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tsharris 's review for:
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
by Haruki Murakami
Not his best novel, but not his worst. On the whole, I think the massive hype machine surrounding the publication of a new Murakami novel doesn't do the writer any favors. This is a decent story regarding the typically Murakamian themes of themes of aging, sociability, personality formation, rites of passage, etc. Some bits I'll remember - the last chapter alone was worth the reading - but not every Murakami novel is going to be or has to be a masterpiece. As with many Murakami novels, the dialogue was a bit stilted (N. Rich noted this in his reviews), but thinking about it, I wonder to what extent the stiltedness is just a function of spoken Japanese, which at least in its standard form tends to be somewhat rigid and may be difficult to render in naturalistic English. Murakami obviously has able, experienced translators, but they're translators, not miracle workers.