I went into this book blind, and I'm glad I did. I think it would be one that would mess with any expectations you had about it. 
 Murakami is a great writer and this has to be a pretty great translation; it was engrossing while still being very Japanese. Some really insightful passages, grabbing dialogue, and all with a good sense of humor and horror. 
 It's a good, weird book that left me asking a lot of questions. It misses the 4-star mark because I'm not sure a lot of those questions are warranted, and while the novel attempts to be a lot of things, I'm not sure it does any of them extraordinarily well. I'd like to recommend this book to someone, but there are only a few people I know who have a chance at appreciating it, if that tells you anything.