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A review by pascalthehoff
Die Ermordung des Commendatore II - Eine Metapher wandelt sich by Haruki Murakami
4.0
After finishing the first part of this novel I really wasn't too impressed in any way. I still think that the split into two halves which were published three months apart (at least in Germany) did the story any favour. I'd really like to know how my opinion of the first half would've been, had I read the whole thing without that huge pause right at the point where things finally got interesting.
Commendatore is kinda the opposite of 1Q84. In 1Q84, the first book (in Germany) that contained part 1 and 2 felt MUCH more lively and interesting than the second book with part 3. With Commendatore, it's the second book that really shines while the first one feels a bit bland in retrospect.
The slow pacing of the first book isn't bad in itself. It's just that most of the stuff that is happening during the first half of Commendatore doesn't really appear to be all that different from other Murakami novels until it is built upon with book 2. It's like book 1 was nothing more than a roughly 500 pages strong foundation for what would eventually be a pretty good novel in the end.
Commendatore is, as a whole, neither mind-blowing nor mind-bending - at least not if you're already familiar with some of Murakami's other works. It's a bit hard to put 1Q84 into perspective, since it was the very first Murakami novel I've read back when it was still fresh. But I think, as a late-career work, 1Q84 is far more interesting for straying a bit further from the usual Murakami formula. With Commendatore, on the other hand, Murakami seems to embrace all of his own narrative tropes wholeheartedly.
This is why this novel might have been one of my favourites, hadn't I already read stuff like Dance, Dance, Dance or Wind-Up Bird Chronicle just a few months or years prior to Commendatore. All the praise these Murakami classics deserve, Commendatore deserves as well. With its untroubled and quiet feel, it's arguably one of the most soothing stories Murakami has told yet. And of course, the man still knows how to write beautiful sentences full of interesting observations about mundane things. It's a Murakami novel through and through, for better or (at certain points) worse.
Commendatore is kinda the opposite of 1Q84. In 1Q84, the first book (in Germany) that contained part 1 and 2 felt MUCH more lively and interesting than the second book with part 3. With Commendatore, it's the second book that really shines while the first one feels a bit bland in retrospect.
The slow pacing of the first book isn't bad in itself. It's just that most of the stuff that is happening during the first half of Commendatore doesn't really appear to be all that different from other Murakami novels until it is built upon with book 2. It's like book 1 was nothing more than a roughly 500 pages strong foundation for what would eventually be a pretty good novel in the end.
Commendatore is, as a whole, neither mind-blowing nor mind-bending - at least not if you're already familiar with some of Murakami's other works. It's a bit hard to put 1Q84 into perspective, since it was the very first Murakami novel I've read back when it was still fresh. But I think, as a late-career work, 1Q84 is far more interesting for straying a bit further from the usual Murakami formula. With Commendatore, on the other hand, Murakami seems to embrace all of his own narrative tropes wholeheartedly.
This is why this novel might have been one of my favourites, hadn't I already read stuff like Dance, Dance, Dance or Wind-Up Bird Chronicle just a few months or years prior to Commendatore. All the praise these Murakami classics deserve, Commendatore deserves as well. With its untroubled and quiet feel, it's arguably one of the most soothing stories Murakami has told yet. And of course, the man still knows how to write beautiful sentences full of interesting observations about mundane things. It's a Murakami novel through and through, for better or (at certain points) worse.