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thomaslearns2read's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is such a reflective and engaging novel that feels more autobiographical than fiction. Murikami is amazing at writing a story that makes the reader think about the mundane and there is a reason this is still read
stefanieunison's review against another edition
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
lilyphilia's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
lnothstine's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
ylvasorli's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
trizfernandes's review against another edition
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
hnj1512's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
A really odd book. It was interesting enough to make me want to read it but most of the time I didn’t see the point of the book. Just a lot of suicide
maddieaves's review against another edition
2.0
I finished the book, so that's why it's not a one-star. This book is critically acclaimed, but I'm not a literature critic; I'm a simple girl who wants to be entertained. This book just creeped me out; the plot was sometimes very odd. I know this is the point of Murakami books, to be weird, but I wasn't a fan.
aimeedobson01's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
5.0
cassidyserhienko's review against another edition
2.0
I have very strong, very mixed feelings about this book. I only bought it in the first place because Harry Styles talked about it in his interview with Timothee Chalamet, and I would literally do anything that he says. Until about halfway through I would have told you that I hated it and hated Toru, but there’s something about itf. I don’t know if the prose gets better or if I just got more accustomed to the style. And to the over the top objectification of women, but more on that later. I had tried to read this book once before but couldn’t make it past fifty pages, this time around I couldn’t put it down until I finished. Love it or hate it (and I think I might hate it?) this book makes you feel something.
The thing is, I can’t tell how aware of itself the book is. For example, does Murakami know that every single female character is pretty much a stereotype of a woman seen through a very one dimensional male gaze or is this just how he actually thinks women are? Because I find it very hard to give a shit about a book in which women, even cliche stock characters of women, are treated like utter garbage. Midori and Naoko are each different versions of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and I don’t know what tf to say about Reiko after that absolutely ridiculous ending to their relationship. BUT if this is the point, and Murakami is trying to discuss the way that Toru views women and sex then maybe there’s something to it and I just wasn’t thinking deeply enough. I don’t know. I don’t know if I can or should try to justify it. I would think that for a book with so many female characters that there would be ONE that doesn’t get treated so horribly, but alas. And is every sexual encounter supposed to be super one sided and problematic? I honestly have no idea. I want to say yes, but the fact that the issues driving each girl to initiate each encounter are never addressed, I find it hard to say.
I know what it was that prevented me from getting into the novel the first time I tried to read it. For pretty much the entirety of the book, Toru is unconscionably dull. Though all of the other characters are a thousand times more interesting then he is, it’s hard to get into something when the narrator is so boring. It’s like he has no feelings or expressions. He doesn’t feel good, he doesn’t feel bad. And even though he has a fair amount of sexual experiences and talks about it with girls quite a lot over the course of the story, you never get the sense that he feels any kind of desire. He’s just there, observing everything without making any particular observations. Nagasawa (who is NOT interesting, and is just another arrogant, pretentious, douchebag but at least he has some freaking passion) is right about him: “neither of us is interested, essentially, in anything but ourselves... neither of us is able to feel any interest in anything other than what we ourselves think or feel or do.” Where Nagasawa is wrong, is that Watanabe doesn’t have any thoughts or feelings and doesn’t do much of anything at all. Perhaps there could be something moving in this quiet grief, but the novel rarely seems to dive into Toru’s own consciousness. He’s like a voyeur to other people’s pain without having any kind of actual response. Sure there are some truly beautiful passages, like when Watanabe describes how his love for Midori is like a spring bear. And there are moments where Toru seems almost human and less like a robot, primarily in the last section of the novel, but there’s a lot of nothing to get through before then.
Once you move past Toru as a narrator the rest of the novel can be weird, wonderful, and moving. Watanabe (for some reason) attracts a lot of messed up people. The IDEA of each character was fascinating but the actual result… not so much. The book had all of the parts to be great, and Murakami’s writing is beautiful. It’s a testament to his skill that a reader could be so entranced when they can barely point to one thing that they liked.
The thing is, I can’t tell how aware of itself the book is. For example, does Murakami know that every single female character is pretty much a stereotype of a woman seen through a very one dimensional male gaze or is this just how he actually thinks women are? Because I find it very hard to give a shit about a book in which women, even cliche stock characters of women, are treated like utter garbage. Midori and Naoko are each different versions of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and I don’t know what tf to say about Reiko after that absolutely ridiculous ending to their relationship. BUT if this is the point, and Murakami is trying to discuss the way that Toru views women and sex then maybe there’s something to it and I just wasn’t thinking deeply enough. I don’t know. I don’t know if I can or should try to justify it. I would think that for a book with so many female characters that there would be ONE that doesn’t get treated so horribly, but alas. And is every sexual encounter supposed to be super one sided and problematic? I honestly have no idea. I want to say yes, but the fact that the issues driving each girl to initiate each encounter are never addressed, I find it hard to say.
I know what it was that prevented me from getting into the novel the first time I tried to read it. For pretty much the entirety of the book, Toru is unconscionably dull. Though all of the other characters are a thousand times more interesting then he is, it’s hard to get into something when the narrator is so boring. It’s like he has no feelings or expressions. He doesn’t feel good, he doesn’t feel bad. And even though he has a fair amount of sexual experiences and talks about it with girls quite a lot over the course of the story, you never get the sense that he feels any kind of desire. He’s just there, observing everything without making any particular observations. Nagasawa (who is NOT interesting, and is just another arrogant, pretentious, douchebag but at least he has some freaking passion) is right about him: “neither of us is interested, essentially, in anything but ourselves... neither of us is able to feel any interest in anything other than what we ourselves think or feel or do.” Where Nagasawa is wrong, is that Watanabe doesn’t have any thoughts or feelings and doesn’t do much of anything at all. Perhaps there could be something moving in this quiet grief, but the novel rarely seems to dive into Toru’s own consciousness. He’s like a voyeur to other people’s pain without having any kind of actual response. Sure there are some truly beautiful passages, like when Watanabe describes how his love for Midori is like a spring bear. And there are moments where Toru seems almost human and less like a robot, primarily in the last section of the novel, but there’s a lot of nothing to get through before then.
Once you move past Toru as a narrator the rest of the novel can be weird, wonderful, and moving. Watanabe (for some reason) attracts a lot of messed up people. The IDEA of each character was fascinating but the actual result… not so much. The book had all of the parts to be great, and Murakami’s writing is beautiful. It’s a testament to his skill that a reader could be so entranced when they can barely point to one thing that they liked.