You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-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
It hurts to write this cause Kafka on the Shore is one of my favorite books but in here Murakami manages to write a long ass book and make it lead to nothing, I'm sure I'm just stupid but I didn't get anything from this, no character development, usual themes which here are not developed, boring characters and plot... the surrealistic motif that I usually find really attractive in his books is just bland (the metaphor and idea concept) in this book you’ll find the usual Murakami but worse than ever.
This has been a difficult book to read and it's going to be even more difficult to review.
First things first, I love Murakami's books. There is a rhythm and a recurring pattern to his stories that I find comforting. It's like returning to your home town after an extended period away. You know where all the streets are and where they all lead but just occasionally you get to see a street from a slightly different angle and what you know is changed ever so slightly. That's what a Murakami book does it shows you the normal, the banality of life, from a slightly different angle and after you finish it there's something very slightly different about how you see the world.
Killing Commendatore is in many ways a prototypical Murakami story. A young protagonist,slightly out of phase with the world he lives in, finds himself questioning his sense of being and identity as his reality begins to change in subtle, inexorable and magical ways. There are the holes in the ground, the parallel worlds, the mysterious woman the feelings of being followed and the precocious young girl and in many ways this is so far so Murakami and so far so good.
But...I'm sure you all saw this coming
In some ways it just doesn't work the pieces are all there but the puzzle just won't fit together properly; the picture is all there but it's just not completely in focus. It was almost like Murakami by the numbers. Despite that I still really enjoyed it but wouldnt suggest it as a great place to start reading his works.
First things first, I love Murakami's books. There is a rhythm and a recurring pattern to his stories that I find comforting. It's like returning to your home town after an extended period away. You know where all the streets are and where they all lead but just occasionally you get to see a street from a slightly different angle and what you know is changed ever so slightly. That's what a Murakami book does it shows you the normal, the banality of life, from a slightly different angle and after you finish it there's something very slightly different about how you see the world.
Killing Commendatore is in many ways a prototypical Murakami story. A young protagonist,slightly out of phase with the world he lives in, finds himself questioning his sense of being and identity as his reality begins to change in subtle, inexorable and magical ways. There are the holes in the ground, the parallel worlds, the mysterious woman the feelings of being followed and the precocious young girl and in many ways this is so far so Murakami and so far so good.
But...I'm sure you all saw this coming
In some ways it just doesn't work the pieces are all there but the puzzle just won't fit together properly; the picture is all there but it's just not completely in focus. It was almost like Murakami by the numbers. Despite that I still really enjoyed it but wouldnt suggest it as a great place to start reading his works.
4.5/5??? audio
took me FOREVER to finish
have no idea what to make of any of it but that’s how it alwyas is w murakamis
this is mt fav murakami so far!!!!!
took me FOREVER to finish
have no idea what to make of any of it but that’s how it alwyas is w murakamis
this is mt fav murakami so far!!!!!
- A slightly sad man
- Weird relationship with a young girl
- Whiskey, Classic music records...
- Meals described meticulously
- Alternate reality
- A sprinkle of philosophy
- A pretty thin plot
Sounds familiar? Well, it's a Murakami book after all. If you enjoy his style/formula, then you'll probably like this one too. If you don't like it, feel free to skip this book.
- Weird relationship with a young girl
- Whiskey, Classic music records...
- Meals described meticulously
- Alternate reality
- A sprinkle of philosophy
- A pretty thin plot
Sounds familiar? Well, it's a Murakami book after all. If you enjoy his style/formula, then you'll probably like this one too. If you don't like it, feel free to skip this book.
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book came to me at a special time in my life when I needed to read it the most. I started and finished it in the same place 95 days apart, and while I think it ended a bit too quickly and in hurried fashion, I think it’s taken the No. 3 spot on my Murakami ranking.
Haruki Murakami (and his translator) has very beautiful prose, which is the main thing I enjoy about the couple novels I've read. The plot itself was also interesting, although simple. The mundanity of the story actually worked quite well. Unfortunately, Murakami also slips into the fantastical on occasion. As much as I enjoy fantasy novels, I didn't love the (magical realism?) elements here. They derailed the plot for me, in the last 100 pages or so. The last couple chapters still held a satisfying ending, but I really did not enjoy reading the sections where beings from portraits appeared in the real world. It didn't really add much, for me.
I had a bigger issue with how Murakami writes his female characters, and how he writes sex. Girls seem obsessed with their breasts, for example. One of these girls is the main character's younger sister (in a flashback), and the fact that she was entering puberty made it realistic that this sort of thing might be on her mind, but I still don't buy she would have spoken super openly about it with her brother. Felt a little weird. But a worse offense in this category was when the main character I'm used to reading books about shitty people, so the rest of the novel was still interesting to follow, but that was a choice the author definitely didn't need to make.
Rating: 7/10. Borders on being lower for the above reasons, but I can't lie and pretend I didn't enjoy the vast majority of this book.
I had a bigger issue with how Murakami writes his female characters, and how he writes sex. Girls seem obsessed with their breasts, for example. One of these girls is the main character's younger sister (in a flashback), and the fact that she was entering puberty made it realistic that this sort of thing might be on her mind, but I still don't buy she would have spoken super openly about it with her brother. Felt a little weird. But a worse offense in this category was when the main character
Spoiler
dreams about raping his sleeping ex-wife (and then the implication that through some mystical sense this succeeded in getting her pregnant???).Rating: 7/10. Borders on being lower for the above reasons, but I can't lie and pretend I didn't enjoy the vast majority of this book.
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
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
Bruh. Overrated as hell this mf definitely hates women first of all. Second of all he spends like 30% of the book talking abt two different 12 yr old girl’s br34sts and one of them is his SISTerrrrr. The magical realism was fire and the story was good but the ending was a cop out. If the misogyny and psuedo-pedophilia had been less rampant i would have def been able to enjoy the story as it was actually good. But damn. PASS!!!! (He also used to word ‘penis’ one too many times for me sry)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content