A review by reydeam
Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami

5.0

I.Loved.Dance.Dance.Dance.

Seriously, this book was an excellent read for me. I completely and thoroughly enjoyed the narrator’s wanderings, his life. I completely and thoroughly enjoyed the story…the plot. Wait! The plot? hmmm…yet again, Mr. Murakami has me on that one. I am not certain about the plot…I know there must be a plot in there, but I really cannot clearly define it, let alone write about it. As with Mr. Murakami’s other stories that I have read, I felt like there was nothing really going on, yet there was so much. I will say, right from the first page, I was drawn into the story. The narrator captured me so completely with his story, with those he interacted with, with those he allowed into his life. I felt myself drawn back Dance Dance Dance each every time I put in down. Matter of fact, I did not put it down for long which means…I stayed up as long as my eyes would remain open reading the story. Once my eyes were ready to remain open in the morning, the book was back in hand….I was reading. I cannot say enough as to how much I liked this story.

The narrator. Do I know his name? Nope, I cannot recall being told his name once, not even in A Wild Sheep Chase. Unlike A Wild Sheep Chase, this fact of not knowing his name did not deter me at all from finding a great like for him. Actually, this time around, I think his no-name status actually brought me closer into his life. While I liked him in A Wild Sheep Chase, I did not feel he had much direction in life. This time in Dance Dance Dance, I was given a much better insight into his psyche, his way of thinking, his desires, his fears. This time, I understood him, and really found myself liking the way he thinks. He had some solid insight. He is not pretentious nor does he desire superfluous things. He is a solid character. The others that come across his path are much better as well. I felt the characters of Yumiyoshi, Yuki, Gotanda were well written, I felt depth within those characters plus their interactions with the narrator was wonderful.

While our narrator remained nameless, do note that the other characters had names. I noted this while reading, and pondered about it for just a bit. I am sure that naming the secondary characters was done on purpose, I think. Did it alter my reading experience? I am not completely certain that it did because this time I did feel a strong liking for the narrator, which I did not before, and he remained nameless. Still, on some level, I do think it gave me a sense of “knowing” the secondary characters a bit better by being able to put a name to them.

Dance Dance Dance is an excellent story filled with intrigue, mystery, loss, abandonment, and relationships.
I will say this again, I loved this story.