Full disclosure: I have a conflicted response to Murakami’s writing, only loving some books like the brilliant 1Q84. Happily, this new book definitely belongs in the great must-read category. This review is necessarily enigmatic because of magic realism content. Can different worlds like a walled-in town with unicorns co-exist with the natural world? Can a shadow and a real person be separated and trade roles? Overall, the story is a fantastical quest, and an ode to love, loss and yearning. And yes, there are dreams and books and libraries!
Tag: Haruki Murakami
Best of 2012
- Night Circus (Erin Morgenstern): magic and reality are integrated
- The Informationist (Taylor Stevens): excellent adventure/mystery; intriguing central character; set in Africa
- 1Q84 (Haruki Murakami): outstanding; real imagination
- Dancing Lessons (Olive Senior): really excellent; introspection into roles as woman/wife/mother; failure to communicate; perception/reality
- Something Fierce (Carmen Aguirre): Giller winner; emotional cost of being a child of revolutionary parents in South America
- The Art of Fielding (Chad Harbach): baseball as a metaphor for guy relationships and the pursuit of perfection
- Canada (Richard Ford): excellent
- By Blood (Ellen Ullman): really interesting book about identity, adoption, Jewish heritage
- Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn): really excellent psychological who-dunnit; best book in 2012
- Hanging Hill (Mo Hayder): excellent murder mystery set in Bath and SW England
- Defending Jacob (William Landay): legal thriller, about the possibility that a son is evil; really excellent
What David Read 