Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage

A novel

By: Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel - translator

Narrated by: Bruce Locke

Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

The new novel - a book that sold more than a million copies the first week it went on sale in Japan - from the internationally acclaimed author, his first since IQ84.

Here he gives us the remarkable story of Tsukuru Tazaki, a young man haunted by a great loss; of dreams and nightmares that have unintended consequences for the world around us; and of a journey into the past that is necessary to mend the present. It is a story of love, friendship, and heartbreak for the ages.

©2014 Haruki Murakami (P)2014 Random House Audio

No issues with the performance

If you could sum up Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage in three words, what would they be?

Engaging,mesmerizing, lyrical

What other book might you compare Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage to and why?

1Q84

Which character – as performed by Bruce Locke – was your favorite?

Kuro

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I shouldn't say that :) Don't want to spoil anyhting for potential readers of this book

Any additional comments?

I have no problems with Bruce Locke performance and truly think he did a good job. Each character had a unique voice which made them more "real" to me and defiently helped to focus my attention on the book.

Great book

As always, a wonderful journey written by a master.
Wasn’t too crazy about the audiobook narrator’s performance, but that is because I’m picky when it comes to stuff like that. The guy did a good job, but all the characters sounded pretty much the same. Even so, I could still understand who was talking to who, so it didn’t really matter.

Why the goofy accents??

The story was great- Murakami's surrealism at its best. However, I have to write to gripe about the narrator's weird need to voice the characters in a Japanese accent. Totally unnecessary.

The accent...

The accent used during the dialogue was horrible. Story was good. I made it through the whole book but it was just awfully distracting. I live in Japan and speak with English language learners frequently. This was quite insulting.

A great introduction to the world of Murakami

Another book in which Murakami supports the narrative with feelings, and wounds of the past of your main character. In high school, he lived with his family in Nagoya and had four inseparable friends. Each of your friends brought a color from the surname: the boys were Akamatsu - red pine, Omi - Blue sea, and the girsr are Shirane - white root and Kurono - pitch black. Only the name of Tsukuro did not bring a color dimension, but what meaning "that do things". He felt part of the group until be cut, kicked out of this inner circle, which made him close into himself, afraid to seek an explanation. With this pain and suffering the protagonist wins the reader's empathy, the curiosity to know the reason of the wound, and the will to accompany him on the pilgrimage to freedom. The text reflects the pace of a frequently quoted piece of music: Franz Liszt - Le Mal du Pays. The book, as well as the music conveys to your listener/reader a text/melody in a slow melody, melancholy, sometimes desperate, but which may also have notes of hope and even some joy. In this book we find little of the fantasy and hallucinations of the author's other books, but we have more of the same urban, modern theme, which revolves around human relationships including sex, love and death. Another great book by Haruki Murakami for those who are already fans of the author, or for those that are still to be. Highly Recommend.

Just on but: why the narrator have to use a Japanese accent?

Not my favourite Murakami novel

I’ll start by saying that Murakami is probably my favourite author. This wasn’t a bad or uninteresting story but I found it a little too introspective and not nearly as imaginative as most of his works. The narrator read the text in unaccented English but read the dialog in English with a Japanese accent, the switching back and forth of which I found distracting.

If this is your first Murakami novel, read some of his others too. He has much stronger novels.

Always Different

The only things that are recurrent in Murakami's novels are rich characters, wonderful stories, and introspection.

Great book, poor narrating

Great intriguing story, as almost always is the case with Haruki Murakami's books.

Whenever the characters would speak, he would speak with a bad Asian accent. These character are Japanese people speaking their mother tongue, Japanese; why did the narrator feel the need to give them a very bad Asian accent?? This was extremely annoying to me.

Beautiful Story. Odd dialogue narration

It Is hard for me to believe that Murakami is not aware of the odd dialogue in Bruce Locke's performance. I have listen to nearly 300 books and most of Murukami's material. The use of the Japanese accent is inconsistent with all of his other books. Why do it here? The depth and tone of the story could have been extraordinary if the dialogue had been performed normally. The book is definitely worth a listen. But really should be redone with the accented English removed. When Locke simply narrates the story the results are dark and moving.

Great story

Fantastic story, no doubt will reread, however i couldn’t get past the performers need to speak in a heavy Japanese accent for the dialogue. There’s no need for it to be performed like that, its irritating especially considering the characters are talking in Japanese when they talk to each other IN the story so there wouldn’t be an accent.