Essay About When I Talk About Running

Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is a detailed memoir that describes his struggles with running and his life experiences of becoming a novelist. He presents his experience of his life as a runner in an honest and simplistic way that is enjoyable for the reader. The book is a kind of part running journal and part memoir. Throughout the memoir Murakami presents his experience as a developing novelist, along with his escapades as a nightclub entrepreneur, all within the construct of his daily run. The book should be appealing to runners, but can also be taken as a testament to a way of life that others can learn from.

The main narrative of the memoir can stem from his experience leading up to the 2005 New York City Marathon. This narrative begins with his vacation in Hawaii, before the race, where he lays out the importance of his running routine. He runs at the very least one hour a day, six days a week, which he has been doing for the 20 years he has been running. Murakami admits that running is not something that everyone will love, but something he enjoys nonetheless, and it may not be for everyone: “No matter how strong a will a person has, no matter how much he may hate to lose, if it's an activity

He does a good job of describing the scene around him in things that an average person would not notice. The memoir provides also some interesting views of Murakami's life and how he approaches his writing. Murakami often describes his muscles as they are their own being. He believes that when it comes to your muscles, “As long as you explain your expectations to by actually showing them examples of the amount of work they have to endure, your muscles will comply and gradually get stronger” (71). Murakami frequently provides insights that are interesting and profound however there are points in the book where his narrative is not transitioned