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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
3.5 stars for the mere fact that Murakami creates incredible tension with such subtle plot. Rich and deep, I just wish it had deeper women characters.
i am not sure where i stand with this book. on one hand, i love murakami’s use of magical realism, and the uncertainty of where the story is going next; on the other hand, everything is weird, and it feels like this book went around in circles and ended nowhere.
out of all the books i read by him, this was by far my least favorite.
out of all the books i read by him, this was by far my least favorite.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
One of my favourite writers, Haruki Murakami does it again! After having read Norwegian Wood and Kafka on the Shore, I was eager to pick TWUBC.
As usual Murakami’s prose is buttery smooth allowing the reader to stop and linger on the mundane... however, this book was anything but mundane. The main character Toru, who is victim of a fairly pedestrian few months of unemployment, an increasingly stale marriage, and a missing cat, finds himself embarking on a journey of self-reflection and fate that is seemingly out of his hands. On this journey, the reader is introduced to an intertwined web of characters who all seem to have deeply unorthodox and trauma-filled pasts. In encountering these novel characters, we see Toru dip into a myriad of side-quests as the walls between reality and Toru’s dream-like state become increasingly ambiguous.
I thoroughly enjoyed how Murakami explored a number of themes such as the atrocities of post-WWII Japan, alienation, hatred, and longing. Such themes were all a part of Toru’s colourful, and at times intentionally disorienting journey of self-reflection. Even after page 607, I still found myself grappling with heavy use of symbolism and again intentionally unanswered questions throughout the book. While I did love the gravity of each and every character in tandem with Murakami’s willingness to embrace ambiguity, I did at times find the pacing during the third quarter of the book to be quite slow.
TWUBC is a richly layered narrative that is coated with a generous dose of hypnotic and poetic sentence structures throughout. It is a meditation on the extremes of human suffering, love, and resilience. It’s a seamless interweaving of the past and present along with reality and the subconscious that is simply hypnotic.