To be blunt, if this book lacked the beautiful writing style and structure I’ve come to know as belonging to Haruki Murakami, I doubt I would’ve finished it. That is to say wherever this book lacked, whenever it made me roll my eyes, his prose is so unique and deliberate that it will keep you motivated to continue reading. 

I do have criticisms. I feel that he spent a lot of unnecessary time dwelling on sex. To the extent that I was seriously questioning if he fully grasps the difference between intercourse and intimacy. For a book that is all about relationships and growth, it was certainly… annoying. As a woman, so many times I just rolled my eyes and had to walk away from reading because of how artfully he wrote his female leads down to nothing other than sex objects existing in a man’s world. Benefit of the doubt, I did consider that perhaps this was an attempt to make the reader feel more immersed in the male lead’s head? I don’t know. All of the men had these well formed purposes and personalities that linked well to their professions. Well rounded characters. The women did not. At all. Only upon reflection did that fully click, but, their lives in the story seemed more like cliches piled on top of one another until a character was formed. 

The plot was interesting. Overall, I see why so many people cite this as their favourite of his works. I prefer his magical realism style compared to this writing, but you cannot deny his technicality and flawless word choice. Truly feels like reading poetry in paragraphs.