Haruki Murakami translates unfinished Fitzgerald novel - The Japan News

Haruki Murakami has long admired American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940). The Japanese novelist has been reading and translating the works of the U.S. literary giant since he was young. Most recently, he translated “The Last Tycoon,” a late-career, uncompleted novel (published by Chuokoron-Shinsha, Inc.). “‘The Last Tycoon’ is an unfinished novel, and thus brims with potential,” said Murakami, 73. The story unfolds in mid-1930s America, following an unprecedented economic boom and the Great Depression. Cecilia, a college student and film producer’s daughter, meets a Jewish man named Monroe Stahr on a flight, and instantly falls in love. Stahr is a shrewd film producer, as well as Cecilia’s father’s business partner and rival. “Fitzgerald’s novel centers around romance,” Murakami said. “[Many of] his stories are driven by a character’s desire for a particular something. This can take the form of a character’s unusual admiration for a person, or their strange behavior, for instance. For me, the ‘heart’ or ‘mindset’ [of a story] is much more important than the theme or subject.” The novel explicates Cecilia’s view of Stahr, who, having risen from humble beginnings, is a workaholic who only thinks about movies. Emotionally unfilled, he falls in love with another woman, but this ultimately proves a fruitless affair. The character overlaps somewhat with the protagonist of “The Great Gatsby,” Fitzgerald’s masterpiece about a man who fails to find success with the woman he desires. However, Murakami believes there is a big difference between “The Great Gatsby,” published when Fitzgerald was just 28, and “The Last Tycoon,” which he had not finished writing when he died at the age of 44. “‘Gatsby’ is a kind of fairy tale about a man who rises through the ranks of the underworld and makes a lot of money,” Murakami said. “In contrast, Stahr is part of the film industry. ‘The Last Tycoon’ does a great job of depicting America in the 1930s, when big businesses grew and communism gained a strong foothold.”

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