In Search of Haruki Murakami

1. Very Short Literature Quiz
Answers at the end
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2. 1. Fill in the blank
• Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat,
drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.
• For thus hath the Lord said unto me,
____________ , let him declare what he seeth.
• And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen,
a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he
hearkened diligently with much heed:
• And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually
upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am
set in my ward whole nights:

3. 2. X?
X was written by a former Entertainment Weekly
writer, who has said that the construction of the
character of the primary ‘antagonist’, was to
challenge the traditional perception of women
as being innately good. The novel also explores
the effect of economic downturn on marriage;
and lying between partners in marriage. The
antagonist was played on-screen by an ex-Bond
girl.

4. 3. Lit Spat 1: X and Y, please
I have been bitten, I must avoid infection
Or else I’ll be as dead as _______’s fiction
Read his last novels, you’ll see just
what I mean
A lethargy, approaching the obscene
The model is more ho-hum than Dickens
The essays have more bite
They scatter chickens like critics, but
each stabbing phrase is poison
Since he has made that snaring style
a prison
The plots are forced, the prose
sedate and silly
The anti-hero is a prick named Willie
Who lacks the conflict of a Waugh or
Lawrence
And whines with his creator’s
self-abhorrence
The poem on the right,
called the Mongoose,
was written by the
Nobel Laureate X , to
attack another laureate
Y (The Blank), during a
famous literary spat.
Who are X and Y, and
why the name, the
Mongoose?

5. 4. Pretty Simple: ID Novel
• “She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing
four feet ten in one sock. She was ____ in
slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was
Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she
was always ______”
• The second blank gives the answer.

6. 5. Give Y?
• Max and the cats is a 1981 novella about Max, a
Jewish-German who faces the wrath of the Nazis
for having an affair with a married woman. He
runs off on a ship for Brazil.
• Y, a 2001 novel, is ‘inspired’ by what happens next
in ‘Max and the Cats’, as the author himself has
acknowledged, saying he was inspired by a
review of the book. While the plotlines are very
similar, critics have said that while the plot
summaries are similar, their content, length and
structures are different.

7. 6. Of Big Cats in Novels
X’s sacrifice in this 1950 book is an allegory for
Christ’s crucifixion. Like Christ, he sacrifices
himself for a traitor, he is then seen resurrected
by two women, just as Christ was. The novel also
borrows heavily from Norse and Greek
mythology. Before the second world war, several
children had been evacuated to the English
countryside, and three girls came to live with
the author in his house near Oxford. What
novel?

8. 7. Lit Spat 2: X and Y?
The image on the right is
of X, after being punched
(blackeye) by Y, at a
Mexican cinema at a
showing of Superviventes
de Andes, about the
infamous 1972 flight
disaster. The altercation
was due to X’s closeness
to Y’s wife, Patricia. X won
the Nobel in 1982, and Y
in 2010. Y also ran for
president of his country.

9. 8. X, pictured below on a website, where he answered questions from
readers recently in 2015. These included questions on his works, but
also relationship advice and general chit-chat. ID X, who is notoriously
known for being reclusive, so much so that a documentary exists,
‘_____: In search of this reclusive writer’, which talks to his translators
and his fans, and traces artifacts and tropes from his world (like the
ones below) , and tries to build a picture of him.

10. ANSWERS FOLLOW QUESTIONS NEXT

11. 1. Fill in the blank
• Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat,
drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.
• For thus hath the Lord said unto me,
____________ , let him declare what he seeth.
• And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen,
a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he
hearkened diligently with much heed:
• And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually
upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am
set in my ward whole nights:

12. Go Set a Watchman

13. 2. X?
X was written by a former Entertainment Weekly
writer, who has said that the construction of the
character of the primary ‘antagonist’, was to
challenge the traditional perception of women
as being innately good. The novel also explores
the effect of economic downturn on marriage;
and lying between partners in marriage. The
antagonist was played on-screen by an ex-Bond
girl.

14. Gone Girl

15. 3. Lit Spat 1: X and Y, please
I have been bitten, I must avoid infection
Or else I’ll be as dead as _______’s fiction
Read his last novels, you’ll see just
what I mean
A lethargy, approaching the obscene
The model is more ho-hum than Dickens
The essays have more bite
They scatter chickens like critics, but
each stabbing phrase is poison
Since he has made that snaring style
a prison
The plots are forced, the prose
sedate and silly
The anti-hero is a prick named Willie
Who lacks the conflict of a Waugh or
Lawrence
And whines with his creator’s
self-abhorrence
The poem on the right,
called the Mongoose,
was written by the
Nobel Laureate X , to
attack another laureate
Y (The Blank), during a
famous literary spat.
Who are X and Y, and
why the name, the
Mongoose?

16. X-Derek Walcott; Y-Naipaul
The Mongoose were brought to the Caribbean
from India by the British.

17. 4. Pretty Simple: ID Novel
• “She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing
four feet ten in one sock. She was ____ in
slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was
Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she
was always ______”
• The second blank gives the answer.

18. Lolita

19. 5. Give Y?
• Max and the cats is a 1981 novella about Max, a
Jewish-German who faces the wrath of the Nazis
for having an affair with a married woman. He
runs off on a ship for Brazil.
• Y, a 2001 novel, is ‘inspired’ by what happens next
in ‘Max and the Cats’, as the author himself has
acknowledged, saying he was inspired by a
review of the book. While the plotlines are very
similar, critics have said that while the plot
summaries are similar, their content, length and
structures are different.

20. Life of Pi
Both are about being ship-wrecked on a boat with an
animal. The former has a Jaguar, the latter, a Tiger.

21. 6. Of Big Cats in Novels
X’s sacrifice in this 1950 book is an allegory for
Christ’s crucifixion. Like Christ, he sacrifices
himself for a traitor, he is then seen resurrected
by two women, just as Christ was. The novel also
borrows heavily from Norse and Greek
mythology. Before the second world war, several
children had been evacuated to the English
countryside, and three girls came to live with
the author in his house near Oxford. What
novel?

22. The Lion, the with and the wardrobe:
From the Chronicles of Narnia series

23. 7. Lit Spat 2: X and Y?
The image on the right is
of X, after being punched
(blackeye) by Y, at a
Mexican cinema at a
showing of Superviventes
de Andes, about the
infamous 1972 flight
disaster. The altercation
was due to X’s closeness
to Y’s wife, Patricia. X won
the Nobel in 1982, and Y
in 2010. Y also ran for
president of his country.

24. X- Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Y-Mario
Vargas Llosa

25. 8. X, pictured below on a website, where he answered questions from
readers recently in 2015. These included questions on his works, but
also relationship advice and general chit-chat. ID X, who is notoriously
known for being reclusive, so much so that a documentary exists,
‘_____: In search of this reclusive writer’, which talks to his translators
and his fans, and traces artifacts and tropes from his world (like the
ones below) , and tries to build a picture of him.

26. Haruki Murakami