I am a huge fan of magical realism and Murakami delivers that. His writing tends to be straight-forward, but the message and story are anything but. As a reader, I have this need to have things clear by the end of the story. If I am telling someone about a book, I want to be able to tell them this is what happened and this is how it wrapped up and this is the meaning behind it. You simply cannot do this with a Murakami book. And I am still unclear as to how I feel about the ending of this one or my own personal interpretation of the story. Bottom line, if you want to engage in reading his books, simply read them, then be OK with whatever happens (or doesn't happen). And with Murakami's labyrinthine stories, this is the most enjoyable way to read them.