I did it! I finished the very long book, in spite of maybe not reading it under the best circumstances!

So this was like powerfully atmospheric; I think the sort of sprawling form of this book was so effective, not that it necessarily felt sprawling? I'm struggling to convey the way that the atmosphere created here works so damn well with the text. It all felt vaguely surreal to me, while at the same time being deeply grounded enough to be fairly haunting. The tension carried through out is just bonkers in how palpable it is, even in moments where it's unclear why that tension exists. It's clearly a masterful work in a lot of ways!

I cannot write this review, however, without talking about the Woman Problem, which I thought briefly I just made up, somewhere between the opening pages of the book and the last third--but no, I just ignored it until I guess I couldn't ignore it any more. Oof, folks. The whole "woman with one single flaw (small breasts) has that flaw fixed by her

magical pregnancy

" was too much for me, on top of the other stuff (weirdly attractive teenager,

the like plot necessity of violence against young girls

...) It just chafed after 1000 pages, maybe, I don't know, and maybe I'm blowing it out of proportion but it definitely had an impact on my feelings about the book and makes me kind of hesitant to try other Murakami books. (So y'know if you have insight into the other ones that maybe aren't Like That, please let me know.) I don't know that it ruined the book--clearly I still finished it, and enjoyed it enough to rate it this highly--but oof.

But maybe I got unnecessarily focused on that, and you will be able to ignore it! Again, I think the atmosphere is a powerful reason to read this, and the plot isn't boring by any means--it really does sweep you up! So ymmv on my issues with the book.