There was never a point during this book where I didn’t enjoy reading it. This reminded me, in many positive ways, of Hard Boiled Wonderland at the End of the World, my favourite Murakami book to date (but I have a lot more reading to do before that’s final). The way he explored escapism and disassociation was, frankly, very relatable to me. It was clever how he wove those concepts into fixtures of this magical realism. And I liked how he grounded Toru’s journey with characters who had stories to tell that were so tangible and true, as a reader during their chapters it was like coming up for a breath of air before descending back down underwater.

There are things Murakami isn’t good at writing, from what I’ve seen, women being one of them. That was the same here, but I didn’t dwell on it too much because it wasn’t as much of a fixture to the story as it was in, say, Norwegian Wood. I actually was impressed with the Kano sisters, Nutmeg, and May, who seemed like people and not just sex objects. 

As a kid who played a lot of make believe and an adult who loves to make up and imagine little worlds, this book just really sparked my imagination and curiosity.