Murakami’s work, like Murakami, is exceedingly translator-friendly: he got his start as a translator himself, best known for the Chandler novels, and more than one Japanese commenter (and English-speaking reader) has noted that his phrasing has more than a little flavor of English to it.

Ok, I am laughing out loud again.

The comment on translator is an interesting one – I have always felt the need to research the translator’s work and experience whenever I pick up an author who is inaccessible to me in their native language. Which is all too often. Some superstars like Murakami or Pamuk are lucky for having amazing collaborators and they are also involved. But the flip side are instances like the one you point out.

Have you read Abdullah Hussain’s Weary Generations? A case where the author himself does the translation [from his Urdu masterpiece novel, Udas Nasleen] and the work suffers as a result.