Toru is a quiet and bookish college student in Tokyo. He chances upon old friend/crush Naoko. Naoko used to be his best friend Kizuki’s girlfriend, but Kuzuki had committed suicide years ago, and had shaken both of them up severely. When Toru and Naoko finally do get together, she suffers a severe emotional breakdown and leaves college to recuperate. She moves to a secluded half-way-home sanatorium, where other emotionally scarred residents/patients help each other recover.
Toru is devoted to her and visits her multiple times, but is unable to reconnect and relate to her fully. In the meanwhile, he meets bubbly, outgoing and self-assured student Midori, who has expressed a clear interest in him, but Toru struggles to put Naoko behind…
Widely regarded as Murakami’s most popular work, the writing and storytelling are excellent.
But, but, BUT…. this book was so infuriating!!!
The character build-up is so sparse and slow that they remain unsympathetic and unrelatable. The book spends way too much time on the depressed girlfriend and her kooky friend, and too little on the fun and outgoing Midori. Also, the scenes involving his college roommate, which were supposed to be funny, actually come across as dark and disturbing.
Worst of all, this book is weirdly misogynistic. The female characters are often compared to children during sexual scenes. A lot is written about the wrinkles on the older Reiko, which comes across as ageist. And all scenes involving sex are just bizarre. Every. Single. One. Including the one involving an assault on Reiko by a 13-year-old girl.
I would not recommend this book and I do not believe this is the best that Murakami can do. Maybe I should have started with something else…