Genre: Historical Fiction

Note: The following original review for this book is old and does not meet current review standards. A fully rewritten review is planned. There are those who believe Murakami is a genius and artist vs those who think he is a hack. After reading two of his novels I align with the latter. While I liked The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle more than 1Q84, that’s a very low bar to pass and Wind-Up has the advantages of being 300 pages shorter and possessing a more focused collection of plot threads vs 1Q84’s introduced and completely dropped elements. My biggest criticism of this novel and Murakami’s works in general is the excessive amount of detail and word length that’s added for no particular reason. The amount of tedious daily activities and movement by that main character adds nothing to the experience, story or characters included which is exacerbated by how repetitive and monotonous they’re written. Worse is how sporadic characters are added in, only to immediately segue into seemingly unrelated stories with no rhyme or reason. Yes there are connections between each story introduced but the execution is so lackluster, you’re just left questioning why it was done this way and what was…

Note: My original review for this book is old and does not meet current review standards. A fully rewritten review is planned.