After being blown away by "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle," I was psyched for the new Haruki Murakami. And when I heard that people were lining up in stores at midnight, just to get a copy, I thought that, finally, here was the Literary Event Of The Year!!!!!!!!!!!!
The premise of the novel even pressed some of my buttons. A man having gone through high school as the member of a special quartet of peers, (as opposed to my experience, where there was this special group I desired to be part of, but who, back then, would not give me the time of day!!!!!!!!!) who, when he reaches his sophomore year in college, mysteriously, and without explanation, cut him off from the group.
The reader has the same reaction as Tsukuru. Why?????? How could they???????? Unfortunately, the novel does not live up to the novel's premise, as the answers both the reader and Tsukuru get turn out to be rather anti-climactic. The only thing lasting that comes out of the novel's 386 pages is the rather obvious observation that what is special in youth that one thinks will last forever, often, in reality, does not. Which will come as no surprise to anyone now living on Earth having gone beyond the age of 35!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Much ballyhooed novel is one big fizzle! Read it, if you are a Murakami devotee, but this is far from one of his better efforts.
In fact, the book's description matches that of the title character--Colorless!!!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment