What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
What I'm talking when I'm talking from running (Japanese走る こと について 語る とき に 僕 の 語る こと, hashiru koto ni toki ni boku no tsuite kataru kataru koto ) is an autobiographical book by Haruki Murakami, in which his story from running and the work as a writer writes down.
Data
The book can be seen as a summary of his life and the lessons learned. The first edition was published in 2007 in Tokyo. The German edition, launched DuMont Verlag Cologne in 2008 ( ISBN 3832180648 ), in a translation by Ursula Grafe. In 2010 it appeared in paperback in btb Verlag, Munich.
Content
In the first part Murakami cites reasons that move it up and running. The physical fitness is important to him and the constant challenge to break the record of the previous day, it is up to the age of forty the incentive to move. The point at which he realizes that he can not improve his times, chasing him a shock. A motive would be lost. He struggles with the fact of growing old and accept the associated limits of its performance. With the description of his sport Haruki also describes his character and his way to deal with life. Without his physical limits to feel again and again, he could not follow his vocation as a writer. It combines running with writing to a symbiosis, where the One could not exist without the other.
After his school education and studying Murakami founded a jazz club that he and his wife after the first few years of hard work brings a decent credit and some free time allowed. In such a pause he get the idea to write a novel. With his first book " A Wild Sheep Chase ", he takes part in a competition for young and unknown authors and wins to his surprise, the first prize. From then on, he decided to devote himself entirely to writing and, despite opposition from all sides, his well-known club on. A complete change in lifestyle follows. His physical work now turns into a spiritual. This leads him to find running as compensation and as his strong addiction to cigarettes with this sport can not be combined, he even has this habit on. From now on, he trained his focus to concentrate as long as possible attention to a single project. To this end, he claims, a healthy body is an important prerequisite. Only a trained body is able to behausen a strong spirit.
In the second part Murakami told mostly in chronological excerpts from his life. His first major running event was the birth route in Greece in 1983. More significant runs were next to the Antalya Marathon 1983, which Saroma Lake -100 - km ultramarathon in Hokkaido in 1996 and the New York City Marathon 2005. On the trail of past, the writer goes through his running routes again in the head. Murakami goes to Greece, where he runs his first marathon under the burning sun of Athens to Marathon ( birthplace of the marathon ). On these 42 kilometers, it is accompanied by a team of reporters from his native Japan. From then on, Murakami is scheduled to participate in a marathon. One of his greatest achievements is the completion of the 100 -kilometer run in northern Japan, where he crossed the finish line after eleven hours forty-two minutes. In the last chapter he tells how he participates in search of new challenges in a triathlon.
Reviews
Steffen Gnam of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: Running the Void contrary: Haruki Murakami philosophizes about the analogy of running and writing - and thus covers his poetological method on. Virtuoso he juggles with the cryptic, the supernatural, with bits and pieces from contemporary history, pop culture, Eastern and Western mythology ...