FINISHED READING - What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

'An unhealthy soul requires a healthy body. This might sound paradoxical, but it's something I've felt very keenly ever since  I became a professional writer. The healthy and the unhealthy are not necessarily at opposite ends of the spectrum. They don't stand in opposition to each other, but rather complement each other, and in some cases band together. Sure, many people who are on a healthy track in life think only of good health, while those who are getting unhealthy think only of that. But if you follow this sort of one-sided view, your life will not be fruitful.'*

Written between 2005 and 2006, and published in 2008, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, is the nearest thing to a personal memoir murakami has so far written. It reveals a very different person to how one might assume a world famous successful novelist of Murakami's standing might be. Someone who is a lot less sure of himself and his capabilities, and as he ages, has to accommodate the diminishing of his abilities as a runner.

In early adulthood Murakami ran a successful cafe/jazz club. It was only after his first few stories were well received and sold well that he took the decision to refocus his life around writing.  And, with the arrival of a more settled, sedentary and less topsy turvy life, he took up running. Knowing that shorn of a busy lifestyle, his predilections for junk food would settle around his waist, so regular exercise became an essential part of keeping his senses alert and capabilities lively. The writing and the running, in this sense were always considered as mutually supportive.

In What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, he uses the history of his engagement with competitive running as a metaphorical mirror that reflects the evolution of his own writing, his confidence as a writer. Interwoven into this are glimpses into the ordinary everyday life of Murakami, how he utilises his days, how running supports so much of it. And then there are the examinations of his motivations whilst running, the philosophical ruminations upon his physical health and experience whilst running, the exaggerated worries about his complaining knee failing him as he attempts a New York Marathon. And as his capabilities and running times diminish over the years, adjusting his expectations and aims for himself from long distance running. The bottom line becoming not to ever be reduced to walking to the finish.

Unexpectedly I really loved reading this book, it is full of personal reflections and perceptions that I personally resonated with. And you can't help but warm to Murakami's humanity, his frankness and honesty about his own petty vanities and expectations of himself. How he keeps himself on top form both as a writer and a runner, by the regular focus on the practice of his craft. He comes across as quiet but quite admirable person.

'There was no wind at all. Many of the other runners around me were just silently trudging towards the finish line. Being among them gave me a quiet sense of happiness. Breathe in. Breathe out. My breath didn't seem ragged at all. The air calmly went inside me and then went out. My silent heart expanded and contracted, over and over, at a fixed rate. Like the bellows of a worker, my lungs faithfully brought fresh oxygen into my body. I could sense all these organs working, and distinguish each and every sound made. Everything was working just fine. People lining the road cheered us on....their shouts went right through me. Their voices passed clean through me to the other side. 

I'm me, and at the same time not me. That's what it felt like. A very still, quiet feeling. The mind wasn't so important. Of course, as a novelist I know that my mind is critical to doing my job. Take away the mind, and I'll never write an original story again. Still, at this point it didn't feel like my mind was important. The mind just wasn't that big a deal.'*

CARROT REVIEW - 6/8

* Extracts from What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
   by Haruki Murakami, Published Vintage 2008