"Swann's Way" by Marcel Proust

I was led into Proust by a friend who claimed it was some of the best writing ever. She was very right. I understand, now, the acclaim often given to Proust's work. In the same vein of Marquez, I found this first of seven installments in Proust's larger piece to be dreamy and cathartic. Numerous times his descriptions go on for pages upon pages without a paragraph break because it does not warrant a break. The manner in which he, so accurately, paints the way we view things when young and remember things once older was otherworldly. We are led into the book through our narrator remembering moments and feelings from his childhood. We are introduced to the compellingly complex Swann and then, mostly, the story takes his point of view and he meets, falls for, grapples with inner demons about, and finds resolution with his "love", Odette. As a man in his mid thirties I was engrossed in the story telling and the accurate understanding of the point of view. Proust so elegantly and specifically identified the feelings one encounters during and after a love affair. I have the second installment in my possession and look forward to delving in to it.

"Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" Haruki Murakami

Murakami's writing was recommended to me because I had mentioned how much I enjoyed Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This novel certainly tended to the reasons why I like Marquez. It was rather ethereal and almost poetic in it's prose. Many scenes were almost hypnotically penned giving the reader an outer body feeling or, perhaps, the sensation of being in a dream. The novel follows two apparently separate stories. One is of a man in Japan who is hired to code research for a scientist and the other tells us the tale of a man whom is separated from his shadow in a strange land. The two stories share similar themes at moments but are set in different worlds with very different casts of characters. The novel is charming and I will gladly seek out more Murakami in the future.