Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A completely bizarre magical realism story, with approximately 500 layers woven together tenuously with violence, sex and sometimes whimsy, incomprehensible metaphors, war stories, mysteries that never quite get resolved, characters that disappear never to come back into the story and an ambiguous ending. Oh, and an absolutely horrific torture scene that you'll probably only be ok with if you watched and enjoyed Bryan Fuller's Hannibal (no cannibalism involved, just other very unpleasant things). And somehow, I liked it. Listen, I don't understand it either.
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
A never ending story with a missing cat, sex dreams, a meditation well, and war stuff. I kept hoping it would eventually pay off, but it was all too boring and convoluted for me. I'm sure it's got something to do with finding the inner self, the synchronicity of the universe, the illusion of time and free will... All I know is I'll never attempt to figure it out again
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I could describe a lot of ways that this book ended up falling flat for me. But they all boil down to the fact that I am just too literal and analytical to enjoy meandering magical realism with no infrastructure. Weirdness and surrealism are fine, but give me some themes or symbolism, or something to sink my teeth into. I need more than just a vibe.
Possible spoilers.
I’m a really big fan of Murakami and this is him at a time when he feels the most sure of himself and what he wants to do. This book is a great example of his surrealist writing style, telling a tale of uncertainty and a lack of grasp on reality through a lens of history, the atrocity of war and personal struggle. This is the third book I’ve read by Murakami and, in a wonderful way, it feels like a friend comfortably telling you a wild story with an assuredness that I’ve come to know and love in his writing. I’m a big fan of his ability to tell a story with characters seemingly unrelated to each other finding a thread tying them together of struggle and helplessness(?). That’s what I got from it at least. Great book. Weird book. I recommend it!
I’m a really big fan of Murakami and this is him at a time when he feels the most sure of himself and what he wants to do. This book is a great example of his surrealist writing style, telling a tale of uncertainty and a lack of grasp on reality through a lens of history, the atrocity of war and personal struggle. This is the third book I’ve read by Murakami and, in a wonderful way, it feels like a friend comfortably telling you a wild story with an assuredness that I’ve come to know and love in his writing. I’m a big fan of his ability to tell a story with characters seemingly unrelated to each other finding a thread tying them together of struggle and helplessness(?). That’s what I got from it at least. Great book. Weird book. I recommend it!
History is a cycle and fate is unavoidable. From the baseball bat to the blue mark to the well, everything that happens in the present has a parallel in the past. Characters who never even meet are inexplicably connected by shared fates. Throughout all of it, the wind-up bird remains the one constant, creaking its prophecy.
This is not a book that wraps up every plot line neatly with a little bow, nor does it provide answers to all of your questions, and if that's what you expect from a novel, then you won't like this one very much. The book's confusing elements are a reflection of its very theme of the repetition of history. When history repeats itself, time becomes meaningless. As human beings, we are all living the same lives our ancestors did, making their same mistakes, just perhaps with better technology. This is why Toru loses all sense of time when he goes into the well.
So too do we lose our sense of individuality and identity. Do we even have free will, if we are just experiencing and doing the same things our ancestors did? How do we break out of the cycle of violence, death, and depravity that defines human history? How many times do we need to reinvent ourselves to let go of our dark pasts? (Kumiko's arc encapsulates this conflict perfectly.) Underneath all the surreal and dream-like scenes is a pretty concrete message: Unless Japan reckons with and confronts the sins of its past, it cannot escape them, no matter how much it tries to reinvent itself.
At the same time, the book also has a much more personal element to it. As you watch Kumiko and Toru's relationship deteriorate, you realize that their story is just like everyone else's. Like Toru, we all desire to be known by those we love. We stake our identity and our life on whether or not we are known - our idiosyncracies, our likes and dislikes all hinge on whether they are perceptible to others, because oftentimes we do not perceive them ourselves. If we are not known, then who are we? What's the point?
Conversely, the realization that we will never truly know the people we love is scary and alienating. I think Murakami's portrayal of the breakdown of Toru's marriage is absolutely brilliant. The more secrets you accumulate and the more you hide about yourself, the more the gulf between you and your loved ones widens. The moment you realize your beloved is a stranger is an earth-shattering, heart-breaking moment and I think Murakami does a good job of capturing Toru's sadness and loneliness upon that realization.
This book requires some patience. It's an exercise in not judging a book by what it lacks but taking it for what it is. At the end of the day, it's a fascinating read and hard to put down once you suspend your disbelief and get locked into the story.
This is not a book that wraps up every plot line neatly with a little bow, nor does it provide answers to all of your questions, and if that's what you expect from a novel, then you won't like this one very much. The book's confusing elements are a reflection of its very theme of the repetition of history. When history repeats itself, time becomes meaningless. As human beings, we are all living the same lives our ancestors did, making their same mistakes, just perhaps with better technology. This is why Toru loses all sense of time when he goes into the well.
So too do we lose our sense of individuality and identity. Do we even have free will, if we are just experiencing and doing the same things our ancestors did? How do we break out of the cycle of violence, death, and depravity that defines human history? How many times do we need to reinvent ourselves to let go of our dark pasts? (Kumiko's arc encapsulates this conflict perfectly.) Underneath all the surreal and dream-like scenes is a pretty concrete message: Unless Japan reckons with and confronts the sins of its past, it cannot escape them, no matter how much it tries to reinvent itself.
At the same time, the book also has a much more personal element to it. As you watch Kumiko and Toru's relationship deteriorate, you realize that their story is just like everyone else's. Like Toru, we all desire to be known by those we love. We stake our identity and our life on whether or not we are known - our idiosyncracies, our likes and dislikes all hinge on whether they are perceptible to others, because oftentimes we do not perceive them ourselves. If we are not known, then who are we? What's the point?
Conversely, the realization that we will never truly know the people we love is scary and alienating. I think Murakami's portrayal of the breakdown of Toru's marriage is absolutely brilliant. The more secrets you accumulate and the more you hide about yourself, the more the gulf between you and your loved ones widens. The moment you realize your beloved is a stranger is an earth-shattering, heart-breaking moment and I think Murakami does a good job of capturing Toru's sadness and loneliness upon that realization.
This book requires some patience. It's an exercise in not judging a book by what it lacks but taking it for what it is. At the end of the day, it's a fascinating read and hard to put down once you suspend your disbelief and get locked into the story.
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
For whatever reason, this book is a comfort read for me. I reread this recently and enjoyed it so much. Maybe it’s because there are such common themes & tropes in Murakami novels? I find parts of myself represented in the main characters (for better or worse) and I just really loved watching how their lives all intertwined in such a mental trip of a world.
3.5/5 - In a broad sense I enjoyed this book. I really enjoyed the entire strange cast of characters. Many of the stories told in this book were also very interesting. I went in with too high of expectations and found the story to be slightly too out there at times. I love the weirdness of murakami but something about certain elements of this book felt a little overdone. Overall a good book tho.