It took 15 days, but I finally finished Haruki Murakami’s 944-page magnum opus. It was, in a word, incredible. After only one read-through I am putting it on my list of all-time favorite novels, along with Absalom, Absalom!, The Master and Margarita, Gravity’s Rainbow, A Canticle for Leibowitz, Breakfast of Champions, The Little Prince, and a handful of other books that I consider basically perfect.
Basically perfect.
I don’t even think I can review it, honestly. It’s not my job to review it. I can tell that this is a book that you will either love or hate, and there is nothing that I can say to convince anyone one way or the other. It is an experience, light as air and full of depth, full of tension but oddly serene, mysteries that are never explained but you get this feeling that they shouldn’t be explained - some gaps aren’t meant to be filled, it’s one of the central themes of the book and the book holds incredibly well to its own rules.
A love story - probably one of the best love stories I’ve read. Tragic, at times, I was sitting at the kitchen table last night, reading Book 3, Chapter 25, “Cold or Not, God is Present,” and it was one of the saddest sections of a book that I have ever read. I said under my breath, “Oh, God. Wow,” and my wife heard me but ignored it because I think she saw I was obviously a bit disturbed. And several chapters later, as the book nears its conclusion, I’m treated to one of the most heart-warming and sincere sections I have ever read.
The book was…basically perfect. Books like this don’t come around often, and I’m always saddened after reading them, because I know that I won’t be treated to something like this for a long while.
One final thought and one final quote. The thought: I am amazed that Murakami has not received the Nobel Prize in Literature yet. He has written nothing but fantastic novels, and this book is, again, basically perfect. The quote: “No man is capable enough to live forever.” If I was a tattoo kind of guy, that would be on my back right now…
