Review on Tea and Tomes 
 Tsukuru Tazaki had four best friends in high school; with the exception of Tsukuru, the friends are all named after colors. After high school, in order to pursue his love of trains, Tsukuru is the only friend to move away from their hometown. Still, he visits. Until one day his friends cut him off with no warning and no explanation. This moment changes Tsukuru and haunts him. Decades later, Tsukuru's new girlfriend, Sara, encourages him to finally find out what happened all those many years ago. 
 This is my first Murakami. It's apparently a big year for me to read the new release by a popular author I haven't read before (Donna Tartt, David Mitchell, now Haruki Murakomi). Regardless, my thoughts on this book stand alone to this book, and are not colored by comparison to any of Murakomi's body of work. Though, like with Mitchell, I've been meaning to read him for some time. 
 First let it be said that I really hated the resolution to this book. Like, really hated it. My thoughts on the book are most definitely colored by this. By the time Tsukuru met up with his childhood friends it all seemed a little too easy. Let's spend a whole book wondering about something and building up this great suspense and mystery, and then sit down in an office and blatantly answer all your questions. I mean, I know that's kind of life, but it was also very anticlimactic. Until it wasn't. Because the "big reveal" was all kinds of problematic for me. Add in some plot points set up and never acknowledged again, and I was a little disappointed. I'm not going to spoil anything, but if you've read the book and have thoughts. I'd love to hear them. 
 The prose in this book is great, slightly haunting and all kinds of disconcerting. I never know if I'm supposed to be totally rooting for the protagonist or not. There were also hints that there might be more than realism at play here. Not full on supernatural, or even really magical realism, but this simmering idea that something just isn't right. I'll admit to reading a review that led me to believe the novel leaned a little more in this direction was a big selling point. Please note that this is not central to the book. I had to reevaluate my aesthetic response midway through when I realized this. Additionally, I'm sure there's a bunch of symbolism in here I haven't even thought about. 
 I enjoyed the ideas in the book about having to come to terms with your past. I connected less with the borderline mid-life crises aspects of the novel, combined with the blatant sexual topics. I don't mind sex in books (hello romance novels). I have more trouble with weird dreams in which a man blatantly objectifies the women in his life he claims he's never even considered in a romantic or sexual light. There's a lot going on there, and honestly, a month later I'm still kind of processing. 
 If you get the U.S. hardback of the book be sure to take off the dust jacket and enjoy the beautiful subway map on the book itself. It's kind of stunning, and does a wonderful job at graphically summing up the contents of the novel. The dust jacket is somewhat dull and straightforward (Tsukuru as a character not the writing), even as it covers up a intricate and fascinating underbelly.