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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
idk?? this reminded me the most of The Wind Up Bird Chronicles but felt like a died version of it in all aspects like characters, theme, resolution and antagonists. i love some of the conceptual characters brought up in this but wanted more of it without having it be as unnecessarily long
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This could have been a wonderful meditation on the process of creating art; instead, this novel finds Murakami just straight up hornier than he's ever been.
The entire thing felt like he threw a bunch of ideas at the wall to see if anything would stick. Wholly too long and aimless.
The entire thing felt like he threw a bunch of ideas at the wall to see if anything would stick. Wholly too long and aimless.
I enjoy reading Murakami so much. Reading his work is just so pleasant, and enrapturing. I love the mystery here and the constant guessing at the narrators perception of reality… but I gotta say… I cannot take the sections discussing the size of the breasts of a thirteen year old girl… REPEATEDLY. If it happened once, I’d be weirded out and shrug it off. It gets brought up multiple times, on not one, but two, underage girls. Haruki, dude… knock that shit off man. It didn’t add anything to the story, and it’s just weird.
Probably the slowest of Murakami's work. In general I like the way he writes and the beautiful ways in which he describes daily life but this one lacked a strong plot and any interesting characters. I've also decided that I don't like the creepy way in which he writes women and girls. I could create a bingo board on Murakami cliches, and this book was full of the more annoying ones. The squares Killing Commendatore would hit are:
-Male protagonist who is apathetic about everything: work, his relationships, life, himself
-Gratuitous and unnecessary descriptions of the women's breasts, even extremely minor characters
-Quirky recurring characters who seem positioned to be important to the plot, turns out not at all
-Affair with a "married, older girlfriend" that never lasts
-Sexualizing the young girl characters to some degree
-Descriptions of life on days where nothing really happens (I think those are kind of lovely and soothing, actually)
-Tepid sex scenes
-There is a soundtrack of sorts; he uses music to help paint the setting. Sometimes it's jazz, 70's rock, in this case it's classical, opera, and a little 80's pop.
-Alcohol, usually whiskey
-Cats
It was a good book to read during this period of "self-isolation" because the protagonist was kind of going through something like that, and Murakami is always an easy read with a few complex concepts for your brain to gnaw on, and is meditative with spicy elements of unpredictability. However, this novel is far from his best and felt lazy, like it borrowed too much from his other works and not in a good way.
-Male protagonist who is apathetic about everything: work, his relationships, life, himself
-Gratuitous and unnecessary descriptions of the women's breasts, even extremely minor characters
-Quirky recurring characters who seem positioned to be important to the plot, turns out not at all
-Affair with a "married, older girlfriend" that never lasts
-Sexualizing the young girl characters to some degree
-Descriptions of life on days where nothing really happens (I think those are kind of lovely and soothing, actually)
-Tepid sex scenes
-There is a soundtrack of sorts; he uses music to help paint the setting. Sometimes it's jazz, 70's rock, in this case it's classical, opera, and a little 80's pop.
-Alcohol, usually whiskey
-Cats
It was a good book to read during this period of "self-isolation" because the protagonist was kind of going through something like that, and Murakami is always an easy read with a few complex concepts for your brain to gnaw on, and is meditative with spicy elements of unpredictability. However, this novel is far from his best and felt lazy, like it borrowed too much from his other works and not in a good way.
Murakami really hasn't had any strong book releases since before 1Q84, but Killing Commendatore feels like a return of sorts (and a vast improvement over Colorless Tsukuru and Men Without Women) to things that have served him well in previous works. That being said, this is a book you could easily play Murakami bingo with, and the dip in writing quality from his last few releases continues in Killing Commendatore. Also, the WWII subplot, which is critical to one character's backstory, and really the greater plot as a whole, almost feels like an afterthought. Overall though, unlike with Colorless Tsukuru and Men Without Women, if feels like Murakami is actually trying again with this book, and while it's nowhere near perfect, the story takes you on the kind of journey that only he can lead you through.
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I didn’t love it or hate it. After putting the book down, I didn’t know what to think or feel. It was all a mess in my head but that’s always the case with Murakami books.
• I think for both of us our first few years of marriage were calm and fulfilling. Before long we settled into a pleasant daily rhythm. On weekends and holidays I’d take a break from painting and we’d go out. Sometimes to an art exhibition, sometimes hiking outside the city. At other times we’d just wander around town. We had intimate talks, and for both of us it was important to regularly update each other. We spoke honestly, and openly, about what was going on in our lives, exchanging opinions, sharing feelings.
• A tényeket nem ismerni, hanem érezni kell
• Paradoxically, the best part was what was not depicted. By not painting certain things he clearly accentuated what he did want to paint. This is undoubtedly one of the areas that Japanese painting excels at. At
• From a distance, most things look beautiful.
• Our lives really do seem strange and mysterious when you look back on them. Filled with unbelievably bizarre coincidences and unpredictable, zigzagging developments. While they are unfolding, it’s hard to see anything weird about them, no matter how closely you pay attention to your surroundings. In the midst of the everyday, these things may strike you as simply ordinary things, a matter of course. They might not be logical, but time has to pass before you can see if something is logical. Generally speaking, whether something is logical or isn’t, what’s meaningful about it are the effects. Effects are there for anyone to see, and can have a real influence. But pinpointing the cause that produced the effect isn’t easy. It’s even harder to show people something concrete that caused it, in a “Look, see?” kind of way. Of course there is a cause somewhere. Can’t be an effect without a cause. You can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs. Like falling dominoes, one domino (cause) knocks over the adjacent domino (cause), which then knocks over the domino (cause) next to it. As this sequence continues on and on, you no longer know what was the original cause. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Or people don’t care to know. And the story comes down to “What happened was, a lot of dominoes fell over.” The story I’ll be telling here may very well follow a similar route.
• Our lives really do seem strange and mysterious when you look back on them. Filled with unbelievably bizarre coincidences and unpredictable, zigzagging developments. While they are unfolding, it’s hard to see anything weird about them, no matter how closely you pay attention to your surroundings. In the midst of the everyday, these things may strike you as simply ordinary things, a matter of course. They might not be logical, but time has to pass before you can see if something is logical. Generally speaking, whether something is logical or isn’t, what’s meaningful about it are the effects. Effects are there for anyone to see, and can have a real influence. But pinpointing the cause that produced the effect isn’t easy. It’s even harder to show people something concrete that caused it, in a “Look, see?” kind of way. Of course there is a cause somewhere. Can’t be an effect without a cause. You can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs. Like falling dominoes, one domino (cause) knocks over the adjacent domino (cause), which then knocks over the domino (cause) next to it. As this sequence continues on and on, you no longer know what was the original cause. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Or people don’t care to know. And the story comes down to “What happened was, a lot of dominoes fell over.” The story I’ll be telling here may very well follow a similar route.
• If you don’t understand something, then stick with it until you do—that seemed to be Menshiki’s basic approach to life.
• “That sometimes in life we can’t grasp the boundary between reality and unreality. That boundary always seems to be shifting. As if the border between countries shifts from one day to the next depending on their mood. We need to pay close attention to that movement, otherwise we won’t know which side we’re on. That’s what I meant when I said it might be dangerous for me to remain inside that pit any longer.”
• What is important is not creating something out of nothing. What my friends need to do is discover the right thing from what is already there.”
• Thinking three times is better than two.
• The two of us were motivated not by what we had got hold of, or were trying to get, but by what we’d lost, what we did not now have.
• hard-and-fast rule in business is to never accept the first offer.
• had taken a nap, but my head was muddled. It felt like a ball of yarn had been crammed into the back of a narrow desk drawer, and now the drawer wouldn’t close properly. Maybe
• “You have the strength to wish for what you cannot have. While I have only wished for those things I can possess.”
• “I am here to ferry you across the river,” the faceless man said. “To help you navigate the interstice between presence and absence. After that, it’s up to you—my job is done.”
• A tényeket nem ismerni, hanem érezni kell
• Paradoxically, the best part was what was not depicted. By not painting certain things he clearly accentuated what he did want to paint. This is undoubtedly one of the areas that Japanese painting excels at. At
• From a distance, most things look beautiful.
• Our lives really do seem strange and mysterious when you look back on them. Filled with unbelievably bizarre coincidences and unpredictable, zigzagging developments. While they are unfolding, it’s hard to see anything weird about them, no matter how closely you pay attention to your surroundings. In the midst of the everyday, these things may strike you as simply ordinary things, a matter of course. They might not be logical, but time has to pass before you can see if something is logical. Generally speaking, whether something is logical or isn’t, what’s meaningful about it are the effects. Effects are there for anyone to see, and can have a real influence. But pinpointing the cause that produced the effect isn’t easy. It’s even harder to show people something concrete that caused it, in a “Look, see?” kind of way. Of course there is a cause somewhere. Can’t be an effect without a cause. You can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs. Like falling dominoes, one domino (cause) knocks over the adjacent domino (cause), which then knocks over the domino (cause) next to it. As this sequence continues on and on, you no longer know what was the original cause. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Or people don’t care to know. And the story comes down to “What happened was, a lot of dominoes fell over.” The story I’ll be telling here may very well follow a similar route.
• Our lives really do seem strange and mysterious when you look back on them. Filled with unbelievably bizarre coincidences and unpredictable, zigzagging developments. While they are unfolding, it’s hard to see anything weird about them, no matter how closely you pay attention to your surroundings. In the midst of the everyday, these things may strike you as simply ordinary things, a matter of course. They might not be logical, but time has to pass before you can see if something is logical. Generally speaking, whether something is logical or isn’t, what’s meaningful about it are the effects. Effects are there for anyone to see, and can have a real influence. But pinpointing the cause that produced the effect isn’t easy. It’s even harder to show people something concrete that caused it, in a “Look, see?” kind of way. Of course there is a cause somewhere. Can’t be an effect without a cause. You can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs. Like falling dominoes, one domino (cause) knocks over the adjacent domino (cause), which then knocks over the domino (cause) next to it. As this sequence continues on and on, you no longer know what was the original cause. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Or people don’t care to know. And the story comes down to “What happened was, a lot of dominoes fell over.” The story I’ll be telling here may very well follow a similar route.
• If you don’t understand something, then stick with it until you do—that seemed to be Menshiki’s basic approach to life.
• “That sometimes in life we can’t grasp the boundary between reality and unreality. That boundary always seems to be shifting. As if the border between countries shifts from one day to the next depending on their mood. We need to pay close attention to that movement, otherwise we won’t know which side we’re on. That’s what I meant when I said it might be dangerous for me to remain inside that pit any longer.”
• What is important is not creating something out of nothing. What my friends need to do is discover the right thing from what is already there.”
• Thinking three times is better than two.
• The two of us were motivated not by what we had got hold of, or were trying to get, but by what we’d lost, what we did not now have.
• hard-and-fast rule in business is to never accept the first offer.
• had taken a nap, but my head was muddled. It felt like a ball of yarn had been crammed into the back of a narrow desk drawer, and now the drawer wouldn’t close properly. Maybe
• “You have the strength to wish for what you cannot have. While I have only wished for those things I can possess.”
• “I am here to ferry you across the river,” the faceless man said. “To help you navigate the interstice between presence and absence. After that, it’s up to you—my job is done.”
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I like the plot but it was wayyyy too dragged out. Could easily be edited down to 250/300 pages. Not worth the time it takes to read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Incest, Violence, War
Minor: Sexual assault
I found my self reading through the negative reviews searching for validation...
Anyway, I made it half way through the first volume before I had to put it down. Simply put, I found the narrative uninteresting, incredibly boring, repetitive (the author repeats sections of the story over and over again) and the main character is flat - although slightly creepy.
No more Murakami for me, please. Thank you.
Anyway, I made it half way through the first volume before I had to put it down. Simply put, I found the narrative uninteresting, incredibly boring, repetitive (the author repeats sections of the story over and over again) and the main character is flat - although slightly creepy.
No more Murakami for me, please. Thank you.