I'll start by saying that I wish I had read a different Murakami book as my first read from his works. I can see how some people kind of refer to him as a genre of his own. It's contemporary literature with a mix of sci-fi/fantasy elements thrown in, and his pace is very measured and detailed, almost overly-so.

In the beginning of the book I was really interested in the characters of Tengo and Aomame and trying to figure out how they are connected by the strange series of events that occur. My main issue with the book was that it felt a little long, and I began to wish that the plot would move faster. Again, maybe if I had read another of his books first I would have known what to expect and been able to stick it out a little better for the thousand plus pages. I think he is a masterful writer in a lot of ways, but this wasn't my favorite book.