasses. Sure, it's absolutely delicious, and at first you just can't get enough. But as you continue, you become full, you can't take another bite - your steps become more laboured as you try to find your way out of the sticky goo. You suffocate and gasp for air, until you finally find yourself, tired and panting on the other shore and wondering what the whole point of the ordeal was.

A wonderful book, a deep, at times dark, occasionally inscrutable book, a wonderful sequel to, or continuation of, the wonderful "A Wild Sheep Chase", "Dance Dance Dance" is even better. This is a book about appetites, sex, drink, rock and roll and also Muzak, conformity, insanity, ennui and death - and it deliciously escapes the boundaries of a book review. The characters are memorable, whether they are mixed up or buttoned up or...the Sheepman. Perhaps the character Hiraku Makimura (!) could make you understand how special this book is, but no, his bank account is far bigger than his talent. There's lots of humor and send-ups of different genres but Murakami doesn't shy away from tender passages and poignant moments. And oh that Sheepman! It's an astonishing work that defies description and convention, and I want to discuss it with my best friend over beer and anchovy pizza.

Dance Dance Dance is promising... and a bit disappointing. This is Murakami at his most gratuitous. It's got all the hallmarks of a Murakami novel. A single male protagonist in his thirties. Whiling his days away. Emotional violence from his past stirs him to action. A teen girl shows up and proceeds to generate uncomfortable sexual tension with him. There are unsolicited phone calls, sleepless nights, shots of whisky, sudden deaths and lots of records playing. He gets the girl in the end. It's the author's own brand of noir.

Murakami is something of a Quentin Tarantino. He's an arbiter of taste in everything he does. He's mostly great, but he loses the plot every now and then. Sadly, Dance is one of those instances. Murakami goes a little overboard in blurring the line that separates real and surreal, life and death, existence and oblivion. Dance seems to take on a life of its own, which is no small achievement, but in doing so it wrests itself from Murakami's grasp. He can only watch as it runs its course to a confusing and unsatisfying conclusion.

This novel feels more adolescent than I'm used to from the author. The main character misses the mark by a hair, being somehow not fully true to himself. He's also more preachy than any self-respecting fictional character should be. It seems he's delivering a sermon in every scene, and Murakami almost pulls it off... but he doesn't. Dance also betrays a sad objectification of women, who all seem to exist for the purpose of tantalizing the main character in one way or another. While all the male characters are vivid and memorable, the women are flat and plot-serving.

It's a shame - the synopsis is fascinating, and it has all the ingredients to be exactly the kind of story Murakami is best at writing. Some of my favorite Murakami moments occur in this novel. It's a shame he couldn't maintain it, as Dance had the potential to be a masterpiece. I wish he'd rewritten it.

Haplessly well-educated, chronically misunderstood, and afloat without direction in a rapidly evolving world in which your cultural locus keeps drifting Westward to an existentialist thought-form that began oddly without your active participation at the time, and not only because you weren't alive in 1863. Whether it's Murakami's "Dance, Dance, Dance" or Kawabata's more tragic "Snow Country," the environment is essentially the same.

I enjoyed this novel immensely, although frankly I never had a grip on where the story was going or why we were going there. This variety of insensibility and derelict confusion is, of course, natural to both drunken excursions as well as sophisticated mind-altering manipulations intended to redirect one's mood structure to achieve the secret and nefarious objectives of undisclosed others. So, which was it? I don't know, and I won't be confessing my deeper suspicions here anyway. We can talk about that later.

Perhaps.

"Dance" is the anti- "Snow Country". Murakami deconstructs Shimamura--the protagonist in Kawabata's earlier novel--into a nostalgic Lothario ignorant of the moral vacuity of the antique rituals of carnal exploitation that make his life possible, which then renders sympathy with that nostalgia entirely impossible. The antiquarian past then becomes something pleasant to regard and observe, but not a model for the way that life ought to be lived in the Sapporo and Tokyo (or Shanghai or Seoul or Waikiki or Palo Alto or New York) of the present and the ever-dawning future that is the great promise (of course) of the 21st Century.

Although the story is told in a mildly drunken tone that offers up tantalizingly voyeuristic levels of disclosure that continually freshen one's interest in the turns of Murakami's tale, you will be prompted from time to time that the drunk whispering in your ear, his breath hot with whiskey and three Bloody Marys, was in fact the beneficiary of a first-rate transnational education. You'll recognize themes from Nabokov's "Lolita" as well as one or two other 20th Century "classics" in the story line of "Dance".

I am always grateful that Murakami has become a world-famous author. Otherwise, I'm afraid that--like a character in one of his stories--he would be forlorn and semi-mad, his hair blowing recklessly in the wind, as he stands on a street corner somewhere in the new Urban Asia, his lips mouthing a few interesting phrases that only he is able to understand. But wonderfully, instead of going to the trouble of rescuing such a dangerous character and buying him a drink on a cold, wet Autumn afternoon somewhere in the Kansai, we can simply take up "Dance" and drink quietly alone at home, the dogs at one's feet, which is both more pleasant and efficient than being habitually charitable and kind… to strangers.

As anyone who has read more than one Murakami novel knows, one doesn't turn to this author for variety in protagonists or points of view. No, for over twenty years Murakami has been centering tales on curiously likable, yet quirky loner types with a fondness for music, drink, and a knack for non-standard female relationships. And Dance Dance Dance is no exception. In addition, while those tracing the arc of Murakmai's oeuvre will be pleased to see him exploring a bit of the magical realism that takes full flight later in Wind-up Bird Chronicle, neither of those things, despite their merits, are why I'd recommend this book. It comes down to two things: perspective, and language.

Regarding perspective, in this book more than others of his, I felt like Murakami was raising a skeptical eye to modern society: its values, the choices it encourages, the way it shapes people. Talking about capitalism, he says "Worshiping everything their shiny Porsches symbolize. It's the only stuff of myth that's left in the world." Thoreau spoke of the mass of men living lives of quiet desperation, and that is what Murakami--in this work and many of his others--portrays so well.

Regarding his language, there were innumerable phrases, observations, and bon mots that were sheer pleasure, eye-opening insight, or chuckle-to-yourself funny. Alfred Birnbaum, Murakami's longtime translator, should be commended for another smashing performance, and yet the simplicity of Murakami's sentence structure and vocabulary suggest that most of this impact is inherent in the original Japanese--or in other words, that we're getting a really reliable representation of what the original readers are getting. The examples are too many to list, but I can't list none, so here are a few gems:

"All I saw was gray. A sump of a city slushed with sunken souls."

"I'll be as quiet as granite."

"She eyed my card as if it were a dust rag."

"No one could accuse me of not keeping up my end of the non-conversation."

"Sometimes she forgets I'm around. Like an umbrella, I just slip her mind."

With these and myriad other examples. we see evidence of a keen observer of humanity, and also gifted at finding uniquely colorful ways of distilling those observations into thought-provoking sentences. So for anyone who wants to think, to enjoy language artfully used, this book should be enjoyable, but for any writer, it should certainly be on the shelf.

Haruki Murakami has quickly risen to the public eye (or at least, my eye) in these past few years. With his recent release of 1Q84: 3 Volume Boxed Set (Vintage International), which was an international bestseller and hit, he has become something of an icon. The Sky is the limit for him, and I am totally hardcore rooting that he wins the Nobel Literature Prize next year.

But every once in a while, I like to go back to where it all started for me. Err... well, close to where it started. The first Murakami book I ever read was A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel, which was the final volume in a trilogy that wasn't fully published in English. This novel is a spiritual sequel to that entire trilogy, with the return of themes, characters, and everyone's favorite unnamed narrator.

Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakmami is about the aforementioned nameless man who is, since the events of A Wild Sheep Chase, searching for his also unnamed girlfriend.... although she gets a name in this one. Although one does not have to have read WSC to fully *get* this book, I highly recommend you invest some time checking out the earlier volume to comprehend the subtle references and set-up that's going on here.

This novel is one of the first published books by Murakami that was written after he became famous. Meaning: he's more confident. Meaning: it' less mainstream. Meaning: this is pure, unadulterated, author's intention.

Murakami takes his time, building each and every comparable image until the surrounding, panoramic view of all the themes is viscous like a hot summer day. Then, he rapidly climaxes the issue with some bizzarely surreal event that makes perfect sense without total comprehension. This book is about a search for what is missing. Aren't we all searching for that one thing?

The characters in this book are great. Our protaganist is as defined as ever (I'm one of the lucky few English Speakers whose read the entire Trilogy of the Rat, so I can honestly tell you that this has the best character development for him). The little girl, the hotel receptionist, the actor. I don't want to spoil anything (I don't even want to reveal names!) but they all develop into something fantastic.

And don't forget the Sheep Man! He was my absolute favorite part of WSC, and he's back here, too. In the Sheep Man, Murakami has created such a tragic individual, who is mysterious and confusing and absolutely interesting to just sit and watch. Excellent.

I recommend this book to just about anyone who wants to try something new. Even if you hate it, I can garuntee that it'll be the weirdest thing you've read in a while. The reason I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 is because the previous entry, A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel, was a true masterpiece, and this doesn't top that.

Japan is a mundane society, having attained that level of development that does not allow for much leeway in living. I mean, most diseases are a thing of the past, and the only way out seems to be suicide {this is better explored in Norwegian Wood, another novel by Murakami}. This is a monocultural society that is everywhere the same. But, Murakami does his best in bringing some relief to the blank slate that is Japan. Four stars, Rick says definitely check this one out.

One of Murakami's earliest, and most straightforward, novels, it reads almost like an autobiography, and is nearly bereft of the usual Murakami literary tricks like Colonel Sanders, (talking) cats, and impossibly fantastical and surreal settings, save for a mysterious floor in a Sapporo hotel with a slightly scary Sheep Man. This Sheep Man warns our quasi-Murakami protagonist - whose name we never learn - that he needs to dance, in order to live. Perhaps since my perspective is that of a social dancer, I expected there to be some real kinetic dancing introduced in the plot, but no, instead we just get mental masturbation passing off as 'dancing.'

I've read others reviews, who write that they think this is Murakami's best, and while this is a highly entertaining, eminently readable novel, the author wove far more complex, masterful works in the 90's and over the past decade. In fact, Dance, Dance Dance reads more like a noirish detective pulp novel, where the best friend of the protagonist, who at least has a name of his own, figures very prominently in the deaths and disappearances of the many femme fatales that this book boasts. Going backwards as I've done - having read many of the newer Murakami novels, as well as some of the earliest ones - this book definitely feels like the literary training wheels were still affixed to the Murakami oeuvre. Bring me talking cats, or the Colonel, please. : )

"Propulsive" is the right word to describe Dance, Dance, Dance. Something like a cross between a murder mystery and mid 1990s pop-culture primer and existentialist novel, Murakami created a book that had me flying through it. And yet, DDD is by no means plot-driven. At times the plot simply seems to fade and descriptions of the "here and now" predominate (driving around with the clairvoyant 13-year old Yuki or drinking at the apartment of the narrator's movie star and long-lost high school friend Gotanda).

There are those out there who would give one star to a book like this out of some maniacal compulsion to always have a well-defined plot in front of them leading them securely down a and defined path when they can't appreciate prose for its own sake. But in my opinion, this isn't some flaw in the narrative of DDD; rather it's a challenge for the author: create something beautiful while we stand around waiting for something to happen. In many respects, Murakami does that in his descriptions of places, be it a beach in Hawaii or driving down a highway outside of Tokyo at night. These are some beautiful passages. On the other side, the constant name-dropping, descriptions of Yuki-- her entire character, in fact-- and mini-reviews of Western bands and restaurants (how many times can a person go to Dunkin' Doughnuts!?) felt odd and something like an attempt to impress us with how hip and complex the narrator could be. Throughout it all, nothing in DDD amounts to heavy lifting and the book is a fast read.

Unlike a murder mystery, DDD leaves loose ends. Again, some people may have a problem with every nut and bolt not being in place and tightened to death by the end of a book. Without some huge revelation, the reader is left to decide what exactly happened with certain elements of the story (in other parts, it's spelled out pretty clearly). Overall-- this being the first Murakami book I've read-- my curiosity is piqued and will be certain to try another book soon.

Most of the time, when I start to read or to listen to a book, I have a number of expectation of what the story will be about and how it might proceed. I have learned not to do this with books by Haruki Murakami. I selected this book based on having enjoyed The Wind-up Bird Chronicles, and decided I would just go with the flow and let the story reveal itself to me as I listened.

That is exactly what happened. Murakami slowly peeled back the layers of the story exposing characters and twists that I couldn't have anticipated. The narrator is a 30 something freelance writer. We find that he is going through the motions of living life; he lives each day, but doesn't really experience any of it. Just a taste here and there just as with the restaurant reviews he write. He'll order a vast assortment of delectable dishes, but only take a bite from each. His job is very much like this as well. He is a free lance writer who accepts pretty well every job that comes his way. He allows the jobs to direct the course of his life. The experiences that he tastes are all the result of these random jobs.

A continuing series of dreams about a run down hotel he once stayed in draws him back to Sapporo to the Dolphin Hotel. The old dump has been replaced by a modern steel and glass construction, though the essence of the old hotel remains. It is here that the narrator connects with the sheep man, who becomes his guide in moving him along the path to really living, to learning how to dance.

He is further aided along his journey by an unusual assortment of companions. Thirteen your old Yuki has been abandoned in Sapporo by her photographer mother and needs and escort back to Tokyo. I've already mentioned the fast talking sheep man. The one armed poet in Hawaii stops our narrator and sets him to wondering how how much that has changed/affected the poet's life. Then there is Gotunda, a former classmate of his who keeps popping back into his life via the movies that he has acted in. I'm still wondering if the narrator has a man-crush on Gotunda.

Rupert Degas was the reader for this story. He does a wonderful job of portraying all the characters. I particularly liked his voicing of the sheep man with his almost none pause speaking. When he spoke for Yuki, I was convinced that I was hearing a thirteen year old girl. Unabridged 12 hours 45 minutes.

Well, this may be an impartial review...i'm head over heels in love with Murakami's writing. And why i am so hopelessly in love? Because of books like this one. I won't get into the plot, i will not try to describe it, because no description would give justice to the magical way in which Murakami sucks you into his dream-like, imaginative world using only the power of words. This was my 6th Murakami book and definitely one of the best (though i really loved all the others too, no complaints or disappointments from the man so far). It's just unbelievably good - just give it a try, if you have an imaginative mind chances are you won't regret it.

p.s. you may want to read "A Wild Sheep Chase" before this one, since the storyline is connected - it's recommended, but not necessary :)

I just finished reading this book for the third time, and I simply love it. Last time I read a book three times I was a young kid who couldn't have enough of the adventures of the imaginary Apache chief Winnetou (Unabridged 2008 translation of Winnetou I).

So why is this book so dear to my heart?

This is a complex novel without being a lengthy one. And while it leaves you wanting more, the ending makes it the most satisfying Murakami novel yet.

The novel picks up the story thread from where A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel left it. Those who put up with the supernatural sheep and the otherworldly Sheep Man in A Wild Sheep Chase will be rewarded with a brilliant sequel, in which the author clarifies a few things. This time, there is no ovine-designed evil plot to rule the world, but a beautifully-written story about searching for meaning and lost love, and finding new love.

But nothing comes easily to the hero in a Murakami novel. He will need to apply all his energy into his quest. What looks initially like a distraction from his main task becomes key to solving the mystery of the disappearance of his loved one. A clairvoyant friend always comes in handy - take it from Murakami.

In this story, evil comes in disguise. There is no evil politician or organization leader like in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel or A Wild Sheep Chase. Evil is ethereal and hits from a deep darkness. Good also comes from darkness - a parallel world that is there to help the hero. Nothing is absolute in the universe Murakami creates.

In this book, you will find themes that are developed later in The Wind-up Bird Chronicle: the quest for a disappeared loved one, the clairvoyant helper, the powerful opponent. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle is undoubtedly a more complex, fully matured work. But Dance Dance Dance will remain closer to your heart. Who knows? You might even want to read it a few times.

A postscript about this novel and its relationship to the movie Lost in Translation [Blu-ray]: I believe Lost in Translation picked up some elements from this book: the luxurious mega-hotel with its bar and pool, a strong and pure connection between an older man and a young woman, the unexpected "gift" of a call-girl in the middle of the night. The elements are there and they are similar, but the book and the film aim to communicate very different messages. Murakami's story is dreamy and meditative where natural and supernatural worlds coexist, while the movie is hilarious, deadpan, and anchored in reality. Both are beautiful, though.

Earlier this year I had listened to Murakami's After Dark (audio) and liked it a lot, so I decided to listen to a few more of his books. In Dance Dance Dance, an unnamed man wakes up from a dream, shaken as he heard an old girlfriend and lover calling out to him. Obsessed by what has happened, the man feels he must return to the Dolphin Hotel, where the two had spent time early in his relationship with Kiki. At that time, the Dolphin Hotel was a somewhat rundown place. He feels he must return to the hotel, because Kiki disappeared from there four years earlier, and he is wondering if this perhaps, is her ghost calling out to him.

Our narrator has his issues. He's thirty-four years old, his wife ran off with his best friend a few years earlier, he is a freelance writer for a women's magazine who lives cheaply, and it seems pretty obvious that this man is a bit messed up. He is lonely, he has been abandoned by his wife, and now, as it appears, by another woman as well. When the unnamed man on a mission arrives at the old hotel, he is shocked; it is all different. It has been redecorated, and has gone from seedy to luxury. The owners are not the same, but yet somehow it is still familiar. He wonders why the new owners have not changed the name of the Dolphin Hotel, located in Sapporo, somewhere in Japan, and why is the receptionist so nervous as he questions her about the hotel?

A lot of strange happenings occur. A eccentric photographer and her thirteen year old girl named Yuki, with psychic abilities sheds wisdom on the political climate of the 1980s, and helps our narrator sort out other thoughts as well. And, pretty early on, references are made to the "sheep man", and it quickly became apparent that I should have read/listened to A Wild Sheep Chase first. There was no turning back at this point though, as I was too drawn into what was an addictive psychological mystery/ metaphysical experience of sorts. This story has much to hold the readers interest, dreams to be interpreted, lots of symbols to pick up on, as well as a constant sense of restlessness and foreboding. This novel was one wild ride.

This audio book was so good. The reader Rupert Degas made it all the more enjoyable. If you like audio books and want to read some Murakami, try this book. It got me so hooked, I am now listening to Degas reading The Wind Up Bird Chronicle which I am also enjoying.... (hope they find the cat):

Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949, and is one of Japan's most famous authors. He started writing at twenty-nine - the inspiration, apparently, appearing out of nowhere at a baseball game. "Dance Dance Dance" is his sixth novel, was first published in 1988 and is a follow-up to "A Wild Sheep Chase".

About four years have passed since "A Wild Sheep Chase" and the events of that book still cast a long shadow over our still-nameless narrator. For about six months after he returned to Tokyo, he tried - and failed - to figure out just what he'd been through. In doing so, he became a virtual recluse - he rarely went out in daylight, lost touch with just about everyone and avoided the real world as far as possible. However, some news did filter through - his ex-partner's new business is doing very well, while his ex-wife has now remarried. Still, it was only when his cat Kipper died that he decided to reconnect with society. Nevertheless, he leads a very solitary existence, is plagued by doubts and it still seems like he's just drifting through life.

During "A Wild Sheep Chase", our hero had stayed in the Dolphin Hotel in Sapporo with his then-girlfriend. Although he knew she'd earned a living as a high class call girl and an ear model, he never actually found out what she was really called. (Since the end of that book, however, he's discovered her name was Kiki). As this book opens, he's been suffering from a recurring dream - he's back in the hotel, and he can hear someone crying. He is now certain that Kiki is calling him back to the Dolphin, and that she's been crying for him in his dream. Although he feels he's now back on `steady ground', he decides there's only way he can move forward with his life : take a month off work, return to the Dolphin and find Kiki again. Unfortunately, he doesn't even get through the front door of the hotel before he gets his first shock : the Dolphin is now 26 stories of fashionably expensive steel and glass and the former owner is nowhere to be seen. The staff all appear charming, though nervous - apart from the goons in the back office - and initially, no-one is willing to talk about the hotel's former incarnation.

Luckily, our hero gets a little help as the book goes on. Yumiyoshi, the receptionist at the Dolphin's front desk, is the first to step forward. Then, there's Ryoichi Gotanda, an actor our narrator had been at school with - Kiki had made a very brief appearance in one of his movies. (In fact, it was Gotanda who was able to supply the name 'Kiki'). The book's most likeable character, however, was Yuki - a 13 year old girl who'd been staying with her mother in the Dolphin. (Yuki also had psychic tendencies, and, is spite of liking Culture Club, was probably the wisest character in the book). The Sheep Man returns briefly, though he's in really bad shape.

"Dance Dance Dance" has a great deal in common with "A Wild Sheep Chase" - occasionally sad and a little surreal in places. However, it's a very enjoyable read at the same time and it lands closer to a happy ending than its predecessor.Totally recommended, but read its predecessor first.

I read a couple other Murakami novels and they glanced off me, but this one stuck. An unnamed narrator, adrift in modern Tokyo, dreams of a girlfriend who disappeared years ago. He returns to the hotel where he last saw her and there discovers a secret floor that's a gateway to another dimension. On this floor he encounters the Sheep Man, making a return appearance from Murakami's earlier novel A Wild Sheep Chase. Our protagonist searches for his lost girlfriend, befriends a teenage psychic, and reconnects with an old high school buddy who's now a famous actor. The plot meanders between Tokyo, Osaka and Hawaii, but the pages keep turning. In the end, we find out what happened to the girlfriend, and our anomic hero learns what it means to reach out to other human beings.

Murakami is a bit of a one trick pony, but it's a good trick. He speaks through a disaffected thirtysomething narrator with a vaguely creative profession (the one in Dance, Dance, Dance is a freelance journalist). In flat, precise prose, this narrator takes us through his unremarkable daily life. At some point in the story, our narrator bumps up against another realm or dimension outside the quotidian one he lives in, a dimension where the past is present and dead people are still alive. Out of this collision with the metaphysical emerges a new understanding of the mystery and complexity of existence.

Why is this a good trick? Because the Japanese culture Murakami writes about is fascinated with surfaces and secrets. His hard-boiled prose captures the surface; his metaphysical plots expose the secrets. Although Murakami is very international in his outlook and his cultural references, his emotional preoccupations are Japanese to the core, which explains his popularity there.

Murakami also manages to wring a surprising amount of emotion from his tight, reportorial prose. The main characters in Dance, Dance, Dance want something they can barely glimpse and struggle to name. Murakami's best trick of all is that he makes their yearning so affecting.

This novel was simply a lot of fun. Murakami has a way of creating these off-beat, odd-ball, and solitary - I almost said lonely, but that wouldn't be quite right - characters that get thrown into these strange situations that provide for entertaining reads. For readers who are new to Murakami, this isn't a good place as although you can read this book on its own, it is a sequel to "A Wild Sheep Chase" and it helps to have read and been introduced to these characters previously. Our narrator, who is never given a name, is a freelance writer who starts the book with the simple desire to return to the strange Dolphin Hotel, a place he stayed at in the previous novel. From that point on, he meets a strange group of characters and makes some unlikely friends - a 13-year old girl, a beautiful hooker, a one-armed poet, and a famous actor - all of whom become attracted to the guy they constantly refer to as "different," although in a complimentary way. The prose, whether it's a function of the translation or not, is smooth and easy to read, and not much is vexing except for the plot. I always attribute my desire to understand everything to my Western perspective and education and I always find myself waiting for the climax where I presume an explanation of all of the off-the-wall events and threads, only to find myself a little disappointed at the end when I don't "get" everything. But that's OK in this instance becasue you don't need to understand everything to enjoy the voice of the narrator and the way he tries to navigate the mystery of "The Sheep Man," a being from another world that communicates with him from time to time. None of the plot threads make sense unless you read the book, which you most certainly should, especially after the hole that the last Harry Potter novel is going to leave, which I'm about to start.

*Dance, Dance, Dance* is a wholly original novel that's been rightly characterized as reminiscent of `a Japanese Philip K. Dick.' That's a compliment, by the way. If anything, Murakami out-[...] in this offbeat murder-mystery where the real mystery isnt so much whodunit, but nothing short of the `meaning,' if there is any, of life itself. A murder-mystery where the murder is only a subplot? Unusual, yes, but welcome to the world of Haruki Murakami. A work marred, or redeemed, depending on your tolerance for sweets, only by its somewhat syrupy ending, *Dance, Dance, Dance* goes down nice and easy thanks to a quicksilver plot and the smooth, almost conversational voice of Murakami's fictional narrator--an ordinary guy, who, true to hardboiled tradition, is doing his best to hold to a personal code of honor and decency in a world void of either.

With a minimum of sentimentality, Murakami gets you to sympathize with his quirky, but realistic characters, each of whom is broken in some heartbreakingly human way, even the `killer.' Has a `crime' even been committed, Murakami seems to ask, and if so, is it really what we think it is?

*Dance, Dance, Dance* is a novel that fits comfortably, if somewhat less comically madcap, alongside such recent novels as Matthew Sloan's *Fake Girls,* Jeff Noon's "*Vurt,* and the earlier Chuck Palahuniuk.

I would still rate 'South of the Border, West of the Sun' more highly, but this is Murakami's most flat-out entertaining novel. Although it's billed as a sequel to Wild Sheep Chase, and it is about the same character, _all_ of Murakami's novels seem to be about the same basic everyman character, and reading Sheep Chase first isn't neccesary (I read this before I read Sheep Chase). Still, Sheep Chase, as Murakami's first novel, provides a good point of reference.
The characters in Dance, Dance, Dance are almost exponentially more vibrant than those in Sheep Chase, from the bored, occasionally clairvoyant young girl who might have stepped out of a Salinger novel, to the plucky one-armed American poet. There's an almost cartoonish (not in at all a bad way) quality to these people; they stand out that much, and are that sharply drawn. The intriguing criticism of genius offered in Sheep Chase recurs, more subtly and kindly, in the form of a brilliant woman photographer who happens to be a very poor mother. Murakami is also unexpectedly kind to another character, the superificial actor Gotanda, who reveals a sharply human side. In the end, that may be exactly it about this novel; a sense of warmth and quiet joy underneath everything, even the more sinister events, which not many novels of this modernist type can muster. Every stroke of good fortune seems deserved, and every tragedy is lamented.

I found this novel much more enjoyable than the first novel in the series, _A Wild Sheep Chase_. Another reviewer described the enjoyment gained from reading this book as "falling in love for the first time all over again." My experience was similar.

This book reminded me very much of the feelings I had after watching the American film Beautiful Girls (1996). First, I was very disappointed to reach the ending of both stories because I wanted it to go on. Second, I was so enchanted with the little girl in each story that it did sort of feel as if I had fallen in love.

The one-armed poet and his oblivious yet brilliant photographer girlfriend, the washed up novelist, their sometimes obnoxious yet somehow always loveable daughter, the film actor forever trapped in film roles he detests and, of course, the protagonist himself make for a memorable cast of characters. The whole thing reminds me a bit of a The World According to Garp or A Prayer for Owen Meany except that I found this story so much more compelling than any John Irving novel I have read. (Please don't be offended, Mr. Irving. The fact is, very few works of fiction grab me in the way this book did. Even other novels by the same author. And, the fact is, I did enjoy Garp and Owen Meany. They were just different reading experiences than this one was.)

I finally found out why I love Murakami. Bear with me, because I'm still molding this idea... Murakami's protaganists are, for the most, not the typical Japanese sterotype. They don't work, or they little, or they work sporadically. They rarely follow tradition. They steep themselves in Western culture, trying to become Western. They reject their Eastern mindset without ever rejecting the East. They stay fundementally Japanese, no matter how hard they try to push away from that life. I think that many Americans feel this same way (flip-flopped, obviously). How many Westerners have become Buddhists? How many steep themselves in the insane culture of modern japan (wether it be Anime, video games, J-pop, whatever)? How many long for the East and reject the West without ever leaving the mindset? Many. I'm one. Murakami's books are the perfect relic of modern life. In our interconnected world (connected by Wind-up Birds and Sheep Men alike), cultural identity is something we long to shrugh off. Yet we can't. We dance in a never-ending sprial of life.
Dance Dance Dance is just as good as Wind-up Bird. Unlike Wild Sheep Chase, it does not have that brevity, almost short story quality that marred A Wild Sheep Chase for me (which isn't to say I didn't like it..just the opposite, it is certainly one of my favorite books, just not on par with Dance or Wind-up Bird). There are certain things we need to forgive Murakami for though. He certainly has a stock leading man. But so did Hemmingway, and no one is cursing him for it. The Hemmingway-Hero is a legit archetype now. Murakami repeatedly uses the same themes and motifs throughout his work. Well, so what? What great author hasn't? Pynchon and Dellio consistently do, but no one questions their ranking amongst the great writers. Murakami is a great writer, of incredible depth and insight. He is one fo the greatest treasures of the International literature scene, and there is no reason whatsoever that we should question his validity as a writer of genius Literate Fiction with a capital LF.

I picked up Murakami on a whim. I had been exploring Japanese literature, but my preferences were for the ancient works. Yet, something about it spoke to me. Maybe it was the wild title, maybe it was the synopsis, maybe it was fate.

What I found was a strange, surreal noir. At heart, it's a detective story. The search for a long-lost love (so cliche that it becomes subversive and the subplots seem to take center stage) in a place out of memory that isn't what it seems. The narrator wanders through a dreamland of wild experiences pulled from Murakami's imagined reality that just drips with an old-school sensibility. It almost seems perfect for a 30's or 40's era noir film, pulpy and beautiful.

What I liked most about it was how empty it all felt. His narrator is a loner, and the world that was built emphasized this. It just seems a lonely book, and all the characters seem motivated by loneliness. It's a great atmospheric, not overly dramatic but understated in the dry humor in the piece.

What seems most interesting is how the narrators various threads of story all eventually come back to the main plot, which becomes muddled throughout the tale. It all comes back to point out the interconnectedness of people, the power of consequence and luck in determining destiny, and a kind of grand design where it all seems to work out without any reason why (even when working out isn't the best option). It's not deus ex machina, it's how real life seems to work, and Murakami captures that chaotic purpose beautifully.

I've gone on to read other Murakami, but this one stands out in my mind, being the first. It's a sequel to a book I'm not sure I want to read, but it's complete on its own. I don't want to know about the narrator's previous adventures, that's how good this book is at telling this man's story. A wonderful tale, highly recommended.

Before I start actually reviewing this book, I should note that I haven't read any of Murakami's other books, so I can't comment on how this one compares. I was also unaware until just now that the book was a sequel to "A Wild Sheep Chase." I actually have a hunch that "Dance Dance Dance" works better without having read that book, but obviously I can't say for sure. At any rate, it stands on its own.
Despite containing many impossible things, "Dance Dance Dance" is a very realistic book. I say this because not everything that happens fits neatly into an overarching structure, and some events never end up making sense. Neither of those things are true of most novels, but they almost always apply to real life. The characters, weird as they are, almost all have authenticity. This is especially true of the nameless protagonist.
It's necessary to learn what to expect from this book. If you read it looking for a straight-up mystery that resolves itself in the traditional way, as is tempting, you will be disappointed. What you can expect is an entertaining, darkly surreal, and ultimately reassuring story which probably would have been classified as urban fantasy had it been written by an American or British author or magical realism had it been written by a Latin American. Seen that way, I really can't think of any particular flaws in it. The lack of a fifth star is due to the absence of superlative things, not the presence of bad ones.
The authors this book reminded me of most were Philip K. Dick and Neil Gaiman, though it doesn't resemble either so strongly.

Murakami has cashed in on the deserved success of A Wild SheepChase by writing what is superficially a sequel. He grabs a couple ofthe old characters, but quickly drops them. He introduces several new people, but he doesn't do much with them either. He's a writer desperately trying to clutch at wacky sub plots to bolster a weak central story. He alludes to everybody from Agatha Christie to Nabokov and sprays us with hundreds of empty references to popular culture. Where the quirky characters in the Sheep novel propelled the protagonist through the book, here they are just quirky for the sake of it. The one armed Vietnam vet/poet with a talent for making sandwiches is a fairly desperate apology for the author's lack of imagination: the guy has clearly escaped from a lesser writer's menagerie - perhaps an early Ben Elton book. Murakami borrows liberally from other writers and has a lot of pastiche, self-parody and self-deprecation. The novel has a minor character called Hiraku Makimura a novelist (the same age as Haruki Murakami) who by his own admission writes "crap novels". The character used to be the bright young thing of Japanese literature but now everybody has seen through him and he is reduced to cashing in on earlier successes by regurgitating old material! You can't accuse Murakami of taking himself as seriously as some of his readers do! I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anybody who wants a light read, but my earlier reading of Murakami had led me to hope for something more challenging and ambitious. In this novel he's just treading water. The protagonist is likeable, sympathetic and a wonderful companion for this 400 page ride. He is a worthy representative of this post-everything age, an introverted, decent man looking for meaning and direction, but also a man who is reduced to killing time: "I bought this...and this...and this...I didn't need any of them, but I wanted to kill some time. I killed two hours". He's tried everything - money, sex, marriage, cars, travel, business; liked them all, but ultimately found them all wanting. Now in his 30s he's just drifting in search of something...anything? This character was well developed in A Wild Sheep Chase, but he doesn't evolve much in this novel.

The problem with this novel, apart from it being a sequel of another novel, A wild sheep's chase, without it being made clear on the cover, is the dullness of the unnamed protagonist, whose dullest activities are described at lenght. The other charachters are more interesting, expecially Yuki, whilst others are basically unresolved, loke Gotanda. For a crime novel it lacks a climax, for a psychological-philosophical-sociological novel, well, we all know that "everything must end","times are a-changing", "everything is connected", "show biz is dehumanizing" and other breath-taking insights. The best Murakami is in 1Q84, believe me

Please note: reading Wild Sheep Chase beforehand is not necessary. There are a few references to the events in Wild Sheep Chase (which I read) and reading it first will definitely improve your enjoyment of this novel, but it is not required (though recommended).

Murakami continues the adventures of the nameless, loner protagonist which features in several short stories as well as Wild Sheep Chase. He is solitary, yet continues to get pulled into strange and mysterious circumstances surrounded by memorable characters. What is nice is that the protagonist is a blank slate, a polite, perfectly content individual; very easy to like and even identify with.

The supporting cast in this novel is among the best created by Murakami ~ even more memorable than Nakata who speaks to cats! Kiki is a gloomy 13 year old with a hint of clairvoyance, Fisherman and Bookish are two run of the mill homicide detectives, Haruki Makamura (interesting anagram) the average author, Ame the forgetful photographer, Yuniyoshi the new love interest of the protagonist, and Dick the one armed poet. And let's not forget Gotanda, my personal favorite secondary character, a popular actor depressed about his life and routine he is trapped in.

Without giving anything away, the protagonist is simply getting by day to day as he did early on in Wild Sheep Chase, when he takes a trip to Sapporo to revisit the old Dolphin hotel. Needless to say, things have changed and odd events began to occur, pulling our solitary protagonist into a whole new set of problems. He meets up with all of these interesting characters over the course of his travels from Sapporo to Tokyo to Hawaii and back.

The novel seems to play with the ideals of society and the inherent problems facing so many people attempting to live in this mold. The protagonist paints the picture of an okay life being solitary, yet he yearns for companionship and love. Through the novel we see him gradually taking a liking to several people and even admitting becoming close friends with a few. The supporting cast is far from 'normal' and this is even more of an attraction for the protagonist.

With plenty of deeper meaning to the novel, one finds multiple readings rewarding. Also, though Birnbaum is not my favorite Murakami translator, I think that his bare bones translation conveys the crisp and to the point style of Japanese language and serves well in this novel. Some things are lost in translation (as they always will be), but rarely is an extra word added where none is needed. It almost reminds me of Dickens, where so much is conveyed by so little prose. Plus, the flow is simply great. I read this novel the first time in three days, I couldn't wait to get back to it after work or at lunch or between tennis and bedtime!

Any Murakami fan needs to read this novel, it is quintessential Murakami and ranks among his best works.

I couldn't get out of the bathtub until i finished this book! It's so engrossing, although you might not find that until you've realized you're deep inside a contemporary Tokyo mystery story. It's so engrossing that I accidentally found myself reading at the dinner table at Tony Roma's instead of talking to my boyfriend. However, if you get THAT excited over Murakami, just read aloud b/c you'll be spreading the word, and it's definitely worth sharing. In fact, my boyfriend thought the description of the Dolphin Hotel in the opening pages was brilliant. It's not any one thing that distinguishes this novel, but it's unique all the same. The narrator has an almost fetishistic mode of observation. He constantly undermines himself and his status by describing those around him in larger-than-life terms and delineating their various incredible qualities. but by the end of the novel, you realize that the one who comes out intact is our very own, humble and unhip narrator. And what a relief that is after all the close calls we experience vicariously through him! Dance Dance Dance is a paradoxical novel b/c it's both lighthearted and very easy to read while also raising and considering deep epistemological questions. I loved that combination, and it made the book both comic and also heartbreaking, a nice duality in these times.

Not a bad book but it is a bit like an amalgam of some of his earlier and more accomplished works. Most of it feels reashed from other novels or ended up being used used to better effect in later works such as "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" (which I read before reading "Dance, Danc, Dance"): the same lost and unmaterialistic narrator out of touch with his surrounding enviroment that likes to cook, had a cat and a wife but not so anymore, the befriending of a female teenager with an unsual sensitivity to the world around her, the intrusion of the surreal in the mundane through a specific cathaliser, etc etc. If you read 5 of his books there is nothing new for you on this one. I still think "Hardboiled Wonderland And The End Of The World" to be his best and still stands as his most original when compared with the rest of his body of work.

The same traces of the japanese culture are again meticulously quoted all along the story. Again a lot of "exotic" characters as usual: a Hotel receptionist (Yumiyoshi), a famous actor (Gotanda), a rebel 13 years old girl (Yuki) daughter of a photographer and artist, divorced woman (Ame) and a retired writer (Hiraku Makimura), a single-armed guy (Dick North) who lives with Ame, a gay (Nakamura) who lives with Hiraku, two prostitutes (May and Kiki), two police officers ("fisherman" and "bookish") , among others.
The story travels both in space and fantasy, the protagonist who is the writer (don't remember mentions of his name) travels from Tokyo to Sapporo, Hakone and Hawaii, and inside his dreams or imagination (Old Dolphin Hotel, darken room in a mezzanine of an old Hawaiian office building, dark corridors, and a mysterious room where a sheep covered man sits alone reading by a candle light and waiting for something).

*Spoiler Free Summary*
"I often dream about the Dolphin Hotel."
That ^^ is the first sentence of this novel. This novel follows the 'dance' performed by and unnamed protagonist as he attempt to uncover the mysterious disappearance of his girlfriend. He is drawn to the Dolphin Hotel by recurring dreams of someone (who he assumes is his girlfriend) crying for him there. Once at the Dolphin he begins crossing paths with a variety of characters that help him to uncover the truth behind his missing girlfriend.

Characters:
Unnamed Protagonist: A freelance writer who makes a fine living but considers his work as no more than 'shoveling snow'.
Yuki: A 13year old girl whom he comes to meet through Yumiyoshi.
Yumiyoshi: A hotel staff member at the Dolphin
Gotanda: A young actor who attended school with the protagonist.
KiKi: girlfriend
Mei: A prostitute.

I was initially put off by the tone of Dance Dance Dance. I had just reread Catcher In The Rye and was looking forward to a very different read. Strangely the tone reminded me a little of Holden Caulfield (maybe because i just finished Catcher) which I found off putting and strange. However as the story began to unfold, the tone started to sort of take a life of it's own. For me, this novel was a very slow burning flame that was set ablaze towards the end and then flickered out soon after. Though there was an amazing part withing the last 80 pages of this book, it was only 5-10 pages long and this book is obviously longer than that. Adding to my dislike of this book, it reminded me too much of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I'm sure that I would have been able to give this book a higher rating if I hadn't read Wind-Up Bird first.

With that said, Dance Dance Dance get 3.5stars from me.

I'm only at page 297, 100 more to go, but Murakami's writing moves me, like only a few others have done.
There are similar metaphors in this story as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: a relationship with a young teenager who doesn't fit in at school, wealthy benefactors, baseball bats; and the writer in first person, who is in a state of limbo, taking a break from work while he tries to adjust his metaphysical, subconscious life to regular daily events that take place. And it can all be rather odd.
Personally, I relate to the state of mind that he describes,[unfortunately without the psychic experiences], but the odd floating spaces that we can occupy as our life jetstreams by. Initially I thought of Murakami as a Japanese version of Isabel Allende, but I only believe this superficially now.
He is Japanese, but what he writes about is global.
I'm totally seduced.

this is my second haruki murakami novel, having previously read "norwegian wood". i wont go into detail about how much i enjoyed the novel, which is apparent anyway from my rating, but i do want to agree with the reviewer who mentioned that the english text is abridged.
i read the novel in the mandarin-chinese translated edition, and though i ( not being able to read japanese) obviously cannot be certain that the chinese version isn't somewhat abridged as well, after comparing segments of the book i own with an english translated and adapted version, i found several substantial differences, and I have reason to believe that the version i read is probably closer to the original text.
I actually felt, very strongly, in fact, that I liked the chinese version i had read more as it seems more in the style of HM ( but having read norwegian wood in chinese also, i cant promise that i dont have an unclear perception of what his style is), and some segments in the english text make the novel seem boring( e.g the narrator rambling on and on), while in the chinese text there is more use of free indirect discourse/stream of conciousness and it's hardly as annoying.
so, perhaps, if you didn't enjoy the novel because of that, dont blame haruki murakami. blame the translator.

New Yorker contributor and former Princeton lecturer, Murakami manages to garner critical acclaim while enjoying great popularity both in Japan and abroad in translation. The central character in Dance Dance Dance has recurring dreams about a Sapporo hotel he once stayed in years ago with a girlfriend who has since disappeared. He returns finally to the old Dolphin Hotel and finds it has been transformed into a chain hotel but has retained the original name. In the parallel universe of the hotel, the lead character meets the teenage psychic Yuki, her bizaare mother Ame, and Dick North, Ame's one-armed American boyfriend. In the search for Kiki, the missing girlfriend, Murakami takes the reader on a psychedelic ride. Translator Alfred Birnbaum has done an excellent job in staying true to the nuances in the original Japanese text.

Haruki Murakami mostly writes books that fall into two categories: either the 'confused but in love' bucket, or the 'confused young man finds himself totally weirded-out' bucket. The first category has Murakami classics such as 'Norwegian Wood' and 'South of the Border, West of Sun', and the latter has 'A Wild Sheep Chase' and 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle'. 'Dance, Dance, Dance', being a sequel to 'A Wild Sheep Chase', is about as weird as anything published by Murakami. And it is about as good, ... which is to say it is very good indeed.
It is very hard to explain the novel since the story is so .. strange, convoluted, surreal, etc. We have altered realities, a 13 year old spoilt girl with precognition powers, and a befuddled young Japanese man caught in the middle. It all works, sort of. Believable? Not even close.
Bottom line: a book best enjoyed by seasoned Murakami readers. Fans will love it.

I'd read two of Murakami's novels before, and several of his short stories, but I had yet (and still have yet) to read A Wild Sheep Chase. I didn't realize that Dance Dance Dance was its sequel when I picked it out at the bookstore. I just knew I needed Murakami back in my life, and the description on the back of this book sounded the most intriguing because it promised an 'oracular sheep man'.

The verdict is, it didn't matter that I hadn't read A Wild Sheep Chase. Well, I'm sure there are things I didn't quite pick up on (like what's up with the ear fetish?) and of course the Sheep Man was more mysterious to me than he may have been to others, but that didn't detract at all from the main plot or the overall reading experience. AND, I think it will be uniquely interesting to read A Wild Sheep Chase now, with this story in mind. I like series that you can read out of order and each book still stands alone.

One of my favorite things about Murakami is that no matter how different I am from his main characters, I am always able to see the world very precisely through their eyes. Whether or not you really care about the people Murakami writes, you can understand them on a complex level. He lets you inside of their world. Without limits.

It helps to have read "A Wild Sheep's Chase" before venturing on this book as this is a continuation of the story from it, but I can see how you do not need to have read "A Wild Sheep's Chase". However, your enjoyment might be blunted without the knowledge of the adventures and misadventures that the protagonist experienced in "A Wild Sheep's Chase".

Typical of Murakami, there are otherworldly elements of fantasy and science fiction permeating throughout the book. The story pulses along a magical beat that doesn't let down. It was a thrilling, addicting read and I couldn't put it down. I took one star away from the rating because I found the ending rather unsatisfying and it left me hanging.

I've said it before, I truly do like Murakami alot because he likes writing these normal situations like eating donuts and reading a newspaper and watching TV in his stories but for some odd reason it just never gets boring. This book is the sequel to "The Wild Sheep Chase" which became one of my favorite books this year. And yes, it does connect to everything eventually. Still, as most sequels go, I liked the first book better and I do think it could have gone without this little book. But I bet the "Sheep Man" fans wanted this book and it started getting stranger and stranger as it finally wrapped up the little twists. I do have one complaint about this book though but it's a little thing really. One of the characters in the book was this Filipino prostitute whom Murakami wrote as someone who speaks very broken English. The thing is though, Filipinos don't speak in broken English, bad grammar maybe but NOT broken English how can they, when other than Tagalog, English is also their national language and you learn it from Kindergarten on. Anyways, that was my one gripe. But then again, maybe it was due to the translations.

If you desire a mindless fast-paced action-packed novel, try Tom Clancy. Every facet of this novel is developed beautifully and flows at a perfect pace. At no point did I feel that any aspect of character, emotion, setting, or meaning had been rushed. Definitely, it is the type of novel that, when finished, requires you to sit and contemplate situations in your own life.

This novel, like many of Murakami's, is an analysis of contemporary Japan, the intrinsic carnal desires of man, the malignant qualities of capitalism (and the exuberance of the modern world), and the roles we play in relationships with others. I can't say enough positive things about it. "Deep" aspects of the novel are eased through introduction and analysis with tidbits of humor and opposing arguments that are perfectly placed and aid in keeping the narrator from coming off as preachy and self-indulgent. All of this is wrapped in a fantastic fiction-mystery-scifiesque social commentary. Definitely read it.

As a side note, this novel is entirely readable and enjoyable without reading, A Wild Sheep Chase, the precursor; however, reading Sheep beforehand will definitely give you more of a connection to the narrator and story. The author was, by no means, "shoveling cultural snow." Keep Dancing.

This is a good book. Murakami's writing involves detailed characters who do not always know where they are going nor who they are. The characters and environment are detailed and exquisite, making one want to visit the places written about.

This book includes a sideline into a metaphysical world for the narrator, which helps to drive him and guide him. By the end of the book, typical understanding of all the events and characters may not be achieved but a sense of peace is created.

When you read this book, do not expect typical Western narrative structures, details or a sense of closure. As with other Murakami books consider the leaves, on the trees in the forest.

By far my favorite Murakami novel. A first person story telling rich with delightfully descriptive language... long moments enjoying a meal, a beatles song, a phone conversation. As usual with Murakami reality mixes with a dream state.. the terrifying and the terrifyingly dull. Worth owning since you will want to read over and over...

murakami has created a genre all of his own, so of course the themes are going to be similar. i was initially disappointed with this novel when i first read it 6 years ago, but re-reading it now i was all wrong.
beyond the psychic teens, haunted-hotel-in-other-dimension, dead prostitutes, film-noir cops and our nameless 30's protagonist is a loopy but nonetheless moral tale about obligation and connection.
murakami's characters always reach their enlightenment through relative inaction; stop work, don't take calls, go to hawaii or sit in the bottom of a well for a few days.
dance dance dance leaves you with a feeling of completion, yet unease- what was the price of the final chapters' actions?

I have reviewed a lot of works of art, and many reviews have been silly or insulting, or just plain stupid, but I must say, seriously, that this book (and all by Murakami,) is wonderful.
I love them all, but "Dance, Dance, Dance" takes the proverbial cake. Many complain that the protagonists of Murakami's books are all too alkie, and they find this to be a fault. I suppose I can see that, but damn, I love the Murakami protagonist, and I love every other recurring theme he uses. These are the books I have always wanted to exist, the books I have have always dreamed of writing. I can only advise reading them. All of them. Now. I mean it.

A Wild Sheep Chase had me out the door on my way to pick up this sequel before I had even finished, causing much worry among those sharing the road with me as I read and drove. Murakami's tightly woven loose story continues to descend and ascend through the shadows of everyday life and explore the ambiguities and absurdities of the world. This is an incredible blend of comedy, metaphysics, detective stories, and horror, with plenty of other spcies added along the way.

The story reminds me of ball lighning or swamp gas--a bizarre anomoly you cannot explain and may not fully fathom, but are endlessly delighted by.

I was given this book to read by someone who said it sucked. Having heard a few variable opinions on his books, i decided to make up my own mind. I really quite enjoyed it as its unlike any book i've read before. Its well written and the story unpredictable. I like a bit of dream/supernatural in my books, just a little bit of it, and even though i didn't in the end understand what the hell happened, i still liked this book so much i immediately went out & bought another, Kafka on the Shore. There's a sense of greater things in these books, and a high degree of readability that keeps dopey people like me reading them even when we don't "get it". So i found its not a bad thing to "not get it" & learning that alone is worth the effort.

I know "A Wild Sheep Chase" (WSC) is a revered Murakami book and that "Dance, Dance, Dance" (DDD) is widely regarded as not in the same league as WSC, or the "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" or "Kafka on the Shore" but I thought DDD a much better book than WSC, superior also to "South of the Border, West of the Sun" and "Sputnik Sweetheart" and "Norwegian Wood" and up there with "Kafka on the Shore" though falling a bit short of "Wind-Up Bird" which is still Murakami's masterpiece I'd say. As far as DDD, the homage to Raymond Chandler is obvious and much appreciated. If Philip Marlow had grown up in Japan, listened to a lot of 60's classic rock (as well as the classical music Marlow fancied) and also liked swimming, cooking, housekeeping, and post-modern irony and metaphysics, then bang--you'd have the anonymous narrator of DDD! The beauty of this book is in the laconic, ironic, satirical, yet also compassionate, decent, and kind narrator. Those are tough qualities to combine, and Murakami pulls it off. The anonymous narrator, much like Chandler's Philip Marlowe, is a guy you'd love to hang out with. He's funny, laid back, honest, and basically a decent guy. He can admit his faults and while he's a little self-centered, he'd own up to that fault in a hurry, and compensates for it by being very patient and very loyal to his friends and fair to his enemies. He doesn't hate, doesn't want what he doesn't have, doesn't aspire to be famous or rich, doesn't hold grudges, and can see the world from the other guy's perspective. I would argue it is the essential likeableness of Murakami's narrators that makes him so readable. And the narrator of DDD is one of the most endearing of all of them, I would argue.

As others have noted, I don't think the plot is the reason you read Murakami, so I'm not going to go into that much. Suffice it to say it will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens to them all and the ending doesn't disappoint. But it's for the style, the tone, the questions he raises, the way he makes you look at your life from a whole new angle that you read Murakami and why you should read DDD. Of course, the re-appearance of the Sheep Man in DDD is just a joy difficult to describe. Has anyone else noticed that there is a reference to Siberia (and how awful it is) in almost every Murakami book? Along with swimming, cats, and parallel universes, Siberia is another recurring Murakami theme, though one seemingly less noticed. It's brief, but there in DDD...

Murakami seems to write two different novels: straight up love triangles (if there is such a thing) like "Norwegian Wood", "South of the Border...", and "Sputnik Sweetheart", or metaphysical detective stories like "Wild Sheep Chase," "Hardboiled Wonderland..." "Dance, Dance, Dance", "Wind-up Bird Chronicle" and "Kafka on the Shore". I've noticed some reviewers like the love stories more, some like the detective stories more, and some, like me, enjoy them both. I think "Wind-up Bird..." is the best liked of all Murakami novels because it is kind of the best of both worlds, mainly detective story, but also love triangle with a parallel universe, all melded into an interesting and enjoyable single narrative. "Kafka.." comes close to doing the same thing, but not as smoothly. I think "Dance, Dance, Dance" integrates a compelling love triangle with a solid metaphysical detective story. So if you like Murakami, don't skip "Dance, Dance, Dance," just because it doesn't usually get the raves the other books get...

Let's face it, confirmed Murakami fans--which means just about everyone who reads one of his books--will read this book sooner or later, and that's a good thing. It's not as celebrated as many other Murakami novels, it is a great read that I highly recommend to you.

I read Norwegian Wood and a collection of Murakami stories (After the Quake) before reading this novel, which combines the poignancy and malancholy fatalism of the former, and the cynical humor and supernatural elements of the latter. It is a delicious brew.

I won't repeat plot summaries you can read elsewhere because no description of the plot conveys the flavor and texture of the book. You would not read the book based on the plot anyway.

My only criticism of the book is that the ending, while it did not betray or ruin the book, did not seem true to the arc of the story. In any event, that is a good subject to chew over with a friend who has also read the book.

EDIT: I now regret reading this book before I read A Wild Sheep Chase. I highly recommend reading A Wild Sheep Chase first, and then Dance Dance Dance. Loved both books - but they are best read in that order!

I think the greatest complement a book can receive is that you actually miss reading it. Often we go to the movies, read a novel, and two months later you can barely remember seeing/reading it. I miss this book, perhaps more than other Murakami's work. If you haven't read anything by him yet, you must try it.
It's hard to describe the style of the book, but I think he has a pretty universal appeal. A little strange and familiar at the same time. Weird things happen, but he describes them in a lightly straight-forward way.

There are already a number of helpful substantive reviews of this novel, and I will not repeat that discussion here.

But what the previous reviews do not make clear is that the English translation of "Dance, Dance, Dance" significantly abridges the original Japanese text. The casual reader would have no way of knowing this, because the only reference to this fact is the cryptic notation on the copyright page that the novel was not only translated but also "adapted" from the Japanese.

How much of the Japanese text was "adapted" away? My rough estimate is that something like 20% of the original has been cut. While I have not done a detailed study of what has been deleted and what has been retained, a few spot comparisons show a rather troubling and cavalier editorial approach that retains the broad strokes of the novel's structure but tramples much of Murakami's carefully-developed texture.

Anyway, the upshot is that if you can comfortably do so, try to read "Dance, Dance, Dance" in a non-English unabridged translation. If you can't, the novel is still worth reading in English -- but you are getting a bit of a Cliff Notes version of the original.

In Dance Dance Dance, we are drawn into Murakami's typical murky world where our nameless narrator from "A Wild Sheep Chase" continues to search for his place in a world of "advanced capitalism" - struggling to place meaning behind a world of false values/aspirations and pressures to conform.
Old friends such as Kiki, the Sheep Man, and his copywriting partner surface for a much welcomed appearance - while new warm and fuzzy characters are introduced in familiar places such as the Dolphin Hotel to further propel the plot.
Murakami succeeds in Dance because he forcefully reminds us of the true value of things in everyday life. He tactfully revisits old themes such as - not realizing the value of things until it's too late - the fragility of the human psyche - and the pain of losing loved ones. Further more, only Murakami can compare and contrast the value of Rolex watches, Maserati sports cars with the joys of preparing and savouring simple but rich, mouth watering homemade-meals.

After flipping through the last few pages of Dance, I am glad to say that it feels as though I have fallen in love for the first time all over again.

Winsome window into the quiet and confused soul of the narrator, whose name I wish I knew but the author chose not to disclose. Shadowy sheep, dead women and a 13-year-old girl haunt him yet he never manages to lose his sanity or humaity. The language is lyrical and haunting in its own right.

A remarkable book well worth reading.

This was the first Murakami novel I've read but I'm addicted now. The man is a master.

This book is simply an incredibly good read. It is brief, to the point and very entertaining. Everytime you pick up a book like this, you cherish every moment you have, anticipating what happens at the end. Every line, paragraph, page, chapter is simply worth anybody's time. I read this when I was 12 ( a year ago) and I still remember everything that happens; it is simply too entertaining. Kudos to Haruki Murakami and Alfred Birnbaum.

Once again a tale of disappearances, murders, deaths, telepathy, spirits and premonitions come together into the life of the narrator to put together all the details that will put his life back together hard to put down as usual!

Rarely does a book leave me scratching my head and wondering if i read everything correctly. I loved this novel with its absurd fantasy story and characters. It made me wonder if people like this really exist or we have to make them up. A friend had told me about the book and hadn't quite "gotten" what it was about. But the writing flows and before i knew it, i had finished it. Maybe its time to read it again. I highly recommend it for someone that is looking for a different kind of book to read.

This is one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read. Murakami is splendid in plot, substance, and literary style. The metaphor of "shoveling snow" is especially an apt description of the world today. Actually, one of the greatest feats of Murakami is that he is able to mix the fantastical with the ever so real and mundane reality of everyday life. This book is about a 30-ish protagonist search for his ex-girlfriend and the various people he encounters and adventures he undergoes in the search. In the book Murkami takes you from neon-lighted districts of hip modern Tokyo to darkened chambers in Haiwaii. Despite its various adventures in psychic wonderland, you are never out of touch with the capitalist modern Tokyo whose lifestyle is emblematic of that in New York or any other modern city. This books is on par with Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and loads better than his earlier novels--Norweigian Wood, Pinball 1973, Hear the Wind Sing. A definite read.

Murakami describes a strange place; it cannot be Japan or any spot on this earth. It is a land where cooking spagetti is an art form, where one admires girls for the beauty of their ears, and rides elevators to move between layers of reality. Reading this first person narrative, you feel transported to this land. You read sentences but the simplicity of the sentences should not fool you in believing that the tale it tells is also simple. On the contrary!

I am glad to see that the translation was fairly good. I have a copy of this title in original language and this book is the one that I love to read over and over again. We always find slight awkwardness in a translated foreign literature, but this case it was not that annoying. That is simply why Murakami's novels have strong force that swallows us into his world. IT IS A JOY OF LIFE!

Dansu Dansu Dansu is the best Murakami novel so far. But please read all of them, starting with Norwegian Wood, the short stories, then Wild Sheep Chase. I read these while living in Taiwan. It struck me how many of my Taiwanese friends also described Murakami as their favourite author. The narrator has universal appeal as he draws the reader into his world, one filled with dry wit and deadpan humour. The characters are unforgettable, from his girlfriend with large, erotic ears in Sheep Chase to the Sheep Man himself and the quiet Ms Yumiyoshi at the Dolphin Hotel. I dreaded finishing the book, as I felt I had become close friends with the narrator. I almost bought a used Subaru and learned how to cook, just like the narrator, after finishing the book. I even began studying Japanese in hopes of reading the original language titles. But now at least we have one more of Murakami's books to read in The Wind Up Bird Chronicles.

I would probably have been more impressed by "Dance, Dance, Dance" if I hadn't read several books by Murakami before. I felt that this was a mediocre book by his ususal standards, which of course doesn't mean that it was bad - far from it.

The book is a contintuation of "A Wild Sheep Chase". The nameless narrator returns to the Dolphin Hotel in Sapporo and a series of events, including murder, ensues. The usual Murakami mannerisms (e.g., food, brand names) are there, and the conclusion is, as always, open-ended and ambiguous.

My main objection is that the mid-section of the novel, especially the trip to Hawaii, didn't do much for the story.

let me give you a perspective. I loved norwegian wood, liked wind-up bird a lot and enjoyed "Kafka". I find Murakami so entertaining and easy to read. So full of imagination. But Oh boy, Dance dance dance was boring. a very bad copy of wind-up bird, same "hidden place " of the protogonist's self which was a well in wind up bird, is a hotel here, and does NOT fit!
The teenage girl who was beleivable and charming and the relationship that made sense between a guy in his thirties and her in "wind up bird", is just gross in this book. His jokes about her not wearing a bra yet or having her period are just gross.I really like murakami and I wonder why he doesn't stick to his adolecent characters who are not adult men. Plotting an old guy next to a teen ager might be sexy for some people, not for me!
another thing that is missing in this book is the depth to the disaster, the hero is superficial, not like "wind up" layered hero with well-elaborated past life and dreams, and all those amazing war stories. Here we have nothing more than a superficial serial killer case, out of a cheap hollywood movie.

I read this story in Japanese first and I thought the traslator did a wonderful job. I understand that translating "I" from Japanese into English is sometimes hard job and I think the sentimentalism of the main character, "I", is weaker than the original Japanese version because of that. But this is still wonderful book.

I just finished this and contrary to my prior expreriences with Murakami's books I should say I'm glad it finally got over because this was for, for most of it's running length, one of the most BORRRRING books I've read.
The story actually began extremely well, in the author's trademark vein. Here his protagonist feels psychically drawn towards the Dolphin hotel, an utterly run-down place in a Japanese province called Sapporo, where events had happened to him years back. He decides to lay off work for a while and go down there to check out on it, only to find that it has been completely torn down and replaced by a flashy new upmarket hotel bearing the same name. However, all is not mundane, as he discovers that beneath the shell of the new place, the old hotel is still lurking around housing a mysterious character called the Sheep Man. It's quite an interesting concept, the idea of a 'haunting hotel', instead of a haunted one and would have served as an excellent premise for Murkami to set up his trademark parallel universe.
But unfortunately for us, Murakami does very little to actually flesh out the concept and instead, has his 'hero' being carted off by destiny to various places, meeting various people who're oddballs in one or the other sense. But unlike his other books, the formula here seems very watered-down and bland. For all his attempts he is never able to generate the sense of connection between the various incidents and people necessary for one to feel hooked by it - most things just feel very arbitrary and tacked-on. The characters with the exception of the hero's actor friend Gotanda come off as dull props that you don't care a whit about. Even Murakami's prose for long stretches of the book comes off as rather...well...prosaic. his descriptions of the hero's routine get painfully repetitive since, unlike his previous books, they do nothing to push the story ahead or give any further insight into his character. He tries to pull the strings together for the last act where he returns to the hotel, but IMO it seems as arbitrary as the rest of the book.
In short, this book was for me a waste of time. But I do sincerely recommend Wind-up Bird Chronicle and Hard-Boiled Wonderland as impeccable classics by the author.

I don't understand why people read Murakami's books with an expectation of a strong plot going on. I mean seriously. Why? Murakami's books are fragile and just really random. I find that he stresses more on the idea of his books than forcing a straight plotline. The central point of Murakami's books generally tend to be rather cliche. Human interaction, life, death etc. But his prose is just so stunning and mesmerizing. Who enjoys a Picasso painting to appreciate the accuracy of human anatomy? What unrealistic expectations. Gosh. Murakami's books are certainly a sort of a hit and miss thing, since you either hate it or you love it. I find the entire fun is the journey of the reading and enjoying the fragility of his ideas. I definitely don't ever expect a straight plot out of Murakami. And I'm glad he writes as such. It's refreshing now, in repetitive and monotonous "journey of life" plot-lines where characters, plots and dialogue have just gotten stale.

Two things are sure about Murakami's writing now:

1. It's out of this world. Every book leaves something and changes me.

2. I am having troubles describing it.

Most amazing is how you are able to synchronize with the character's state of mind. All this calmness and deepness, you think that you should first get into similar mood in order to read, but once you start, your mood is itself shaped by the book.

5 stars doesn't do justice to this novel. It has been some six months since I put the book down and it shall be many, many years before I pick up another book that will catch my imagination so. Despite what other reviewers have written, I say that this is the finest of Murakami's works. No questions. That's all.
Never before have I felt so enveloped by a written work. It kept me warm during the cold weeks of a Japanese January and the very mention of this novel or it's author sends me scurrying back to my blankets, on my futon, inside my futon closet (of all places). Emerging from this novel was like emerging from the most perfect of dreams. A worthwhile meal. A delicious Christmas.

Murakami takes the hard-boiled mystery and gives it a post-modern, jokey twist. The first half of the novel is almost unbearably slow, as it takes too many pages to set up the story. But the characters are fascinating and the story becomes compelling in the second half. It is very hip and sly; it mocks the genre gently.

The hotel in Murakami's Dance, Dance, Dance seems to have been built by the same guy that built Danielewski's House of Leaves.

I didn't enjoy this one as much as Hard-Boiled Wonderland... but it still had some entertaining moments and was certainly worth the read.

That said, I didn't feel that it was a particularly special or memorable werk.

Haruki Murakami can do no wrong, proven yet again with this amazing piece of literature. Gives incredible insight on the culture of Japan in an over consumer based system along with hitting right on the dot on how lost people have become in an age of unimaginable communication.

What a disappointment. Having finished "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" a couple of weeks before, I was excited to be wrapped up in a completely new invention of Murakami's, but it turned out to be more like a trial run. It almost makes me want to go back and change my assessment of The Wind-Up Bird simply because now it feels recycled and reused. The main character feels like the same aimless, disconnected bachelor, there are people hidden in hotel rooms in alternate dimensions, there are psychic powers, there's an adolescent girl who smokes with whom he has a completely platonic relationship while perpetually noting her beauty, there's a cat named Kipper instead of Mackerel, there's a rich guy close to the main character who somehow reeks of violence (who also happens to be the "most popular" everyman we all supposedly went to school with, and who resides in Murakami's short stories as well, even as he protests through the main character that this guy barely meant anything in his life). Our hero, who usually cares little for money winds up with a lot of it, is divorced with a wife who just walked out without warning one day and is befriended by an independent and sexually blossoming thirteen year old girl. We are now meant to believe that in spite of his completely unremarkable personality that the world has been altered drastically in order to tell him a short message, with which he does little to nothing.

There is a complete lack of bother when it comes to explaining why events happened the way they did in the story. It's as if when Murakami needs a plot twist, something supernatural (and thus conveniently inexplicable) happens, and we are supposed to marvel at the incredible connection. It was charming in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but this book lacks the depth of plot and charm to back it up. The passion and mysteriousness of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle just isn't there in "Dance Dance Dance."

I have finished four of Murakami's works and I found this to be the most compelling and rewarding. I did not know that this was a sequel to A Wild Sheep Chase when I started it, but it soon became obvious. I found the resolution at the end of this novel much better than Hard Boiled or Wind Up Bird. This book ended with hope for me, but Wind Up Bird really started to drag a bit half way through and I didn't like the surrender to darkness that ended Hard Boiled - although it was a brilliantly executed work. Read a Wild Sheep Chase first.

Not quite as immersive as before, but worthy nonetheless. Murakami's literary love lives are as strange as they come. In a vain search to find a glimpse of a woman he'd known before, Murakami plows the depths of the protagonist's pysche. The clarity and disclarity of his writing never ceases to amaze.

I cannot adequately describe how wonderful this book is. Everyone should read it. Now.
I actually read this before i read _Wild Sheep Chase_, but i'm glad i did. It easlity holds itself up without knowledge of the earlier events. Reading _Sheep Chase_ afterwards then strengthened the experience of having read the sequel, which is actually a more solid book. Read both, but read _Dance Dance Dance_ first. trust me. just read it.

Murakami and Paul Bowles are my favorite authors. Don't ask me why. I guess it's because they see something beyond reality. Dance, Dance, Dance is a facinating experience, but it's also simply a fun read.

I love Haruki Murakami. Love him. You get the most wonderful nostalgic feeling when you read his books, whether for the first time or the third. He's a very nostalgic writer, creating atmosphere with music, weather, and poignant description of every day things. I can't explain it, it's like the warm, fuzzy glow you get from the Christmas season.

I'm generally struck by Marikumi's surreal narratives and spare, lyrical prose, but Dance Dance Dance is pretty disappointing disappointing disappointing, with none of the kind of profound weirdness that makes A Wild Sheep Chase such a moving read. Here, the prose seems forced, the plot stilted and boring, and the characters lifeless--none of the magic captured in 'Sheep' crosses over into this semi-sequel. The lack of the Marikumi touch here makes some of the book's weaknesses ever more glaring, particularly the author's tendency to rush an ending after doggy paddling in characterization for 300+ pages...not his masterpiece, for sure.

After I read Dance, Dance, Dance from cover to cover and over and over in Japanese. I find that it is exciting the translation version is available. First of all, I must gave the credit to the translator, who did its best to translate the "thinking" of the writer, not just word-to-word conversion. However, it is hard and often impossible to translate the culture and racial mind-set into different language. For the English version, it lack of excitement and sadness of what I proceeded from the original version.

Having read A Wild Sheep Chase just before this, I can attest to the complexity of Murakami's writing and character creating skills. Read separately or in conjunction with A Wild Sheep Chase, this novel is a lovely look into the mind of a character with complex inner workings and a past to overcome. I love this book and would definitely recommend it with or without reading A Wild Sheep Chase.

1. LE FREAK
2. DANCE DANCE DANCE
3. I WANT YOUR LOVE
4. HE'S THE GREATEST DANCER - WITH SISTER SLEDGE
5. WE ARE FAMILY - WITH SISTER SLEDGE
6. DO THAT DANCE
7. GOOD TIMES / RAPPER'S DELIGHT
8. STONE FREE - WITH STEVE WINWOOD
9. CHIC CHEER

This was the first Murakami that I read and I've just read it again. It's an easy read but still full of ideas and thoughts. You owe it to yourself to read it, especially if you haven't read him before.

My third Murakami book - just love his relaxed and rather idiosyncratic style. He seems to make the normal and slightly abnormal interesting. I think of him as a fairy tale writer for adults. Wonderful.

Technically this is my first book by a Japanese author and Japanese culture has always fascinated me. The book starts on a promising premise...and has an intriguing and intriguingly simple protagonist. He seems like a loner, has spartan habits and long philosphical discourses with himself. Where the book loses me is the entire science fiction/surreality of the story, the premise. Some ghoulish Sheep Man, some wierd 13 year psychic girl...towards the end, I was flipping pages just to see if Mr Protagonist will solve the riddles he presents, in some very insightful ways, and interesting interpretations of his reality.

Loved this book. Maybe the best Murakami book I've read. I really fell into his world, feeling that his insight into the character's lives was continually poignant and full of a human empathy. of course, its also surreal and uncanny in that special murakami way.

This is the third Murakami novel I have read and they just keep getting better and better. This book is full of interesting twists and turns, but with a mix of fantasy that keeps you on your toes. I haven't finished it just yet, but I am sure I won't be disappointed.

Well it's more than nice, sometimes Dance Dance Dance can be a little overwhelming on the fantasies, but i like it. Bizzare but still normal. I especially like how Murakami makes all the connections connect. He's got some nice sense of humor. And it leaves you with just the nice pleasant feeling.

As usual, I found this Murakami book an excellent read. While it moved a bit slower than Hardboiled Wonderland for instance, it still had me reading at every possible moment. Love, confusion, parallel realities, what more can you ask of a book?

I read Sputnik Sweetheart and loved it.

I read South of Border and it was ok.

First 200 pages of Dance Dance Dance were interesting, and I read last 100 just to see ending, which is disapointing .

I don't recommend book to anyone.

This was my first Murakami novel. It took me some time to get the hang of his style. I found it strange and compelling, full of atmosphere, a nice surprise. It has been a long time since that last happened to me.

If you have read Murakami before, you will find that Dance Dance Dance is not his masterpiece. The story is long and boring, the main character is pathetic and full of self pity and the plot is a mixture of previous books. If you have never read Murakami I suggest you start with A Wild Sheep Chase, which is by far his best book.

The book starts out boring. Plan on it: the entire first third of the book is nonsense. When the action does start, it brings up the following concepts: we will all die; young people's lives are crumpled by the society and their parents; like any other living organism, we--the humans--have to dance to the life's tune to survive. If you are interested in Murakami, this is not the right book-; you can read the "Sputnik Sweetheart," or the "South of the Border..." The latter is actually my favorite, as it seems to be talking about real people's lives and feelings.

No plot or direction in the slightest. An absolutely flaccid dribble of a story that neither leads, nor eventually goes anywhere, don't hold your breath for a climax or you might "disappear" like the indecipherable characters and their never explained connections to each other. An absolutely horrible, dribble, of a book.