Deal Me in Challenge: The Year of Spaghetti by Haruki Murakami

Card Drawn:

"1971 was the Year of Spaghetti."

I have been anxiously waiting to draw another diamond card so that I can finally read something by Haruki Murakami and "The Year of Spaghetti" did not disappoint. I absolutely loved this short-story! It took me a while to warm up to him but he is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. There are not too many gifted writers who come to mind that are able to perfectly encapsulate the overwhelming sadness from loneliness and self-alienation with such poignant brevity. He cultivates a concise and elliptical style through accessible language, transforming the banalities of ordinary life into something magical. His beautifully constructed sentences pack an emotional punch with only a few lyrical brush strokes. 

On the surface, a story about a guy cooking spaghetti in his apartment might sound pretty dull but somehow Murakami takes this simple premise and molds it into an illuminating and meaningful whole. For those who might not be familiar with Murakami, nothing is ever simple despite their outward appearance. His stories are not constrained by the narrative conventions of plot; rather, they ebb and flow with unpredictable spontaneity like a jazz piece. Dreams and reality are not always so distinguishable from one another--the defamiliarization of objective reality being a distinctive pattern in his work. Ambiguity and equivocal endings abound. Yet, "Year of Spaghetti" is one of his more understated and straightforward narratives without any encounters of the uncanny or metaphysical intrusions. The short-story's brevity engenders a heightened intensity with an unexpected tenderness of vision towards suffocating loneliness. 

The protagonist's obsession with cooking spaghetti is not only a matter of routine but an important ritual, providing his life with purpose, a source of comfort against the hostile outside world. However, more importantly, it becomes a coping mechanism to heal a deep-rooted pain and unhappiness. He has retreated into social isolation and become a hermit, rarely leaving the apartment unless to presumably re-stock on spaghetti. Avoiding human contact and directing all his energy into cooking spaghetti is a distraction from confronting his own personal struggles. He feels empty, alone, numb and crippled by self-alienation. He imagines inviting people over for dinner such as a girl he has a crush on or movie actors from the golden age of Hollywood such as William Holden and Jennifer Jones. Murakami might be considered a "Japanese writer" but he evinces cosmopolitan sensibilities so it is not uncommon to encounter many references to American pop culture in his work. There is even a literary reference to J.G. Ballard, a science-fiction writer known mostly for his short-stories.   

So, the protagonist is living his simple and sad life until he receives a phone call from a distant female friend looking for her boyfriend, which completely turns his world upside down. He no longer feels safe within his protective bubble. Solving the mystery behind the missing boyfriend is irrelevant. The emphasis is on the character's psychological state of mind; his reaction and emotional response to the girl's unwarranted imposition that disrupts the natural order of his self-contained little world of cooking spaghetti. We get the sense that perhaps he has romantic feelings for this girl and is harboring resentment towards her for choosing to be with someone else instead of him but their personal history remains ambiguous. The conversation on the phone is quite fascinating, revealing his aversion to intimacy and human connection. He experiences an epiphany after hanging up the phone:

"Thinking about spaghetti that boils eternally but is never done is a sad, sad thing."

This is such a great metaphor because much like the endlessly boiling spaghetti in the pot that is never fully cooked, he too is living a depressing life in this liminal space of paralysis and awakening. Even though the story is incredibly sad, it is not all doom and gloom. Murakami provides a glimpse of hope by the end that perhaps the man's life does eventually get better. "The Year of Spaghetti" is al dente, a savory and delectable short-story that makes me hungry to devour more of Murakami's fine writing. Sorry for the incessant food puns, it was too tempting.