Book Review: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki & His Years Of Pilgrimage'; Haruki Murakami.

This book, for better or for worse, provoked a strong reaction out of me. I'm still not quite sure whether I liked or disliked it for that very reason, especially as I threw it so violently across the room upon finishing it.

SOURCE: Bought
TYPE: Paperback

TITLE: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki & His Years Of Pilgrimage
AUTHOR: Haruki Murakami
SERIES: --
PUBLISHER: Vintage
PAGES: 298
GENRE: Contemporary, Asian Literature, Adult

RATING: 3.5/5 Stars

Blurb:
Tsukuru Tazaki had four best friends at school. By chance all of their names contained a colour. The two boys were called Akamatsu, meaning ‘red pine’, and Oumi, ‘blue sea’, while the girls’ names were Shirane, ‘white root’, and Kurono, ‘black field’. Tazaki was the only last name with no colour in it.

One day Tsukuru Tazaki’s friends announced that they didn't want to see him, or talk to him, ever again.

Since that day Tsukuru has been floating through life, unable to form intimate connections with anyone. But then he meets Sara, who tells him that the time has come to find out what happened all those years ago.

What I Liked:

• Okay, so after a slow start, this story gripped me. It was weird, metaphorical and almost 100% symbolism rather then literal. But it worked. And the mystery was one I was totally on board with. I wanted to know all about Tsukuru's past, his four friends, and what had happened all those years ago. The side tracking did help to build tension, Murakami certainly has a knack for keeping readers hooked.
• I liked Tsukuru as an MC! He was a little lifeless (as he was supposed to be) but his strange anxieties and elements of his depression and paranoia resonated with me, making it impossible not to care about the fate of his character. I loved watching him develop too, as he got deeper into the mystery and started to care more.

What I Disliked:

• I did not become that invested in 294 pages for that ending. I'm sorry, I hate vague endings at their best, but here I felt like I was missing pages. There were so many unsolved mysteries and unanswered questions, and that final chapter felt like such a waste of page space. Maybe I just didn't get it, or it wasn't supposed to be important, but it's the reason why I had such a tantrum after being so engrossed. I was disappointed.

Overall Conclusion:

This book won't be for everyone. I have doubts that it was for me even, but really I can't deny that I found it highly thrilling to read most of the time. It definitely had a slow start though, and Murakami's tendency to go of on a totally unrelated tangent will irritate people if they like a story that keeps moving. I have so many regrets about becoming so invested however, because now I am left feeling cheated. What did Sara say on Wednesday? What actually happened to Shiro? And where did Haida go? I will never know. That upsets me.