thanks for reviewing this book! The thing that stood out to me the most about your review was how you described yourself changing as a person since you first read Murakami till now and how your reading taste has evolved. I definitely feel the same way. The nostalgic 80's vibes Murakami enfolds you in were cute when I was younger, and now it can just feel... dated, in a way that more feels like "oh, the author doesn't want to interact with anything in the 2000's" rather than just "hey, I need to revisit this central thing that happened to me in college and college just happened to be in the 80's for me." I bought South of the Border, West of a Sun as a gift for my fiance last year, one of my favorite reads as a teenager, and before I gave it to him, I reread it... and didn't give it to him! I love how you describe the quiet, trance-like meditation he brings as one of the unique qualities of him as an author. Thanks again.
Just finished City today as well. Loved it so much! First Murakami novel with a thoroughly well-rounded, full thematic arch-achieved ending in my view. Sometimes Murakami is "about the journey not the destination". With City the destination is there and its gorgeous. 👏
I read it in a foreign language. The first chapter made me feel like I had gotten the wrong book because I was like “i already read this”. It was a weird way to start. Gets better after that.
I agree with the pace. Hard-Boiled Wonderland is one of my least favourite Murakami's novels so it took a little long for me for this one to get good. Once the pace hitted me, I started loving this book. It's one of my favourite books I've read this year and I can't wait for the english translation release. I read The City and Its Uncertain Walls in Spanish but I really want to read it again but in english. Murakami is my favourite author and it's sad for me that I have no people in my life that love his stuff the way I do. Still, it's fun to keep discovering new authors and this year I "discovered" Yukio Mishima. I'm obsessed with him at the moment. Funny that I also started reading Murakami in college, in my case on sophomore's. Do you intend on making an in depth review/analysis of The City after the release? Really enjoyed your video. Keep it up
Thank you! I think I’m gonna re-read it once the physical copy comes out and revisit it in a video later. I also might be going on a podcast to talk about it.
I took the intentional allusion to the walled city as a fasten seatbelt chime. The nod to the earlier work told me to buckle up amd hold on for a ride inside the inner workings of the sub conscious mind. To me, Hard Boiled Wonderland was a treastice on the corpus callosum.
Please do reviews for other books! You've created a Murakami community here on this channel, but I'd love to hear you explore other stories.. (new subscriber here👋). Also, I started reading Murakami when I was 24 (I'm 31 now), and I'm a bit scared I won't like his new book 😅... My reading taste has also changed. I guess that's a natural process.. but still, Murakami has played such a major part in my love of Japanese literature, I might find it heartbreaking if I don't like this one.
@@noamheller4043 I will! Getting this one done felt good and now I can move on to other things. If this one doesn’t hit the spot, don’t worry! I really enjoyed it even with its flaws.
I really enjoyed your review. I've been a Murakami fan for quite a while, and loved most of his books. However, I wasn't a fan of Killing Commendatore, and was somewhat disappointed in it. So I will look forward to the new book when it comes out next week, and hopes it has the magic of past Murakami books. Thanks for your thoughts!
I'm an art, jazz and smokey scotch fan even before stumbling upon Murakami and his writing some 10 years ago. I loved Killing Commendatore for the history, the art, the landscape and archictecture. The idea of the General comming to life from the painting while the narrator is navigating his own sort of midlife crisis, confounded by the deep abandoned well of the subconscious mind thoroughly intruiged me. The well from Wind Up Bird Chronicles and Killing Commendatore makes an appearance on page 490 in the large print version.
I’ve read the German edition and I (as a woman) am not really concerned with his way of writing about breasts and sex but overall I never really ended up knowing how I felt about the book. I think it hit me in a sensitive spot because I’ve moved back and forth between two countries, one that I feel passionate about and my home country that’s, well, safety, and me feeling torn between the two was something I saw in this book, and in the struggles the protagonist had to go through. 4/10 feels fair but I gotta say I much prefer it over the second Killing Commendatore book, which I just couldn’t warm up to.
@@endlessteatime4733 that’s a really unique perspective to have on it. Killing Commendatore is just one book in the states but I do remember feeling like the latter half got lost in some shoddily constructed metaphor. Felt like a Temu version of Wind Up Bird to me.
Thanks for the review, appreciate your opinion. I share the same thoughts in most cases and totally get your points. Very well combined and concluded. Also totally agree to this whole Nobel Prize discussion. And of course thanks for the mention 😉hope you can finally enjoy all the other books that have been waiting for you!
This is the first book since probably Harry Potter I've actively looked forward to releasing. I still need to read Hardboiled Wonderland. When I first picked it up, it was so different from what I came to expect from a few other books that I had read at that point, but I plan to get to it after this. I preordered the UK version, which has a far better cover art. I agree the US one is quite bad, maybe one of the worst of his US releases.
That was a really insightful and entertaining rumination, not just on the book itself, but on authors/artists creating work as they get older. The rating at the end had me giggling too lol. Thanks for another great video, Shawn!
Same. I read up to halfway through Wind Up Bird Chronicle and then stopped. Honestly, his first two books are the best, imo, and South of the Border, West of the Sun comes in third.
Great review . The Japanese cover is cool. The English cover really put me off buying the thing , but then again , I could always take the cover off. IT LOOKS CRAP. So I am happy you said that. I have read all Murakami. Oh no ! I THOUGHT Norweigian wood , Kafka on the shore and Colorful whatshisface....were his worst.......the latter for it's lame and unbelievable plot with a 2D limp wet protaganist In my opinion the only strong character in Norweigian Wood was the piano teacher....The reason I disliked KAFKA ON THE SHORE was the pervy thex with mother type vibe...I thought IQ84 was brilliant. Definitely My favorite book. I enjoyed Killing Commentadore and Dance Dance Dance. The Wind up Bird chronicals I found reminiscent of KOBO Abe's masterpiece WOMAN IN THE DUNES AS for non fiction The RUNNING BOOK was cool , however, I think his book on music was a gargantuan heap of verbal mastabatory pretentious turd. Good review.
A man of nuance! Welcome to the channel. Spoilers: the main character spends pretty much his whole life stuck on not getting laid when he was a teenager. The girl in question barely has a personality aside from “sad and has boobs”. Absolutely a 17 year old boy should have those thoughts, but the lack of depth is typical Murakami.
@@vellichor_ventures Thanks for your welcome and your reply. I've read the book and was very interested in your review because it's the first I've seen. I too enjoyed it but nothing about the writing allows for depth of character, in my opinion, even though the later relationship with the woman from the café has a sense of maturity about it (not just because of their age). Murakami's writing about women is pretty mild compared to Roth, Updike etc.
@ I agree that it’s pretty mild in comparison to other writers. The strength of his work is definitely the stuff going on around his characters, although occasionally you’ll get someone fun like Ushikawa or the sheep man.
If it's more Cutty Sark, cigarette smoking, random philosophy discussing, sleeping with women whose names the protagonist forgets, jazz record shopping, I'm gonna pass. My taste has changed and I can't be wasting more time with something I can guess the pages are going to be filled with before even reading.
Your loss, dude. There are of course many things that Murakami brings into his books that are repetitive, but mostly they are background effects. The main themes of his books are very different from each other.
thanks for reviewing this book! The thing that stood out to me the most about your review was how you described yourself changing as a person since you first read Murakami till now and how your reading taste has evolved. I definitely feel the same way. The nostalgic 80's vibes Murakami enfolds you in were cute when I was younger, and now it can just feel... dated, in a way that more feels like "oh, the author doesn't want to interact with anything in the 2000's" rather than just "hey, I need to revisit this central thing that happened to me in college and college just happened to be in the 80's for me." I bought South of the Border, West of a Sun as a gift for my fiance last year, one of my favorite reads as a teenager, and before I gave it to him, I reread it... and didn't give it to him! I love how you describe the quiet, trance-like meditation he brings as one of the unique qualities of him as an author. Thanks again.
The spanish edition was published early this year and the cover for that versión is gorgeous
I feel like almost every other version is better than the US one lol. I think the last time we had a good cover design was Colorless Tsukuru.
Just finished City today as well. Loved it so much! First Murakami novel with a thoroughly well-rounded, full thematic arch-achieved ending in my view. Sometimes Murakami is "about the journey not the destination". With City the destination is there and its gorgeous. 👏
I read it in a foreign language. The first chapter made me feel like I had gotten the wrong book because I was like “i already read this”. It was a weird way to start. Gets better after that.
What language did you read it in?
I agree with the pace. Hard-Boiled Wonderland is one of my least favourite Murakami's novels so it took a little long for me for this one to get good. Once the pace hitted me, I started loving this book. It's one of my favourite books I've read this year and I can't wait for the english translation release. I read The City and Its Uncertain Walls in Spanish but I really want to read it again but in english.
Murakami is my favourite author and it's sad for me that I have no people in my life that love his stuff the way I do. Still, it's fun to keep discovering new authors and this year I "discovered" Yukio Mishima. I'm obsessed with him at the moment. Funny that I also started reading Murakami in college, in my case on sophomore's.
Do you intend on making an in depth review/analysis of The City after the release? Really enjoyed your video. Keep it up
Thank you! I think I’m gonna re-read it once the physical copy comes out and revisit it in a video later. I also might be going on a podcast to talk about it.
I took the intentional allusion to the walled city as a fasten seatbelt chime. The nod to the earlier work told me to buckle up amd hold on for a ride inside the inner workings of the sub conscious mind. To me, Hard Boiled Wonderland was a treastice on the corpus callosum.
So happy your video came up on my feed, our bookshelves look very similar right now, immediately hit subscribe
Thank you!! Reading anything particularly good right now?
Please do reviews for other books! You've created a Murakami community here on this channel, but I'd love to hear you explore other stories.. (new subscriber here👋).
Also, I started reading Murakami when I was 24 (I'm 31 now), and I'm a bit scared I won't like his new book 😅... My reading taste has also changed. I guess that's a natural process.. but still, Murakami has played such a major part in my love of Japanese literature, I might find it heartbreaking if I don't like this one.
@@noamheller4043 I will! Getting this one done felt good and now I can move on to other things.
If this one doesn’t hit the spot, don’t worry! I really enjoyed it even with its flaws.
I really enjoyed your review. I've been a Murakami fan for quite a while, and loved most of his books. However, I wasn't a fan of Killing Commendatore, and was somewhat disappointed in it. So I will look forward to the new book when it comes out next week, and hopes it has the magic of past Murakami books. Thanks for your thoughts!
Thanks for tuning!
I'm an art, jazz and smokey scotch fan even before stumbling upon Murakami and his writing some 10 years ago. I loved Killing Commendatore for the history, the art, the landscape and archictecture. The idea of the General comming to life from the painting while the narrator is navigating his own sort of midlife crisis, confounded by the deep abandoned well of the subconscious mind thoroughly intruiged me. The well from Wind Up Bird Chronicles and Killing Commendatore makes an appearance on page 490 in the large print version.
I thought the title was pronounced IQ-1984 as in intelligence quotient. 😅. Not sure now. Thanks for pointing out that title and the Lolita factor.
I’ve read the German edition and I (as a woman) am not really concerned with his way of writing about breasts and sex but overall I never really ended up knowing how I felt about the book. I think it hit me in a sensitive spot because I’ve moved back and forth between two countries, one that I feel passionate about and my home country that’s, well, safety, and me feeling torn between the two was something I saw in this book, and in the struggles the protagonist had to go through. 4/10 feels fair but I gotta say I much prefer it over the second Killing Commendatore book, which I just couldn’t warm up to.
@@endlessteatime4733 that’s a really unique perspective to have on it. Killing Commendatore is just one book in the states but I do remember feeling like the latter half got lost in some shoddily constructed metaphor. Felt like a Temu version of Wind Up Bird to me.
Thanks for the review, appreciate your opinion. I share the same thoughts in most cases and totally get your points. Very well combined and concluded. Also totally agree to this whole Nobel Prize discussion. And of course thanks for the mention 😉hope you can finally enjoy all the other books that have been waiting for you!
Can’t wait to chat more about it with you!
This is the first book since probably Harry Potter I've actively looked forward to releasing. I still need to read Hardboiled Wonderland. When I first picked it up, it was so different from what I came to expect from a few other books that I had read at that point, but I plan to get to it after this.
I preordered the UK version, which has a far better cover art. I agree the US one is quite bad, maybe one of the worst of his US releases.
I think if you’re already looking forward to it you’re gonna like it a lot. I’m gonna reread it one the physical copy gets here n
I am hearing a lot of titles, what do we think about After Dark???? 🤔 Thank you for doing this review!! I look forward to reading the new book!
I like After Dark! It’s fun to read in one sitting
That was a really insightful and entertaining rumination, not just on the book itself, but on authors/artists creating work as they get older.
The rating at the end had me giggling too lol. Thanks for another great video, Shawn!
Thanks buddy 🥹
Yeah, when I first discovered Marukami, I devoured every one of his books. But now I'm like, "Ok, jazz, cats, breasts, yada yada..."
Same. I read up to halfway through Wind Up Bird Chronicle and then stopped. Honestly, his first two books are the best, imo, and South of the Border, West of the Sun comes in third.
@@thomervin7450I love South of the Border. Which ones u like?
Gimme ten more
@@mrlately Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball 1973 as well.
By "that one year" did you mean Bob Dylan lol.
Great review . The Japanese cover is cool. The English cover really put me off buying the thing , but then again , I could always take the cover off. IT LOOKS CRAP. So I am happy you said that. I have read all Murakami. Oh no ! I THOUGHT Norweigian wood , Kafka on the shore and Colorful whatshisface....were his worst.......the latter for it's lame and unbelievable plot with a 2D limp wet protaganist In my opinion the only strong character in Norweigian Wood was the piano teacher....The reason I disliked KAFKA ON THE SHORE was the pervy thex with mother type vibe...I thought IQ84 was brilliant. Definitely My favorite book. I enjoyed Killing Commentadore and Dance Dance Dance. The Wind up Bird chronicals I found reminiscent of KOBO Abe's masterpiece WOMAN IN THE DUNES AS for non fiction The RUNNING BOOK was cool , however, I think his book on music was a gargantuan heap of verbal mastabatory pretentious turd. Good review.
I read Woman in the Dunes a long time ago but I think I’d enjoy it more now with all my grey hair
How can this be allowed? A seventeen-year-old boy is fascinated by a sixteen-year-old girl's breasts. Outrageous!
A man of nuance! Welcome to the channel.
Spoilers: the main character spends pretty much his whole life stuck on not getting laid when he was a teenager. The girl in question barely has a personality aside from “sad and has boobs”. Absolutely a 17 year old boy should have those thoughts, but the lack of depth is typical Murakami.
@@vellichor_ventures Thanks for your welcome and your reply. I've read the book and was very interested in your review because it's the first I've seen. I too enjoyed it but nothing about the writing allows for depth of character, in my opinion, even though the later relationship with the woman from the café has a sense of maturity about it (not just because of their age). Murakami's writing about women is pretty mild compared to Roth, Updike etc.
@ I agree that it’s pretty mild in comparison to other writers. The strength of his work is definitely the stuff going on around his characters, although occasionally you’ll get someone fun like Ushikawa or the sheep man.
@@vellichor_ventures A man of nuance! 🤣
If it's more Cutty Sark, cigarette smoking, random philosophy discussing, sleeping with women whose names the protagonist forgets, jazz record shopping, I'm gonna pass. My taste has changed and I can't be wasting more time with something I can guess the pages are going to be filled with before even reading.
Your loss, dude. There are of course many things that Murakami brings into his books that are repetitive, but mostly they are background effects. The main themes of his books are very different from each other.
It’s a little more sophisticated than that but he’s definitely not making some late career transformation
Would it kill you to actually pronounce his name correctly
From this flurry of comments I can’t tell if you’re hate watching or actually watching