New Yorker Summer Fiction—Murakami

A WRITER'S WIT
How true Daddy's words were when he said: all children must look after their own upbringing. Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.
Anne Frank
Born June 12, 1929

Yesterday is Tomorrow

Michael Marcelle

June 9 & 16, 2014, Haruki Murakami, “Yesterday”: Tanimura narrates the story about his friend Kitaru, when they are both twenty. ¶ Tanimura is perplexed by Kitaru, who takes the Beatles song “Yesterday” and sets it to what he refers to as a crude Japanese dialect: Kansai. An odd character, Kitaru asks Tanimura to go out with his girl, Erika, someone he has known since childhood. They do and have a great time but never go out again. Shortly after, Kitaru leaves the coffee shop where both friends have been working. So does Tanimura. ¶ Sixteen years later Tanimura runs into Erika. She says that Kitaru has moved to Denver to be a chef. They chat. ¶ Odd story—without the usual arc. A little dull. The kind of story that ordinary people in real life tell each other while chatting during a chance meeting. Oh. Murakami’s three-volume novel 1Q84 came out in 2009-10.
Michael Marcelle, Photograph

NEXT TIME: MORE SUMMER FICTION

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