Just finished reading my first volume of Haruki Muramaki‘s non-fiction, Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche, essays by the author sandwiched between intensive interviews by the author of victims of the sarin gas attack that took place in the Tokyo subway system early the morning of March 20, 1995, and associates of the perpetrators, all members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, a radical offshoot of Buddhism.
There are clear and substantive connections between the material gathered here and the cult-related passages/characters in Murakami’s latest novel, 1Q84. The 2nd half of the book, devoted to the ‘renunciates’ and acolytes of the cult are the most interesting and alarming.
An important book for Murakami fans; an essential book for those interested in contemporary psychology.
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