Underground Paperback – 4 Sept. 2003

It's strange to say that I enjoyed reading about a terrible attack, but I did. There are interviews from victims in the first part, and interviews from cult members in the second part. The first part left me feeling sorry for the victims, and at times incredibly frustrated. I'm honestly surprised that there weren't more deaths considering what happened.The second part was just as interesting. I'd had no idea what the cult was like so reading a bit about their practices and some of the other issues they had within was a surprise.

This book is a good book, and a noble project: Murakami wanted to hear the stories of those affected by the 1995 sarin gas attacks, not just the stories of the perpetrators, widely reported in the news.Part I of the book contains interviews with those survivors. If you are looking for something to read for diversion, some of the accounts are repetitive. Read to understand the human cost of a cult's desire to do whatever it was trying to do, though, this may be part of the point: the survivors, in one capacity or another, form a real chorus. I was conscious that the voice that allowed me to conjure up a person behind it most clearly was the Irish jockey trainer's: was he actually speaking differently, was he untranslated, or is it just that my Anglophone familiarity makes conjuring him easier for me?Part II, written a few years later, contains interviews with people who were members of Aum in 1995. In contrast to Part I, Murakami interjects more in these interviews, challenging his subjects. In doing so, I felt that he was betraying his premise, somewhat, or trying to understand how Aum held a darkened mirror to the rest of Japanese society: his preface to this section emphasises the unsettling relationship between Aum and Japanese society, but then drifts into general assertions rather than careful analysis. Thus, I found myself wishing for more of Louis Theroux' approach to these interviews, disarming his subjects - most of whom do seem genuinely sympathetic.

Haruki Kurayama does Svetlana Alexievich*, brilliantly.Not an easy read: An island nation, whose inhabitants would rather walk past, than help?Been there... but if you have the capacity to help?I have been there too,And I have helped.A dark exploration of the Japanese Psyche (although I doubt that it is a unique 'psyche).* If you have read 'Underground', and want to find more (It is hard to say 'enjoyed', as there is little joy, in 'Underground') read Chernobyl Prayer/Voices from Chernobyl, by Svetlana Alexievich: Short stories spoken by those who were there.

This is an important book. It deals with so many dark subjects - terrorism, cults, fear of death. Also as a westerner its fascinating to see how the Japanese view themselves as a people and how they think they are perceived by the rest of the world. The accounts are deeply touching at times and sadly almost without hope for the future which i believe is one of the most telling things this book reveals. We may think of the Japanese as a very robust people and society and yet Murakami lifts the corner of the tatami here and shows something starkly different.

This was something of a struggle to read, Murakami is an excellent novelist and his talent with words is impressive so I was disappointed to find that the majority of the text is uninterrupted testimony from the victims of the Tokyo Gas Attack. While it was noble of Murakami to give a voice to these victims and family members of victims, it does become a tad repetitive, each chapter essentially being a variation of the same story. It's only towards the end when he speaks to medical practitioners and family members that the stories vary and the book becomes more interesting.Murakami received criticism for Underground that he only really took the perspective of the victims and missed out the perpetrators altogether. In the second part he makes up for it by interviewing members of the Aum cult responsible for the Gas attack, but not the ones directly involved. It makes for a fascinating portrait of how people get caught up in new religions and become trapped while escaping one society by another (that's not too dissimilar to the one most of us inhabit. The testimonies vary significantly and as a result this makes a much more interesting read than Underground.

Order due date 4 Dec, order received 5 Dec 2018.Condition/not new but good.Useful for Murakami readers/researchers of his narratives.

A really interesting read. Fascinating to hear about the everyday preoccupations of commuters, unexpectedly disrupted by being attacked with nerve gas on their way to work. Chilling. I don't know much about Japan, but it was interesting to compare and contrast what I imagine would have been the reactions and descriptions of Westerners in a similar situation. Is there something intrinsically different about the Japanese psyche, which Murakami seeks to uncover here? Some of the victims made a point of phoning into work to say "sorry, I've breathed in a lot of sarin and have to go to hospital now. I may be slightly late for work." - would Londoners have done that?The victim interviews are set against the interviews with people involved in the cult which committed the atrocity. That was really chilling, how thoughtful and intelligent but perhaps socially inept and isolated young men can get involved with a nutty belief system like Aum Shinrikyo, believing it be the answer to everything. This event from 1990s Japan seemed very relevant today. I was reading this book when the Islamist bomb attacks of 22nd March 2016 occurred in Brussels, and the book really opened a new perspective for me. Clearly the terrorists are to blame for their actions, but is there something about our society which invites attack by its own citizens who've been influenced by a death cult?