arshiya 's review for:

Pinball, 1973 by Haruki Murakami

2.0

reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Reading this right after “Hear the Wind Sing” made it more disappointing. It was an endless circle of barely connected things being mentioned with painfully long descriptions. Sure, it’s good to read this book with some good music on a late afternoon as the clouds drift by. That’s the feel it gives. But this is not a book I could actually enjoy. Character development and change as a concept were perhaps the only plot points, and even they were expanded upon lazily.

This book was also just… boring. Getting through it felt exhausting. I finished “Hear the Wind Sing” in just a few hours (I’m a slow reader) but this one took me nearly 3 weeks because I used to become so bored that I just kept it aside. The descriptions could have been controlled rather than being thrown our way every second page. It was fun when it enhanced the reading experience and the story. But most of the time, it served no purpose. It felt like I was just reading the rambling of a man who needs to keep down his beer and cigarettes for once (quite literally. Drinking and smoking as much as the protagonist and The Rat did cannot be good for the health at all!) 

I did enjoy certain chapters and lines more than others. But ultimately there’s nothing I took away from this book. It was boring and disappointing.