Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - A sud del confine, a ovest del sole

Hajime is a selfpitting, sex obsessed asshole who is incapable of seeing the women he says he loves as full human beings and because of that he ends up treating all of then like shit ( just look at what he did to Izumi and Yukiko. And Shimamoto was so obviously depressed and all he could think about was how much he wanted to have sex with her. What an idiot). However, I fell like that was the point of his character, you are not supposed to like him.
Shimamoto, on the other hand, was so interesting to me (again, finding her interesting is probably the point of the book). All though most of her character is just "beautiful mysterious lady", I think you can extract much more from her. She is a ghost (metaphorically or literally, depends on your opinion), a omen of the past, here to hunt Hajime and remind him what his life could have been while at the same time trying to give her life some sense of normalcy.
Sadly, a don't know anything about Japan's internal politics and economy, so a lot of the political criticism and references to historical events went over my head.

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kaddyren's review against another edition

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reflective tense fast-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

2.0

This was my first Murakami novel. Aside from the blatant misogyny, I liked the style and framework of this book. I really thought it was going somewhere and planned to rate it 3 stars but the ending felt very lackluster and unimpactful. If I have to look up “(title) ending explanation” then the writing is not that good.
Note: The sex scenes were so uncomfortable. I am definitely too young to be reading those.

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brayzia's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

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qi_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective fast-paced

Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

murakami really did it again: making me enjoy being inside the head of an emotionally distant, morally grey, horny man.

as usual: the prose, the thoughts, the emotions, the introspection... YES.
the only thing making me hesitate from 5 stars is that i felt more of the story could have been fleshed out with a longer page count.

i need to re-read norwegian wood so i can compare his two contemporary novels which will probably help me solidify an opinion.

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issy888's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective medium-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

3.75

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oliviacarmen's review against another edition

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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

2.5

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