This is the fourth Haruki Murakami book that I have read and
the fastest that I have completed. I actually read chapters according to the
time mentioned in the book. I wanted to submerge myself in his world and
believe it was surreal. Its about the time after midnight, the time when the
world seem that it belongs to you, Mari a nineteen year old girl misses her
last train or is probably running away from reality meets her sister’s friend
Takahashi who opens himself to someone as never before, A Chinese prostitute
and Kaoru, a manager of a local hotel.
The story is next to surreal, it’s alluring, it’s
kafkaseque, its what you expect from a Murakami novel. The way Takahashi explains about life
in Chpt.8/3.07am was one of my favorite parts of the book.
“What I want to say is probably something like this: any
single human being, no matter what kind of a person he or she may be, is all
caught up in the tentacles of this animal like a giant octopus, and is getting
sucked into the darkness. You can put any kind of spin on it you like, but you
end up with the same unbearable spectacle.”
The preceding lines before that and those lines gave me
Goosebumps of some sort.
The description of Eri Asai, the way she is sleeping, the
surrounding, the Television, it sends a chill down my spine at one end and
gives me kind of peace on other. The narrative is quite nicely used during the
chapters that focus on her. It makes you want to go in a deep sleep like her.
I feel like for those few minutes when she was trapped, she
was in Shirakawa’s mind, while Shirakawa himself was away from his flesh, from
his body into some other dimension.
“In fact
however, that is exactly what he did – what he had to do.” – Chapter 7
I am still wondering why he had to do that, guess those
things and other which are left unanswered is why I want to travel in
Murakami’s mind once, but…
The only thing that I didn’t like about the book was “It’s
over already,” that was my expression today. After reading Kafka on the Shore, Norwegian Wood and The
Wind-up Bird Chronicle, this book just feels short.
Book Ratings : 4/5
