An unnamed character had a meaningful dream that pushed him to find the Dolphin hotel he used to be a customer some time ago. Once he finds it, a chain of random coincidents is taking place filled with mysteries, secrets and symbols... So typical for Japan.
Brilliantly written, poignant, plot-addicted, explosively real and unvarnished story of a lonely, unnamed man who lives in two worlds at the same time: metaphysical and physical; experiences weird coincidences, meets strange people on his way, relentlessly is trying to find something but he is not really sure what it is he is looking for. In this mysterious and tensed atmosphere a reader is transferred to this surreal/real world and curiously follows the adventures of the main character and his secret life…With him, we feel a need to find Dolphin hotel-a place he once was dragged in by his lover-Kiki. Back then she disappeared and he never heard of her again. Following his inner voice he decides to get there back and find her but it turns out Dolphin hotel was renovated and the owner changed. However, there are still some old remnants of the old place he remembers. Once he is in everything starts happening….a chain of unexplained events, strange acquaintances with: a nervous receptionist, virtual sheep man on the virtual 16th floor, a clairvoyant teenage girl etc. If that is not complicated enough, murder plot is also included. How to cope living in the world like this?-'Dance, dance, dance as long as music plays' prompts the old sheep man…
Murakami is a master of hallmarks and symbolism-so typical for Japan; this enriches his novels, touches our imagination, and let us see the profound connections with seemingly, "superficially" unconnected world.
Recommended for all serious and ambitions readers who can read between the lines and join all these separate parts of the story together to see the battle of human mind and reality in one person.
'DANCE,DANCE,DANCE'…..as long as the music plays…(long review)
There is not such a writer in the world who would present contemporary human's concerns in the advanced capitalist mayhem- so difficult to describe- in such an interesting and compelling way as him. Haruki Murakami is one of a kind. His language is absorbing, his ideas are interesting with a pinch of mystery and intrigue. Placing the readers smoothly into this surrealistic world he is able to evoke a rainbow of different emotions in them, maintaining the atmosphere of restlessness, and a kind of fear..- abstract notions that, one would think, are indescribable he masterly gives them some shapes.
The story includes one main plot but surrounded by many other subplots. Moreover, omnipresent symbols -so typical for Japan (and Japanese) and present at Murakami's writing too..-, shifts into altered reality, restless and well-developed characters, element of suspense and resulting curiosity and most of all that mysterious, nervous and secret tone make his narration so fascinating that once we start reading we simply do not want to put the book down.
Murakami's empathy for a reader makes his writing appealing; all his words he puts into the main's character's mouth seem to be stuck in readers' minds unspoken…Therefore, we can identify ourselves with him so easily. We have the impression he takes our thoughts out and puts them down on paper. Perhaps that is the reason why Murakami did not give a name to his main character…and now he can take over the name of every person who is reading the book…-looks like another close cooperation with the reader who is treated individually here.
Because of the presence of these two worlds: surreal and real (where is the boundary between them?)it is quite hard to describe the main plot unequivocally.
In a word, a lonely and misfit man(34) was once brought into Dolphin hotel-strange and lonely establishment- by the girl he claimed he loved-even though he did not know her name- who out of a sudden "upped and vanished" mysteriously. Haunted by ghoulish dreams that she was calling him he decided to find her so got back to the same hotel just to find out that the place was redecorated as the owner changed as well. Still there were some remnants of the old building though. Looking for Kiki- as it turned out to be the girl's name- he plunges into the wind tunnel of sexual violence and metaphysical dread in which he collides with call girls, receives cryptic instructions from the sheep man, who is living "hiding from the system" and is not seen by everybody…His instruction is: "Dance, dance, dance as long as the music plays"….,otherwise you might get lost in these 2-dimentional life…
Troubled by dreams, haunted by death and intimations of another world (murdered prostitute, another death of a person he knows, eventually his actor-friend commits suicide) the main character encounters weird personalities on his way, who are joined up together in their isolation: Kiki, psychic teenage girl, a one-armed poet, a nervous desk clerk-Miss Yumiyoshi etc. Lonely people with the restless feeling of longing for something/somebody…
'Dance, dance, dance' deals with the topics of loss and abandonment on the one hand and the survival in the capitalist country on the other. Murakami's characters frequently lose girlfriend, mother or spouse. In his other novels he also touches the themes of alienation and absurdity stressing the connection between human beings as if he wanted to say…whatever you feel-whether it is loneliness, depression etc- you are not the only one with that emotion, for there are plenty of others who experience very similar, not to say the same feeling. Thus, following his characters often you can find the picture of yourself from distance that makes you remember that you are a part-not a separate unit- of a big group as human species is.
