I think this would have been better as a short story. Over half the novel is a slow reflective narrative about the main character’s childhood and involvement with several women. I was never engaged as Hajime shares this back story with a flat sense of self-recrimination and self-pity. Once the story catches up to the present and the choices he must make as an adult do i find myself caring about the struggles.

When the women come back into his life decades later, the story begins. The character Hajime revisits the backstory—his childhood, his regrets—as he reconnects with a classmate and with the woman who was his childhood best friend. In his adult context, i can care about the self recrimination and regrets.

I will likely reread Kazo Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World for contrast as another reflection on regret and choices.

Of all of Murakami’s novels, this is the most Human and the most realistic.. I can actually relate to the story! Silly nostalgia!

.

The jacket of the book says it’s “deceptively simple”. It’s also a charming and graceful evocation of how as adults our childhood exerts such a hold on us. I was amazed at Murakami’s ability to express how torn Hajime feels and how grey the area of love and lust and nostalgia can be.