To me, Murakami's books are like ice cream. Many people will claim that it's just more of the same, and in a way they are right. But I am not complaining, because it's just more of the same delicious, luscious thing. Also, while a too large bowl of ice cream can cause stomach troubles (maybe like The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles), this time Murakami limits himself to a nice amount of 360 pages.I will not go into much detail on the plot. At the age of 20, Tsukuru Tazaki is kicked out of his brotherhoo...

This is easily one of the saddest books I have ever read. I found it extremely difficult to read in places. I know what it is to lose friends, to have people randomly walk out of your life as if you never existed: it’s not a nice feeling after years of friendship.For Tsukuru its four friends and they all exit at once. He gets a phone call from one of them informing him that the group have unanimously decided that he is no longer part of it. The shock is something that he carries with him for his...

(Note: there's a big spoiler in this review, but I'm going to mark it so you should be able to skip it.)I wanted to like this book. I ordered it after reading the description in the German preview, and I could hardly wait. The plot sounded intriguing, and this was going to be the first "real" novel I was going to read in Japanese, and it was by an author whose works I mostly enjoyed until then. This was going to be so good!And it was, in the beginning. Tazaki Tsukuru used to be part of a group o...

My book with all decorations: There are two divisions in people who read Haruki Murakami’s books.First one being, those who are addicted to his universe; a different sphere of reality, where at a special time and place imagination had been set free. Once you are in, you never want to come to reality like a person who had his first gulp of his drink, feels a gust of wind swooping inside his skull and feels as if his brain is floating with a sparkling smile on the corner of his lips. And latter on...

Quite a melancholy book that centers around Tsukuru Tazaki, whose name means "colorless". His pilgrimage is a journey to find out why he was abruptly rejected outright by his four closest friends from school. For anyone who has faced rejection, without knowing why and who questions their place in the scheme of things, this will be a journey for you too. When he finds out why, he will realize that it wasn't about him at all. When he finds that the world does not revolve around him and is able to

From Young Adult to MatureMany of Murakami's novels deal with the transition from adolescence to adulthood. This probably accounts for their amazing popularity, especially with young Japanese readers. However, you have to wonder whether Murakami can continually plough the fields of this subject matter at his age, without losing his youthful audience. As at the date of publication of this novel, he is aged 65, which in some countries is the traditional mandatory retirement age.I suspect that "Col...

‘ Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.’ -Søren KierkegaardIt is a shame that we cannot relive the past, only merely recreate it. We bear the scars of events we can only comprehend in retrospect, but must rely on flawed memory and biased examinations of what truly came to pass. Internationally acclaimed novelist Haruki Murakami’s 2014 novel, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage—a title that screams of pure Murakami whimsy and flair¹, is a novel ab...

色彩を持たない多崎つくると、彼の巡礼の年 [Shikisai o motanai Tazaki Tsukuru to, kare no junrei no toshi] = Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Haruki MurakamiColorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is the thirteenth[n novel by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. Published on 12 April 2013 in Japan, it sold one million copies in one month. Tsukuru Tazaki is a 36-year-old man whose defining features are his love of train stations and the fact his four best friends all ceased to speak to hi...

“No matter how honestly you open up to someone, there are still things you cannot reveal.”Tsukuru Tazaki’s life looks like it’s going well, but he’s emotionally stuck. He’s located the place in the past where this has happened, a time when close friends inexplicably banish him from their group, but 16 years later he still doesn’t know why. What follows is a compelling idiosyncratic odyssey in search of answers and identity. Murakami’s novel is a meditation on moving forward and coming to terms w...

“You can hide memories, but you can't erase the history that produced them.” ― Haruki Murakami, Colorless Tsukuru TazakiA slow soak in a bath of music, color, friends, loneliness, philosophy, creation and death. Murakami is a genius at writing with emotions swirling beneath the text. He gets the importance of the notes AND the silence of prose; of the unsaid, dreamy place that is both recognized and strange.This isn't his most exciting work, but it is clearly not a throw-away either. It brings a...

Depressing Haruki Murakami facsimile of the most amateurish kind--yet it is an authentic Murakami no doubt. It's evocative, transcendent, but solely in a topically-curt, almost embarrassingly-superficial way. The easy prose by now has entered a very comical dimension. This is farce. It is all simplicity, nuance; it's all pretty... empty. LAAAMEIs this (the beginning of) the downfall of our very beloved Japanese contemporary literary master?

Haruki Murakami and I are breaking up, and it’s him, not me. I was at first enchanted by 1Q84’s mystery, unique, easy-to-read style and peculiar dialogue. I was less impressed by my second dip into the Murakami pool in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, though I realize a lot of people love that novel. So, this was it, Murakami’s last chance. Would he wow me with Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, or leave me out in the cold.Dear reader, the star-rating is at the top, so you already

"“I have no sense of self. I have no personality, no brilliant color. I have nothing to offer. That’s always been my problem. I feel like an empty vessel. I have a shape, I guess, as a container, but there’s nothing inside."This is the most heart-wrenching of Murakami's books, at least of the ones I've read. Wow. I wasn't expecting that. This is the story of Tsukuru Tazaki. As a teen, he belonged to a close-knit group of friends all of whom had a color for a name. Tsukuru alone does not have a c...

As a fan of Haruki Murakami's, this book thrilled me! That's because this novel combines an intriguing and puzzling plot with a beautiful and simple way of looking at life. I was fascinated with the protagonist's way of thinking and dealing reasonably with life, and furthermore it was a pleasure to once again read a story set in Japan because it inevitably intertwines with Japanese culture. Regrettably, this book didn't come with a lot of magical realism which is, however, a common trait of Mura...

My first Murakami, and probably my last. After all the raves for Murakami, I expected this to blow me away. Even as I found my enthusiasm waning, I still thought there would come a point where the author would pull all the pieces together and I would have this sudden a-ha moment -- I was really looking forward to that. Even when I reached the point of literally forcing myself to continue -- come on, you can do it, only three more chapters! -- I STILL thought there would be SOMETHING to make the

“You can hide memories, but you can't erase the history that produced them.” This is barely my second Murakami reading. Having "Kafka on the Shore" in my mind, read just a couple of months ago, I thought I would also find that bizarre, transcendental and almost phantasmagorical similar experience. "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage" is written under a complete different ambiance, yet it possesses certain Murakami essentials I begin to recognize in his style and probably every