The last major book I finished was Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Right now I am reading Haruki Marukami's the Wind Up Bird Chronicle. My friend Marisa is doing the same thing in the other order. We didn't really do it on purpose. We're just kindred spirits. That's all.
There is a very stark contrast between these two author's writing styles-- Unbearable Lightness does not use description at all; there isn't a single description in the entire book of even the main characters. It resembles the austere communist landscape of Prague during the time of the novel.
In Wind Up Bird, Murakami laces his novel with vibrant, colorful, rich description. His writing style reflects the story taking place in post-war democratized Japan.
I'm also doing a lot of research on education. The main thing I have learned (you know how you know things but you don't really know them until you discover them for yourself) is that instruction is the antonym of learning. Oh, God, so much irony in that sentence. Murakami is an instructor. He tells you exactly how to envision his story. Kundera is a teacher. He let's you color in every scene however you would like.
I don't think one is better than the other. But I do believe that both authors are intentional.
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