Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, by Haruki Murakami
I WILL judge a book by its cover, because the design of this one is ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS.
.JPG)
The gray dust-jacket has cutouts backed with transparent cellophane material. The cutout forms the fingers of color that represent each character, with protagonist Tsukuru representing the thumb. Behind the dust-jacket is the hardcover with the Japan transit map which reflects Tsukuru's passion for train stations, and the stripes of color can be interpreted as each person's route (of life) going its own way.
Enough raving about the book design - let's get to reviewing!
Tsukuru Tazaki is colorless. While his friends have the prefixes of "Aka", "Ao", "Shiro", and "Kuro" (Red, Blue, White, and Black, respectively) in their surnames, "Tazaki" is not a color. Though this starts as a running gag in the group, it deeply affects Tazaki, leaving him to feel like the odd one out. Additionally, though the other four represented popular archetypes in school (the jock, the genius, the sweetheart, the beauty), Tsukuru did not excel at anything in particular. Interestingly enough, his first name (Tsukuru 作る) means "to make", and fits his modest fascination with building things. As the fifth-wheel to a harmonious two-girl-two-guy quartet, he was somehow welcomed into an intimate circle of friends. However, one day, he is shockingly dismissed from the group without any explanation.
Many years pass and Tsukuru meets Sara, who encourages him to embark on a journey (taking him as far as Finland) to find the true reason behind his estrangement and seek the answers to questions that have plagued him over the past years of pain and confusion.
In the usual Murakami fashion, the ending is left open-ended with a vague promise of a happy ending which you will never get to read. There are loose ends - don't you care about what happened to Haida (Mr. Gray)? Does Murakami always need to write about lonely, tortured guys who lead ironically hipster lifestyles and end up with manic pixie dream girls who push the plot along? (Wait until you come across Sara.) These are both just silly rhetorical questions, because that's just the way Murakami rolls.
Other than that, I love Murakami's color metaphors to describe the five friends. Just take a look at the cover again. While the opposable thumb of the hand is isolated from the other four, it is integral for the group to function and thrive. It is only when colorless Tsukuru takes off on his journey does he truly understand how his colorlessness played a pivotal part in his friendships. You'll see what I mean when you read the book for yourself!
Enough raving about the book design - let's get to reviewing!
Tsukuru Tazaki is colorless. While his friends have the prefixes of "Aka", "Ao", "Shiro", and "Kuro" (Red, Blue, White, and Black, respectively) in their surnames, "Tazaki" is not a color. Though this starts as a running gag in the group, it deeply affects Tazaki, leaving him to feel like the odd one out. Additionally, though the other four represented popular archetypes in school (the jock, the genius, the sweetheart, the beauty), Tsukuru did not excel at anything in particular. Interestingly enough, his first name (Tsukuru 作る) means "to make", and fits his modest fascination with building things. As the fifth-wheel to a harmonious two-girl-two-guy quartet, he was somehow welcomed into an intimate circle of friends. However, one day, he is shockingly dismissed from the group without any explanation.
Many years pass and Tsukuru meets Sara, who encourages him to embark on a journey (taking him as far as Finland) to find the true reason behind his estrangement and seek the answers to questions that have plagued him over the past years of pain and confusion.
In the usual Murakami fashion, the ending is left open-ended with a vague promise of a happy ending which you will never get to read. There are loose ends - don't you care about what happened to Haida (Mr. Gray)? Does Murakami always need to write about lonely, tortured guys who lead ironically hipster lifestyles and end up with manic pixie dream girls who push the plot along? (Wait until you come across Sara.) These are both just silly rhetorical questions, because that's just the way Murakami rolls.
Other than that, I love Murakami's color metaphors to describe the five friends. Just take a look at the cover again. While the opposable thumb of the hand is isolated from the other four, it is integral for the group to function and thrive. It is only when colorless Tsukuru takes off on his journey does he truly understand how his colorlessness played a pivotal part in his friendships. You'll see what I mean when you read the book for yourself!
Wow you raced through this one!
ReplyDeleteI still haven't read any Murakami, even though I have four or five of his books on my shelves (whoops!) and I kinda want to really read this one now, even though I should probably get to one of the others first.
I love that cover, and I love that you took time to discuss how the cover fits with the story.
Kayleigh - get on that!! This one was a quick read - or really good, because you're right, I raced through it in two "sprints" (while sitting the whole time. winning!)
ReplyDeleteI went on-and-on about the cover because I haven't seen such a beautiful and meaningful cover in a long time. It will start to make 1000% sense when you're about 64% through the book. Yes, I just made up those numbers, but that dust jacket is some deep stuff.
KAYLEIGH WHAT THE HELL ITS LIKE I DONT EVEN KNOW YOU
ReplyDeleteSo obviously I'm going to read this, and it sounds quintessentially Murakami-ish, which is awesome. Also that cover is really good, the English one is definitely not as cool/meaningful.
ReplyDeleteI KNOW! I keep buying his books but I'm intimidated, what if I decide I don't like him. Would you still be my friend Laura?!
ReplyDeleteI bought my copy and started it yesterday!
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading this book this morning and I've written my blog post about it, which is scheduled to run next week. I...didn't love it? O know what to make of it? And I'm writing in upspeak because I feel frustrated and I don't understand why Murakami doesn't resonate with me the way he does with other people. It's funny, but I've got photos of the book, too, to share in my post.
ReplyDeleteAwww, I loved it! I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it... and demanding why you didn't like it, hahaha! Murakami is very hit-or-miss with readers. Either you really, really love him and it's like joining a cult of Murakami fans, or you're like 'meh, it was weird'.
ReplyDeleteLaura - I'm so curious about the English cover now! Pretty please read this as fast as you can so we can talk about it :)
ReplyDeleteI do love the cover - I've never actually seen that one before.
ReplyDeleteI really want to read this, although I have mixed feelings about Murakami. If I'm honest, I like him more in theory than I do in practice, if that makes any sense!
Hanna - I agree, I told Emily too, that Murakami is hit-or-miss. He writes these really awkward characters that I can't relate to, but things like broken friendships and the feeling isolation are extremely relatable. I get your point that the theory is ideal, but this unfortunately does not make it in execution at times.
ReplyDelete