Haruki Murakami
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Very readable but not particularly enjoyable. It's a dark subject matter which I'm not a fan of although the more surreal passages are great. However to my liking there's far too much gratuitous descriptions of extreme violence and also an underlying salaciousness. The sex scenes may or may not add a lot to the story but I'm not sure why he needs to beat the crap out of a musician or for the ongoing flirting with a local teenager. I'm a bit surprised that Patti Smith loves this book, it's due to her that I read it, apart from her interest in dark crime programmes. Such an epic probably deserves more than a few lines from myself but it's too chopped up with too many strands many of which I feel are there as short stories of violence and sex. There's also an unsavoury thread of women being defiled and maybe quite enjoying it. An enjoyable read in parts but overall very suspect.
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