Author: Haruki Murakami
Review: The thing about a Murakami book is you can read it and spend ten
times as long thinking about it. I have read all of his books and
thoroughly enjoyed every one of them, but I would be hard pressed to tell
you exactly why I love them, or what it is that make them so compelling.
They just are.
Tsukuru is a quiet kid who is in a close knit group of friends in high
school, three boys and two girls. The other four have some sort of color in
their name (think Clue characters) while he is just colorless. This quirky
fact colors his whole experience with life, pun fully intended. Anyway,
they all grow up and finish school, but Tsukuru is the only one who chooses
to leave their town to attend university in the city.
All is well until one weekend trip home none of his friends will talk to
him, until ultimately he is told we never want to see or talk with you ever
again. No explanation is ever given and none is ever sought. So Tsukuru’s
pilgrimage is one of loneliness and denial as he bravely tries to face the
world after this emotional devastation.
After many years of trying to be okay it is the love of a woman that opens
his eyes to the internal damage this event has done to him. That he cannot
move on with life because he is forever stuck in this moment in time. He
must face his fears and know WHY.
This book is compelling and will have you contemplating the minutia of your
life and relationships. Such is the greatness of Haruki Murakami.
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 9780385352109
Copyright: 2014
Pages: 386
Quick Review: 4 stars out of 5
Why I Read It: One of my all-time favorite authors
Where I Obtained the Book: From my local library.
Synopsis: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is the
long-awaited new novel-- a book that sold more than a million copies the
first week it went on sale in Japan--from the award-winning,
internationally best-selling author Haruki Murakami.
Here he gives us the remarkable story of Tsukuru Tazaki, a young man
haunted by a great loss; of dreams and nightmares that have unintended
consequences for the world around us; and of a journey into the past that
is necessary to mend the present. It is a story of love, friendship, and
heartbreak for the ages.
Author Biography: Haruki Murakami is a popular contemporary Japanese writer
and translator. His work has been described as 'easily accessible, yet
profoundly complex'.
Since childhood, Murakami has been heavily influenced by Western culture,
particularly Western music and literature. He grew up reading a range of
works by American writers, such as Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan, and
he is often distinguished from other Japanese writers by his Western
influences.
Murakami studied drama at Waseda University in Tokyo, where he met his
wife, Yoko. His first job was at a record store, which is where one of his
main characters, Toru Watanabe in Norwegian Wood, works. Shortly before
finishing his studies, Murakami opened the coffeehouse 'Peter Cat' which
was a jazz bar in the evening in Kokubunji, Tokyo with his wife.
Many of his novels have themes and titles that invoke classical music, such
as the three books making up The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: The Thieving
Magpie (after Rossini's opera), Bird as Prophet (after a piano piece by
Robert Schumann usually known in English as The Prophet Bird), and The
Bird-Catcher (a character in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute). Some of his
novels take their titles from songs: Dance, Dance, Dance (after The Dells'
song, although it is widely thought it was titled after the Beach Boys
tune), Norwegian Wood (after The Beatles' song) and South of the Border,
West of the Sun (the first part being the title of a song by Nat King
Cole).
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