Murakami rewards silence. Most of the time when I'm reading, I have
music on in the background. Or some particularly fluffy books I'll read
during commercials or between turns of Civ II. But this book I found I
got the most out of when the house was quiet, and I was curled up on my
new recliner, giving it my full attention.
In many ways the most
straightforward Murakami book I've read (the fourth, I think), but I
found at the beginning that many of the motifs were reminding me of the
Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Perhaps because of this, although nothing as
overtly odd as in his other books took place, that slight feeling of
unreality pervaded the pages. Most of the book's main characters walk
close to Death, in different ways. And through that, living, choosing to
live, and how, haunt the main character as he feels a pull towards two
different women.
It's also a meditation on the 1960s and
university culture in Tokyo, although the main character avoids being
entangled in campus politics.
I don't know if I could put my
finger on what was behind the lingering sense of eeriness of this book,
but I enjoyed the evocation, and was glad I had been quiet enough to
experience it.
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