Reviews - Killing Commendatore

2.09k reviews for:

Killing Commendatore

Haruki Murakami

3.76 AVERAGE

aletteri's review against another edition

1.0

Couldn’t finish it. Too repetitive. Maybe the plot is interesting if speed up. Maybe it looses something in translation. Either way, it wasn’t enjoyable so I stopped reading about 1/2 way through.

brennaweeks's review against another edition

2.0

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

colinmeldrum's review against another edition

3.0

An interesting story, but it's baffling that Murakami and his editor(s) decided that so many pages of it was a good idea. It could have easily (and should have, in my opinion) been edited down to 40-50% of its word coun. I would have rated it 4 stars if it weren't for the redundant, overly explicit prose or the indulgent, play-by-play narration. I would be really surprised if this became anyone's favorite Murakami novel.

robinmara96's review against another edition

3.0

3.5*

rives's review against another edition

3.0

It's an interesting book with interesting characters. Menshiki in particular left me wondering about his objectives. I would say the book was easy to read through, but the pacing could've been better. The first half is fairly slow and the classic Murakami surrealist setting only really manifests itself at the end for a brief moment, after which it is never spoken again.
The book could also have handled Mariye differently. Young girls do not talk about their breasts regularly, especially not to older men they don't really know. It was kind of weird.
That being said, the book wasa fascinating read but it wasn't one of his best works.