Reviews

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

trin's review against another edition

5.0

This seemed like an appropriate way to finish the year. It’s a novel that’s got a little bit of everything: sc-fi, fantasy, noirish mystery, a touch of romance, a bit of horror. Or, as my brother said in the fantastic email in which he recommend it to me, “As I recall it's quite beautiful—a mixture of [a:Raymond Chandler|1377|Raymond Chandler|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1206535318p2/1377.jpg] and a passive [a:Dante Alighieri|11519|Dante Alighieri|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1197404194p2/11519.jpg]. There's a beautiful passage about Bob Dylan and a heavy rainstorm...also quite a charming bit about cute fat ladies.”

You know, I was going to go on a bit, but I actually don’t think I can sum it up much better than that. Perhaps it is best to bid the year farewell with brevity.

siyaahuja's review

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

elliansu's review

Sooo someone else had reserved this in my library and I had to return it 😭 maybe I’ll return to this later

nsturr's review against another edition

4.0

Loved it but wish I was reading it with a group to discuss.

ojfung_2326's review

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

anders_holbaek's review against another edition

3.0

I got done reading Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of The World and I am not quite sure what to make of it. I think I like it, but I am not sure because the text did not really present me with anything I feel I can bring with me onwards. Let me explain, I do not assume that I will be taught some grand moral lesson reading Murakami, surely he is way too postmodern for that. However, I had a similar mind-set when reading his novel Kafka on the Shore and I feel like that book had much more I could appreciate. While it did not offer any great truths or life-changing epiphanies, it beautifully portrayed things like: sexual awakening, a need for change, and the lust to figure out everything you can about art, whether that be literature, visual art, music – or other people. Wonderland on the other hand… I am not quite sure what I learned from reading that - do not follow scientists into underground laboratories? It did have themes of losing one’s identity, being trapped in a system unfathomably large, feeling alone in modern society and so on. However, none of those themes made an impression on me the same way that Kafka on the Shore was able to do. The protagonist being on the same side as the guy who outsmarted the system made it feel more like a slightly unpleasant bureaucratic institution than some sinister, Orwellian, all-seeing antagonist. Even the part about feeling alone in modern society was not really that impactful since the protagonist was pretty happy about his isolated situation. Of course, I cannot simply judge it on whether or not I liked the themes. Murakami manages to be an exceptionally enjoyable aesthetic experience, with his beautiful writing, outstanding capacity for detail and his organic and vigorous description of the food and the flesh. All in all, I did enjoy Wonderland, but, while I enjoyed Kafka on the Shore as one long cohesive beautifully constructed story, I enjoyed Wonderland as a series of witty, interesting and charming scenarios or vignettes. When all that is said, the ending was quite fantastic and while it did not necessarily tie everything together the way I had hoped it would, it did seems like a proper ending to a series of wild, small-scale stories, and it did manage to make me feel good and appreciate the story ‘as a whole’.
One may notice that I completely failed to comment on the dualistic nature of the story, and that is because I do not feel that the End of the World part of the story made enough sense (or perhaps I just do not get it), or made any kind of lasting impression on me, so much so that I do not have anything interesting to say about it (beside the fact that it also handled the theme of losing one’s self fantastically).

slawler's review against another edition

5.0

My favorite Murakami

elliyapanis25's review

adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

chasethecoder's review

funny mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

walruz's review against another edition

4.0

Murakami at his most coherently bizarre. The narrative, as usual, complete with bad guys, good guys, beautiful women, and ogres, takes us on a journey downward and inward into the dark recesses of the human psyche. Characteristically, out of this world.