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Has anyone else had a chance to read this yet? I think it's an excellent short novel. It's all about the sudden loss of very close relationships and the damage that can wreak on one's psyche. Uncertainty is thick in this story and many things are left unresolved, as happens so often in life. I don't think this is the best jumping-off point if you've never read Murakami before, but fans of his work will probably enjoy it. It's a little more grounded in reality than much of his other work.

I've just started it, about 50 pages in, I think. So far I'm enjoying it. I've enjoyed most of his work that I've read, aside from maybe Kafka on the Shore.

Read in the Italian translation published last April. This is not the kind of Murakami novel I love most. I prefer his novels with plots inspired by science fiction and thrillers, such as "A Wild Sheep Chase", "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" and "1Q84". They are more original. In a way, "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki" reminds of "Kafka on the Shore" because it is about living spirits who can kill people they hate in a kind of dream. This said, ""Kafka on the Shore" is quite more original and has a much more complicated plot. "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki" will be appreciated by those readers who disliked "1Q84" because of its length.

I agree with l about the feeling that the conclusion seems too abrupt. For example: the musical theme of "Le mal du pays" by Franz Liszt would have deserved more development in the finnish travel. Than the idea that Shiro has been killed by the same Tsukuru would also have deserved more development. It seems as if 2/3 of the novel develop different interesting themes which don't find a mature and well developed conclusion. My impression is that this would have required a much longer novel.

I just finished it this weekend. I think I would have enjoyed this novel more had I not been on a Murakami binge. I read "Norwegian Wood" and "South of the Border, West of the Sun" this year. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki just seems to echo the themes in those two so much.

I agree there were a few parts that seemed unfinished. Like the storyline with Haida. Even in the last 40 pages, I was really expecting some sort of meeting and resolution with him. An extra 100 or so pages would have helped to round things out.

I was expecting a dream where the meeting in another world/realm might take place.

By far the most 'normal' of Murakami's books grounded in a reality that touches upon the universal experiences of longing and experiencing loneliness.

Murakami Related:



The English of a new short novel is scheduled for early December

You made me want to read it immediately :-) In the Czech Republic it was translated now,so they started to sell it in these days. But now I live for some time in Italy,so maybe I will buy it in italian. I liked Kafka on the shore very much, but for example I didn't like Norwegian Wood so much like others.

To be frank, this book disappoints me. I like the way Murakami narrates and writes his simple dialogues as usual, but honestly he grows more garrulous in the end of the book (in the part where the titular character proposes his conclusion as of how Shiro die. I mean, Murakami seldom explain anything in his previous novels. Things just happen and we as readers just gonna have to accept it).

Ultimately, I thought the book was okay, but certainly not one of his better attempts. Given that he wrote it in between 1Q84 and Killing Commandatore, I can cut him a little slack, but I thought it overreached on the topic of teen / high school age angst, even though that is a common theme in Japanese literature. The elements of fantastical realism could have been explored in a little more depth as well. If a reader has the patience for it, I would go with Killing Commandatore over this one.