I felt this chapter totally slowed down the pace of the book since, by that point, I would imagine most readers had already worked a lot of the disparate threads out for themselves and were eager to race to the end to see how the stories concluded. It was pure sci-fi, for sure, verging on the fantasy, but the entire (almost monologue) could have been edited down to a simple 3 or 4 pages. That was absolutely and totally unnecessary. I was enjoying every part of this book until around the 3/4 mark when there is a lengthy chapter dealing with the Grandfather 'explaining'. I felt this totally enhanced the developing stories rather than being a detraction, and the simultaneous stories were always easy to follow and were always engrossing. Whether it was me, or whether other readers had the same experience, it only took a couple of chapters to understand the interconnection of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End Of The World. This novel was no exception and in the first few chapters I found all the hallmarks of what I expect from Murakami. Having read a number of Murakami short-stories and novels already, I was waiting for the sci-fi element, the fantasy and, above all, the surrealism since this author is able to make even the most mundane of real life events become quite surreal and so question our own view of what we consider reality to be.

When reviewing a book that I have purchased, I prefer not to give any kind of a precis of the story - I reserve that for when I am professionally asked to review a book - and so this is simply a highly subjective overview of my experience with this novel. I have become a total fan of Murakami this year - took me long enough to be introduced to him but, since then, I have soaked myself in his (translated) literature. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy Notice. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice.

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Murakami hard boiled wonderland review