Anna Karenina and a Glass of Remy Martin: "Sono" by Haruki Murakami
Published in English in 1989 as "Sleep" (Portuguese Edition published 2013).
Sometimes the idea of wasting time by being asleep goes through my mind. That I could or should be producing something useful (like reading or making stuff); because sleep would be something useless. Reading, watching, writing or doing any other activity at dawn. In some sleepless nights during college, I did it and it seemed to have the power to prolong my life. I sort of thought aloud: "Hey, life is passing, the hands of the clock are cruel: Do not sleep! Or, sleep less and enjoy more."
I believed that this was the thinking of a very few. Reading this Murakami, I once again identified myself with some ideas of the main character. I tried an experiment. I read the first page during the day, and I then stopped and decided to read it again after midnight, thus trying to reproduce the unnamed character’s environment. I felt a mixture of anxiety and peace in the quiet of the morning. In each author's description regarding the activities and night life of the woman who did not sleep for 17 days, the same scene materialized in front of me and I saw her in the living room, holding Anna Karenina and a glass of Remy Martin. Like going out at dawn and feeling the sense of danger and deliverance narrated in the Murakami’s story.
Read on, if you're into Murakami.
8
