Rating: 
Summary: What''s left looks good
Review: Murakami's books increasingly remind me of jigsaw puzzles missing several pieces--I never learn exactly what happened, or why. To Western readers who are used to having the details spelled out his book can only disappoint. Yet I still enjoyed SoftheB,WoftheS. It is a deceptively simple story of Hajime, a man with a sccessful life, career, family--who suddenly meets his childhood sweetheart Shimamoto. At once he is plunged into a crisis of heart, soul, duty, little of which resembles the western conceptions of such a romance. Both Hajime and Shimamoto had grown up fairly typical modern Japanese young people (the story could have been set in the US), yet in the twenty-five years they are parted the Murakami magic subtly alters them. Shimamoto never explains what happened to her, where she was, and her fate is in keeping with this (Don't worry, I'm not spoiling it!). Hajime never has really recovered from knowing her, or from his teenage lover Izumi, who remians equally engimatic; this book is faintly reminiscent, for those who read it, of Kawabata's famed Snow Country. Murakami continually considers the thin gray line between abandonment and freedom; his people again and again must confront just what they want to do, just how free is truly free. Others may not consider the ending a happy one, but for me, it is enough.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a tale an American could write.
Review: A worthy successor to Endo and Mishima, Murakami writes of the spoiled restlessness of Japanese Baby Boomers, unburdened by memories of their nation's near devastation. This mysterious little tale is narrated by an only child who grows up, despite his denials, to be self-absorbed and obsessed with his own powers to please or destroy women. Never mind that he has a near-perfect marriage, family, and career. The character of Shimamoto-his first love--with her inexplicable tragic appeal, is one of the most fascinating I've recently met in the pages of a novel. Likewise, the dreamy quality of the narrator's obsessions and delusions-e.g., thinking he spots Shimamoto or another damaged woman he once loved only to realize that they are not who he thinks, or that they can't see him even when he's rapping on the window of their cab. I suppose that only an Asian novel could be so spare yet haunting. When the narrator Hajime, whose name means Beginning, realizes after the fact that he was attracted to Shimamoto because the irresistible look in her eyes meant Death-well, we know we're not reading a familiar story.
Rating:
Summary: Safe, sane, and predictable
Review: To be blunt, Haruki Murakami's best work will not be found in South of the Border, West of the Sun. I don't like having to write that about the most exciting contemporary author I've come across for a long time, but while it was a pleasant enough read, there is really nothing here that stands out. The Murakami-ness, aside from the ubiquitous mysterious vanishing woman, just isn't here.The skeletal story is about Hajime, an only child whose only good friend in childhood is Shimamoto, herself also an only child. When their families move apart, he doesn't see her again until years later when he is a successful businessman. And is she also happy with her life? That remains a bit of an unknown, since Murakami has for this book chosen to be less forthcoming than usual. The balance between mystery and enlightenment that he so carefully keeps in most books has fallen badly to one side here. I also failed to see why he is so fascinated with her, and why his own family meant so little to him. In short, I found it hard to fathom the main players in the story (not unusual for Murakami, I admit), and I didn't really connect with them either. The only compelling storyline was his relationship with his high school girlfriend and its bad ending, but that took up only a rather small portion of the book, though Hajime does periodically muse about it. Though enjoyable enough as a light read, I did not feel particularly challenged, nor did I sit up and say, "wow!" Read it if you like the author, but don't expect anything ground shaking. There's just not that much special here.
Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing
Review: I was hooked by this book right away ... I think the first chapter is quite possibly one of the most beautiful passages I've ever read. Continuing along, other works popped into mind ... Kawabata's Snow Country for one, along with Murakami's own Norwegian Wood and Dance, Dance, Dance. Perhaps more so than the books I just mentioned, South of the Border captures the subtle delicacy that is human existance. The pure beauty of slightly parted lips, the danger of one tug on the steering wheel at 80 mph, the unexplanable mystery represented by the envelope with money ... Murakami captured emotions and put them on paper with stunning results. With the exception of Norwegian Wood, this is probably the most "normal" of Murakami's books. Both books deal with relatively similar topics, but to me at least, the growth of Murakami as a writer shows immensely in the differences between the two books. I read South of the Border right after reading Kawabata's Nobel-prize winning Snow Country (a similarly deceptively simple story) and I couldn't help but wonder if a Nobel prize isn't in Murakami's future as well. South of the Border, West of the Sun may not be Murakami's masterpiece ... some would say The Wind-up Bird Chronicle is, I personally like Dance, Dance, Dance the best ... but I feel that this book is nevertheless truly vintage Murakami. Murakami challenges the reader to rethink everything that he or she holds on to as "true" in this world. Shimamoto states that "some kinds of things, once they go forward, can never go back to where they began." These things include not only physical acts, but the unfathomable workings of the mind and memory as well.
Rating:
Summary: A love story with wonderful loose ends -- imagine that.
Review: The ultimate story of a man growing up -- issues of love, money, and responsibility are prominent in this novel. It's also a strange love story: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, man meets woman, man loses woman. This is probably the most mainstream book Murakami has written to date. Many loose ends, but I wonder -- is it sometimes better to leave loose ends with stories? It's kind of like what H.P. Lovecraft did with the cthulu stories -- all you see is the monsters' shadows; it leaves a more powerful impression in the end. In any case, nothing is ever easy in Murakami's world -- especially the matters of the heart. Nothing is ever quite resolved, but hey, that's kind of like life, isn't it? It's funny that even though Murakami writes more fantastic stories than most folks, his endings are quite ground in reality.
Rating:
Summary: Truly amaizing story
Review: I am totally hooked on Murakami. Although culture he is writing about is so distant for me, being from Croatia, I find it amazing how people have similar worries all over the world.
Murakami is definitely one of the greatest living authors. I adore his style, and I can only dream how good it sounds in his native language.
This book is such a sad story about being married, about taking responsibilities and about loosing love due to that.
What makes Murakami big is the message he leaves with you after every book and the ease with which he presents in front of you one of the biggest doubts in almost everyone's life.
Rating:
Summary: Good, if not extraordinary.
Review: My first introduction to Murakami came with the "Wild Sheep Chase", which established a pretty high bar to follow. This book, "South of the Border, West of the Sun" had its moments, but overall failed to impress too much upon me.
In retrospect, the book was better than I originally gave it credit for. Perhaps that is the result of me reading pretty quickly and thus my first impressions are sometimes a bit rushed.
Overall, the book the often-repeated Murakami pattern of a boring, or at least static, present triyng to come to terms with a haunted post-WWII childhood. There is the obligatory semi-suicidal <i>femme fatale</i>, and a character who begins feeling more and more out of place in his reality. As the book goes on we delve into the past of the characters and being to understand the events that have shaped them. [spoiler]There is the repeated (from book to book) pattern of becoming estranged from a wife only to come closer to her in the end.[/spoiler]
Like the author's other books, we have two female characters, but in this case I felt The Wife was very well written, with more exposition and finesse than in other works. It is hard to go into details and not spoil the books twists and turns, but for anyone who is a fan of Murakami, or good contemporary literary fiction in general, this is a worthwhile read.
Rating:
Summary: "Pretend you're happy when you're blue..."
Review: He's usually recognized for his 700+ page epic The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, but in my opinion this book is his masterpiece. He seems to have figured out all he really wanted to say, and said it; he's trimmed everything superfluous to the story, leaving the very simple, very moving chronicle of a certain man's love life. The writing is instinctive and unpretentious, and you never feel the author's agenda sort of creeping up on you - but at the same time, it has a more interesting agenda (maybe too strong a word) of any Murakami since A Wild Sheep Chase, and is extremely convincing. Reflecting on what it seems to be saying about human nature, I think 'that's true, that's really true,' even though it didn't agree with my views at all. I also like the way some things - the secrets of Shimamoto's life - are never made explicit. What really made it great for me, though, was a very powerful image in the final pages, worth several novels about romantic longing.
Rating: 
Summary: Utterly ghastly
Review: You know, I've been somewhat critical of Murakami in the past, but even if his writing did tend to become formulaic, I would never have anticipated that he was capable of writing something as bad as this. It seems to me that he was trying out a more overtly 'Japanese' type of writing than usual for him: there's none of the hyperkinetic jumpiness or gonzo plot twists that we find in much of his work; instead, we lots of vagueness, mystery, and emotional threads not fully explored. I think he was trying to be Kawabata here (with the exception of the sex scenes, which, incongrously, made me think of Bukowski). And I'm all for that, in theory: writers ought to stretch their wings. But the reality is not pretty. Make no mistake: Kawabata would not have won the Nobel Prize if he wrote things like this. The problem is the protagonist and narrator, who is a deeply unlikable person. Obviously, that in itself isn't a literary judgment; nobody would condemn Lolita because Humbertx2 is on the despicable side (actually, somebody probably would. I don't want to know about it). But the fact is, Hajime is supposed to be sympathetic. Don't argue with me! He bloody IS! Every positive reviewer on this website thinks so. Not that I wouldn't be willing to concede that ninety-odd people could all be wrong, but they're not. He is. Murakami is working in overtime to try to create a sense of melancholy/regret/bittersweetness--all centered on his character. Unfortunately, he appears to be teetering on the edge of narcissistic personality disorder. All he does his entire life is hurt people. Sure, he feels guilty now and then, but guilt without action is meaningless: it's just a way to make yourself feel better without ever actually having to change in any way. Murakami's characters always have a certain degree of self-absorption, but ol' Hajime just takes the cake. It was utterly impossible for me to sympathize with him in any way. And the way his wife is willing to enable his pathology is simply stomache-turning, and creates the VERY strong impression that this is really nothing more than an unpleasant masturbatory fantasy. If you want subtle, lingering emotions of regret, read Kawabata. If you want Murakami, read Wind-Up Sheep Dance Wonderland. I can think of no good reason for you to read this misbegotten novel.
Rating:
Summary: absolute something
Review: I cannot help reading this book again and again. I feel great
sympathy with the hero who seeks absolute something for him
within his partner, maybe. Though you could spend life
without noticing it, if once you would know it you could not
go back to the former state. It would let you know how
lonely you were in the past and if you once miss it, you would
suffer from the hunger for it forever.
I can also feel perfect content that the hero has when he is
with "his" girl and it makes my heart really warm.
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