I'm not going to pretend like I'm necessarily a Murakami expert, despite the shrine I've built for him in my library. However, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage is not what I expected. Since 1Q84, as horribly predictable and repetitive as it was, Murakami just hasn't been the same. I honestly don't think that I'll be rereading this. Maybe there's more to it in the official version, but this advance reader's copy was less that what I expected. Only eighty pages in and I started seeing the overlapping, and it's been almost a year since the last time I picked up a Murakami novel. I don't think it's a good thing if less than a third in I can already see where an author is going with the story. It's not completely obvious, but I definitely am recognizing a pattern. It seems as if since 1Q84, things have gone down in the Murakami world. This one has no jobless protagonist, ear fetishes, or cats, but maintains the usual spirits gone wild and abnormal body parts. With sixth fingers being left behind on public transportation and people with halos, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki just really comes off as a bunch of loose ends. In terms of quotability and the storyline of Tazaki-san's maturing and conquering of his demons, cool. The rest of it, meh, I really don't care for it, especially not the "crazy woman claiming to be raped" theme that is so played out. If you're looking for another Kafka on the Shore or The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, I'm sorry but this really isn't it. I really want to give this a 3.5 because 3 is too harsh but 4 insinuates that I'll read it again, which I probably will not.
★★★.5
Labels: 50 books in 52 weeks, colorless tsukuru and his years of pilgrimage, haruki murakami
photo taken by the one and only ghost
