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3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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
The only thing I got from this book is that it's about being lonely. Nothing "grabbed" me in it and I was left highly disappointed by it.
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
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
Murakami weaves a whimsical and interesting world but I this novel and Hear the Wind Sing turned me off so much for his portrayal of women. These books do not pass the bechdel test and he is obsessed with boobs. Big thumbs down.
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
I was having a good time with this until chapter 12, truly an unbearable passage, but let's take a step back and rewind. Pinball, 1973 is a sequel to Hear the Wind Sing which I read almost 3 months ago now. Both are quite early Murakami works and it shows, however you can already see many of his Murakami-isms coming through - the music and records, the bar setting, the fleeting romances. Both feature an unnamed protagonist who frequents a bar run by J and is friends with a man called The Rat. They are prequels to A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dancebut to my knowledge are not required readings.
I don't remember much of Wind, and while both books are your standard "life of an ordinary Japanese man" that Murakami writes, I found myself enjoying Pinball quite a lot as a breezy, light read. There were some issues - the narrator is living with two twin girls in what is undeniably a male fantasy (he falls asleep every night with one on each side). The two lack much depth, are presented in an infantilised way (they don't know much about the outside world, about "practical" things, are cute and childlike, they hold a funeral for an inanimate object), and lack names (though most characters in this book are unnamed). They also finish each other's sentences/speak in turns, and there a scene where they go on a walk and the main character scolds them for wandering off (imagine if your roommate did this). They really don't feel real to the point where I just let myself go along with it.
And then chapter 12 happens. The narrator is essentially sharing a "born in the wrong generation/time" sentiment. Firstly he make the absolute bizarre statement that "I surely would have been prized at Auschwitz." Um, okay, very out of pocket. Then he laments that you can't turn back time, and thinks: "Nobody wears miniskirts any more, nobody listens to Jan and Dean. And when was the last time you saw a girl wearing a garter belt?" What? Let's not even go into the conversation about how women's dress has been so limited and controlled by purity culture. What do you even mean no one wears miniskirts anymore? In the same chapter, his female employee asks him to go to dinner with her and since she is only 20 and the narrator is older and her boss, seems to be searching for some ideas about her future. He replies, "You're young with everything still ahead of you, love, marriage." (Because those are the only things in a woman's life...?) She voices some insecurity about someone "taking a fancy" to her and he responds "You're cute, you're attractive, you've got nice legs and a good head on your shoulders." (Was the part about the legs really necessary? He's her BOSS?) Throughout the conversation, he is tired and irate with her, seeming to find her youthful insecurities tiring, and they make him feel old. This dinner scene may not have bothered me so much without the previous passage but these two sections of chapter 12 make it unbearable.
I don't remember much of Wind, and while both books are your standard "life of an ordinary Japanese man" that Murakami writes, I found myself enjoying Pinball quite a lot as a breezy, light read. There were some issues - the narrator is living with two twin girls in what is undeniably a male fantasy (he falls asleep every night with one on each side). The two lack much depth, are presented in an infantilised way (they don't know much about the outside world, about "practical" things, are cute and childlike, they hold a funeral for an inanimate object), and lack names (though most characters in this book are unnamed). They also finish each other's sentences/speak in turns, and there a scene where they go on a walk and the main character scolds them for wandering off (imagine if your roommate did this). They really don't feel real to the point where I just let myself go along with it.
And then chapter 12 happens. The narrator is essentially sharing a "born in the wrong generation/time" sentiment. Firstly he make the absolute bizarre statement that "I surely would have been prized at Auschwitz." Um, okay, very out of pocket. Then he laments that you can't turn back time, and thinks: "Nobody wears miniskirts any more, nobody listens to Jan and Dean. And when was the last time you saw a girl wearing a garter belt?" What? Let's not even go into the conversation about how women's dress has been so limited and controlled by purity culture. What do you even mean no one wears miniskirts anymore? In the same chapter, his female employee asks him to go to dinner with her and since she is only 20 and the narrator is older and her boss, seems to be searching for some ideas about her future. He replies, "You're young with everything still ahead of you, love, marriage." (Because those are the only things in a woman's life...?) She voices some insecurity about someone "taking a fancy" to her and he responds "You're cute, you're attractive, you've got nice legs and a good head on your shoulders." (Was the part about the legs really necessary? He's her BOSS?) Throughout the conversation, he is tired and irate with her, seeming to find her youthful insecurities tiring, and they make him feel old. This dinner scene may not have bothered me so much without the previous passage but these two sections of chapter 12 make it unbearable.
It's especially difficult because I liked other parts of the book. I liked the chapters in The Rat's perspective. He is the one who experiences pining and lost love in this book, and decides he needs to leave town. The actual pinball subplot happens in the second half of the book, where the narrator tries to hunt down a specific model of pinball machine he once played, finding out there was only ever three exported to Japan. There's an absolute fever dream section where he is in a warehouse filled with pinball machines in the middle of nowhere and he talks about his pinball machine as a "her" with weirdly affectionate sentiments, and not just the normal nostalgic kind.
This was my 8th Murakami novel out of 14 (not counting short stories, short story collections or non-fiction, and not counting the 2023 release that is not available in English yet). I wish chapter 12 didn't exist because then I could rank it higher as a short and sweet introduction to Murakami. But alas it falls somewhere in the "meh" category with South of the Border, West of the Sun. If anyone is curious, Sputnik Sweetheart and After Dark are the only two Murakami novels I love and recommend. He is often not for me, even though his melancholy writing should speak to me, but it's hard for me to overlook some of his themes. However, I'm still intent on reading all of his work so we will see what I read next.
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Honestly, it was a terrible mistake to have read this on exam week. I remember nothing from the book. It wasn’t terrible per se, but it was chaotic and sometimes that bothered me and sometimes it didnt. The thing with the twins was odd ngl, ive no clue what to think of that, but idk i love the way murakami writes.