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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I love how this book became a fantasy novel without me knowing it. It also was wonderful as a character novel. However, it is abundantly clear that Murakami does not know how to write fully realized women characters. The only one to really be featured in the novel is a thirteen-year-old girl who Murakami writes as being obsessed with her breasts, as if she has few other interests. I did not need that much narrative on a child's puberty. Also, not only did the rape dream sequence do NOTHING to advance the plot, it was gross, unnecessary, and downright disgusting.
mysterious
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
mysterious
reflective
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:
Complicated
weirdly sexual for unnecessary reasons. slow paced, but the eventual plot was surreal, strange and anticlimactic
I've read every bit of Murakami fiction that has been officially published in English, and a few bootleg translations here and there. I've read many of his novels twice and a few of them more than twice. My favorites are Wind-up Bird, Wild Sheep Chase, and Dance Dance Dance. These are not only my favorite Murakami novels, but among my favorite books by any author. In terms of non-fiction, I've read just about all of that too. Still need to go back and finish the music one. Underground affected me greatly.
To be honest, I have not been crazy about a lot of his recent fiction. Kafka, Sputnik, Border, 1Q84, Colorless didn't do too much for me, sadly.
Killing Commendatore though, had me hooked right off. It hasn't toppled my top 3, but it will probably be my #4 favorite at this point. I see a lot of negative reviews and I won't argue with them. I can see how someone would not like this story. But for some reason, this novel spoke to me. It was an easy read in spite of being pretty long, and I could not put it down.
The story has a lot of Murakami standard themes. Being stuck in a deep, dark well, an underground journey through a strange landscape, strange, magical, semi-human characters, a few mentions of cats, a young girl who befriends the main character, "I", a rich, handsome but somewhat shady friend, a wife who suddenly left the main character, leaving him in a confused state.
To be honest, I have not been crazy about a lot of his recent fiction. Kafka, Sputnik, Border, 1Q84, Colorless didn't do too much for me, sadly.
Killing Commendatore though, had me hooked right off. It hasn't toppled my top 3, but it will probably be my #4 favorite at this point. I see a lot of negative reviews and I won't argue with them. I can see how someone would not like this story. But for some reason, this novel spoke to me. It was an easy read in spite of being pretty long, and I could not put it down.
The story has a lot of Murakami standard themes. Being stuck in a deep, dark well, an underground journey through a strange landscape, strange, magical, semi-human characters, a few mentions of cats, a young girl who befriends the main character, "I", a rich, handsome but somewhat shady friend, a wife who suddenly left the main character, leaving him in a confused state.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What tf was this?
Murakami is the living embodiment of Reddit's r/imverysmart.
Who used to be a favorite author is continuously showing his lack of progression and growth. His archaic views on women, the roles genders play, and expectations is frustrating to say the least. To further, his inability to write good women characters beyond the scope of sex and being in awe of mediocre men is not only evident in all of his work, it's just downright annoying at this point.
Even worse is the protagonists in his novels. They play out like formulaic anime scripts meeting pretention. Mediocre men (as always self described) have women fawning over them, amazing surreal experiences, and are all versed heavily in the arts (classical music, jazz, painting, writing, etc...). This transposing of Murakami's own ego into his characters make for the most self-indulgent and irritating pieces of his novels. After around a dozen books, you'd think there would be growth or change, but the stories just get less interesting, more wordy, and at this point just not worth reading any further.
Killing Commendatore is Murakami's most disappointing work since Pinball. Not only does it follow all of his typical tropes, it almost bathes in its own glorification of those tropes with the nearly 700 page count. The investment to output on this book is negative. It's lazy, it's convoluted, and it doesn't know when to stop or move on. I don't need pages of metaphorical rape and then metaphorical guilt for that dream rape. I don't need pages of fascination with a 13 year old girls budding breasts. I certainly don't need 700 pages to get relatively little closure and a story that revealed itself so early.
Who used to be a favorite author is continuously showing his lack of progression and growth. His archaic views on women, the roles genders play, and expectations is frustrating to say the least. To further, his inability to write good women characters beyond the scope of sex and being in awe of mediocre men is not only evident in all of his work, it's just downright annoying at this point.
Even worse is the protagonists in his novels. They play out like formulaic anime scripts meeting pretention. Mediocre men (as always self described) have women fawning over them, amazing surreal experiences, and are all versed heavily in the arts (classical music, jazz, painting, writing, etc...). This transposing of Murakami's own ego into his characters make for the most self-indulgent and irritating pieces of his novels. After around a dozen books, you'd think there would be growth or change, but the stories just get less interesting, more wordy, and at this point just not worth reading any further.
Killing Commendatore is Murakami's most disappointing work since Pinball. Not only does it follow all of his typical tropes, it almost bathes in its own glorification of those tropes with the nearly 700 page count. The investment to output on this book is negative. It's lazy, it's convoluted, and it doesn't know when to stop or move on. I don't need pages of metaphorical rape and then metaphorical guilt for that dream rape. I don't need pages of fascination with a 13 year old girls budding breasts. I certainly don't need 700 pages to get relatively little closure and a story that revealed itself so early.
There was a point where I thought I would give this book a 2⭐, the first few hundreds of pages were super interesting, but it soon goes downhill. But the last hundreds of pages save the entire book for me.
I keep checking all the Murakami's bingo in this book and realize that it almost has everything. After Kafka's on the Shore and The Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. I feel underwhelmed by this book. I was in such boredom by the 400 hundred-ish pages.
This book opens up with a great start, I was in love with the Prologue and the characters, especially the Commendatore and his way of talking. But the entire book was so-so for me.
I keep checking all the Murakami's bingo in this book and realize that it almost has everything. After Kafka's on the Shore and The Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. I feel underwhelmed by this book. I was in such boredom by the 400 hundred-ish pages.
This book opens up with a great start, I was in love with the Prologue and the characters, especially the Commendatore and his way of talking. But the entire book was so-so for me.
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced