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Killing Commendatore
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 28 hrs and 27 mins
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Publisher's summary
A Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Financial Times, Library Journal, LitHub, and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
The epic new novel from the internationally acclaimed and best-selling author of 1Q84
In Killing Commendatore, a 30-something portrait painter in Tokyo is abandoned by his wife and finds himself holed up in the mountain home of a famous artist, Tomohiko Amada. When he discovers a previously unseen painting in the attic, he unintentionally opens a circle of mysterious circumstances. To close it, he must complete a journey that involves a mysterious ringing bell, a two-foot-high physical manifestation of an Idea, a dapper businessman who lives across the valley, a precocious 13-year-old girl, a Nazi assassination attempt during World War II in Vienna, a pit in the woods behind the artist’s home, and an underworld haunted by Double Metaphors.
A tour de force of love and loneliness, war and art - as well as a loving homage to The Great Gatsby - Killing Commendatore is a stunning work of imagination from one of our greatest writers.
“A spellbinding parable of art, history, and human loneliness.” (O, The Oprah Magazine)
“Expansive and intricate...touches on many of the themes familiar in Mr. Murakami’s novels: the mystery of romantic love, the weight of history, the transcendence of art, the search for elusive things just outside our grasp.” (The New York Times)
“Eccentric and intriguing, Killing Commendatore is the product of a singular imagination.... Murakami is a wiz at melding the mundane with the surreal.... He has a way of imbuing the supernatural with uncommon urgency. His placid narrative voice belies the utter strangeness of his plot.... The worldview of Murakami’s novels is consistent, and it’s invigorating. In this book and many that came before it, he urges us to embrace the unusual, accept the unpredictable." (San Francisco Chronicle)
“Exhilarating.... Only in the calm madness of his magical realism can Murakami truly capture one of his obsessions, the usually ineffable yearning that drives a person to make art.” (The Washington Post)
Critic reviews
"Expansive and intricate...touches on many of the themes familiar in Mr. Murakami's novels: The mystery of romantic love, the weight of history, the transcendence of art, the search for elusive things just outside our grasp." (The New York Times)
Eccentric and intriguing, Killing Commendatore is the product of a singular imagination.... Murakami is a wiz at melding the mundane with the surreal.... He has a way of imbuing the supernatural with uncommon urgency. His placid narrative voice belies the utter strangeness of his plot.... The worldview of Murakami's novels is consistent, and it's invigorating. In this book and many that came before it, he urges us to embrace the unusual, accept the unpredictable." (San Francisco Chronicle)
"No other author mixes domestic, fantastic and esoteric elements into such weirdly bewitching shades.... Just as he straddles barriers dividing high art from mass entertainment, so he suspends borders between east and west." (Financial Times)
Featured Article: 10 Famous Japanese Authors You Have to Hear
Thanks to the work of translators and publishers, Japanese literature is now more accessible than ever to English-speaking audiences. If you've ever wanted to learn more about Japanese culture and literature, you cannot go wrong with listening to audiobooks from Japan. We've compiled a list of the most famous Japanese authors who have helped define Japanese literature, and their notable works across genres and time periods.
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This newer edition of the King James Bible published in 1769 is usually preferred by most that read it over the older 1611 version. This 1769 edition is highly sought after due to being more reader/listener friendly than the 1611 since many typos were fixed.... We hope your new audio bible will go everywhere with you and be a blessing for years to come.
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Very Good
- By José de Ribera on 12-17-20
By: King James Bible
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The Boar's Nest
- Sue Brewer and the Birth of Outlaw Country Music
- By: Rachel Bonds, Holly Gleason, Dub Cornett
- Narrated by: Mandy Moore, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, W. Earl Brown, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 26 mins
- Original Recording
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Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson. Before they were household names, these budding legends called Sue’s Nashville apartment—lovingly dubbed the “Boar’s Nest”—home. Sue’s place was an intimate staging ground where a new breed of singer-songwriters—wounded souls, wayward upstarts—would spur each other on to tap into something bigger, realer.
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fantastic
- By Jennifer L. Applebaum on 03-18-24
By: Rachel Bonds, and others
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The Narrator
- By: K. L. Slater
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett, Kristin Atherton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Original Recording
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When the call came it seemed like the answer to my prayers. My career as a voice actor had been over for months and me and my little girl Scarlet were living back at my mum’s place. I felt like a failure professionally—and with Scarlet having problems at school, as a parent as well. So, when I was asked to narrate a new book by disappeared novelist Philippa Roberts I jumped at the chance, even if it meant leaving Scarlet with my ex, Hugo, for a few weeks. Hugo, with his perfect new home and his perfect new girlfriend Saskia. But this isn’t a dream come true. It’s a nightmare.
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Love but it's a production issue!
- By Mary on 09-02-22
By: K. L. Slater
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He Who Fights with Monsters 2
- A LitRPG Adventure (He Who Fights with Monsters, Book 2)
- By: Shirtaloon, Travis Deverell
- Narrated by: Heath Miller
- Length: 22 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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But Jason Asano is settling into his new life. Now, a contest draws young elites to the city of Greenstone to compete for a grand prize. Jason must gather a band of companions if he is to stand a chance against the best the world has to offer. While the young adventurers are caught up in competition, the city leaders deal with revelations of betrayal as a vast and terrible enemy is revealed. Although Jason seems uninvolved, he has unknowingly crossed the enemy’s path before.
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Contrary to common reviews
- By Karen on 05-21-21
By: Shirtaloon, and others
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Hunting Game
- By: Candice Fox
- Narrated by: Krysten Ritter, Anthony Mackie, Tony Goldwyn, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Prepare to be captivated by acclaimed crime writer Candice Fox’s gripping audio thriller, Hunting Game. Featuring an all-star cast including Krysten Ritter, Anthony Mackie, and Tony Goldwyn, you’re about to enter a high-stakes game of cat and mouse. NYPD Detective Esme 'Es' Compran (Krysten Ritter) finds herself torn between her duty and her own desperate circumstances when a child is kidnapped. The victim's father, Jack Dengate (Tony Goldwyn), is a controversial big pharma CEO whose company's price hikes on life-saving drugs have dire consequences for Es' ailing daughter.
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Man what a GREAT story….BUT……
- By ShawniqueLovesToRead on 03-15-24
By: Candice Fox
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Weeds
- By: Amanda Wilkin
- Narrated by: Lesley Sharp, Adelle Leonce, Joshua James, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 29 mins
- Original Recording
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Climate activist Shirley Watts has dedicated her entire life to protecting the planet for future generations. But constantly fighting for Mother Earth has taken its toll over time, leaving her in a precarious relationship with her adult daughter, Lela. When Shirley’s latest climate stunt lands her in serious legal jeopardy, Lela reluctantly lets Shirley stay with her and her boyfriend while awaiting her upcoming trial.
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Excellent story
- By Jeremy J. Hanes on 03-22-24
By: Amanda Wilkin
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Ghost Stories: Stephen Fry's Definitive Collection
- By: Stephen Fry, Washington Irving, M.R. James, and others
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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As the days grow shorter and the temperature drops, Halloween approaches. Come, brave listener, pull up a chair, and spend some time with master storyteller Stephen Fry as he tells us some of his favourite ghost stories of all time, in truly terrifying spatial audio. From the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow to the tortured spirits of M.R. James, from Edgar Allan Poe’s terrifying tale of a doppelganger to Charlotte Riddell’s Open Door that should definitely stay shut, join Stephen as he tells you some truly terrifying tales.
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Wonderful narration. Mediocre stories.
- By Michael Fuchs on 11-07-23
By: Stephen Fry, and others
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Find Her
- By: Sarah A. Denzil
- Narrated by: Catrin Walker-Booth
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s Christmas Day at Wilder House, and three magical winter weddings are set to begin. But as the tables are arranged, and the food is prepared, a perfect storm hits, cutting every guest from the rest of the world. Most little girls dream of the perfect wedding. But this bride stumbles alone into the snow, her silk train dragging through dirt, her hands bloody from the murder she just committed. Now there is at least one killer roaming the unforgiving landscape surrounding Wilder House. Who else will die on Christmas Day?
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a little bit of wicked fun
- By A. Bohn on 01-25-24
By: Sarah A. Denzil
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The Bedroom Window
- By: K. L. Slater
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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My darling little boy Albie adores playing at our new neighbours’ house. And after the terrible year we’ve had, I feel so lucky that we can start over in this perfect place, with new friends who treat Albie like the son they never had. He can’t stop talking about the tree house they’re building him, and the cookies they bake together. But as time passes, something starts to feel wrong. Why don’t they ever open the front door more than a crack? They told me they had no children so who does the small pink tricycle I saw in their hall belong to?
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Miss Lucy-price Lewis
- By Angie on 06-07-23
By: K. L. Slater
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Sorry, but I didn't like the narrator.
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Kafka on the Shore
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Sorry, but I didn't like the narrator.
- By Kelly McCarty on 10-30-15
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What's better than Murakami? More Murakami
- By Dr. Curmudgeon on 04-11-14
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South of the Border, West of the Sun
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Born in 1951 in an affluent Tokyo suburb, Hajime - beginning in Japanese - has arrived at middle age wanting for almost nothing. The postwar years have brought him a fine marriage, two daughters, and an enviable career as the proprietor of two jazz clubs. Yet a nagging sense of inauthenticity about his success threatens Hajime's happiness. And a boyhood memory of a wise, lonely girl named Shimamoto clouds his heart.
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A River of Unmindfulness
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Underground
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On a clear spring day in 1995, five members of a religious cult unleashed poison gas on the Tokyo subway system. In attempt to discover why, Haruki Murakmi talks to the people who lived through the catastrophe, and in so doing lays bare the Japanese psyche. As he discerns the fundamental issues that led to the attack, Murakami paints a clear vision of an event that could occur anytime, anywhere.
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Just as you breathe, you dream your story
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Sputnik Sweetheart
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K is madly in love with his best friend, Sumire, but her devotion to a writerly life precludes her from any personal commitments. At least, that is, until she meets an older woman to whom she finds herself irresistibly drawn. When Sumire disappears from an island off the coast of Greece, K is solicited to join the search party—and finds himself drawn back into her world and beset by ominous visions. Subtle and haunting, Sputnik Sweetheart is a profound meditation on human longing.
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Satellites of Love
- By Darwin8u on 05-28-15
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Men Without Women
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Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are lovesick doctors, students, ex-boyfriends, actors, bartenders, and even Kafka’s Gregor Samsa, brought together to tell stories that speak to us all. In Men Without Women, Murakami has crafted another contemporary classic, marked by the same wry humor and pathos that have defined his entire body of work.
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That's how we become Men Without Women
- By Darwin8u on 07-27-17
By: Haruki Murakami, and others
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After Dark
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Here is a short, sleek novel of encounters, set in Tokyo during the witching hours between midnight and dawn, and every bit as gripping as Haruki Murakami's masterworks The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore. At its center are two sisters: Eri, a fashion model slumbering her way into oblivion, and Mari, a young student soon led from solitary reading at an anonymous Denny's toward people whose lives are radically different from her own.
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Six hour short story
- By Devo on 05-21-07
By: Haruki Murakami
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The Elephant Vanishes
- Stories
- By: Haruki Murakami, Alfred Birnbaum - translator, Jay Rubin - translator
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- Unabridged
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With the same deadpan mania and genius for dislocation that he brought to his internationally acclaimed novels A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Haruki Murakami makes this collection of stories a determined assault on the normal. A man sees his favorite elephant vanish into thin air; a newlywed couple suffers attacks of hunger that drive them to hold up a McDonald's in the middle of the night; and a young woman discovers that she has become irresistible to a little green monster who burrows up through her backyard.
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dull
- By Shelli Rodgers on 01-06-19
By: Haruki Murakami, and others
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Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage
- A novel
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- Unabridged
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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.
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Great book ruined by the narration
- By David on 08-14-14
By: Haruki Murakami, and others
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Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
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- Unabridged
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The 24 stories that make up Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman generously express the incomparable Haruki Murakami’s mastery of the form. Here are animated crows, a criminal monkey, and an ice man, as well as the dreams that shape us and the things for which we might wish. From the surreal to the mundane, these stories exhibit Murakami’s ability to transform the full range of human experience in ways that are instructive, surprising, and entertaining.
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Fantastic, just like how all Murakami books are
- By MM on 05-05-15
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What I Talk about When I Talk about Running
- A Memoir
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From the best-selling author of Kafka on the Shore comes this rich and revelatory memoir about writing and running and the integral impact both have made on his life. Equal parts training log, travelogue, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers Murakami's four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon. Settings range from Tokyo, where he once shared the course with an Olympian, to the Charles River in Boston, among young women who outpace him.
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It is what it says it is
- By Rick on 03-10-09
By: Haruki Murakami
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First Person Singular
- Stories
- By: Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel - translator
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From the internationally acclaimed Haruki Murakami comes a mind-bending new collection of short stories, all touching beautifully on love and solitude, childhood and memory...all with a signature Murakami twist. The eight stories in this new book are all told in the first person by a classic Murakami narrator. From memories of youth, meditations on music, and an ardent love of baseball, to dreamlike scenarios and invented jazz albums, together these stories challenge the boundaries between our minds and the exterior world.
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A Murakami novel ruined by the wrong narrator
- By Amazon Customer on 07-10-21
By: Haruki Murakami, and others
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The Strange Library
- By: Haruki Murakami, Ted Goossen - translator
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 1 hr and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Listeners will find themselves immersed in the strange world of best-selling Haruki Murakami's wild imagination. The story of a lonely boy, a mysterious girl, and a tormented sheep man plotting their escape from a nightmarish library, the book is like nothing else Murakami has written.
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Wicked Fairy Tale
- By Tim on 12-24-15
By: Haruki Murakami, and others
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After the Quake
- Stories
- By: Haruki Murakami
- Narrated by: Rupert Degas, Teresa Gallagher, Adam Sims
- Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The six stories in Haruki Murakami’s mesmerizing collection are set at the time of the catastrophic 1995 Kobe earthquake, when Japan became brutally aware of the fragility of its daily existence. But the upheavals that afflict Murakami’s characters are even deeper and more mysterious, emanating from a place where the human meets the inhuman.
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A short story collection full of wonder and magic
- By Somewhat Dangerous on 08-24-20
By: Haruki Murakami
What listeners say about Killing Commendatore
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Elif Kaya
- 10-18-18
A Masterpiece and A Good Novel To Start
Mr. Murakami is among my all time favorite writers and this novel is amazing as usual. It is as good as, if not better, than The Wind-up Bird Chronicles even.
This writer has a certain style of surrealism that is beautifully integrated within the mundane and the prose is of the type that seems simple but contains great mastery. The type of prose that makes you want to write something.
I wanted to shake the writer's hand, it was that good.
This is also a great way to start if you have not read anything by the author and see whether you'll like his style or not.
The reader was very good, got a bit over dramatic at a couple of places but overall I think his reading suited the novel very well (side note: Japanese pronunciation not ideal but this is not a criticism since only of the names and places, not really affecting anything) I will seek more of his performances.
All in all, even if it turns out that Murakami novel is not your thing this one deserves the credit.
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41 people found this helpful
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- Minor Poet
- 10-24-18
Another “Ahh” story
Haruki is brilliant and he has once again written a masterpiece. Somewhat different from other novels and seemingly a little burdensome at times, he nontheless makes each and every mention of life, heart’s plight and spiritual enlightenment part of our humanity — each and every morsel. Instead of just writing in eloquent ideas and metaphors, his characters become them.
.Killing Commendatore — I couldn’t put it down.
I am ready for his next one!
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- Joe Kraus
- 11-16-18
Another Full Canvas from the Master Painter
I have read most of Murakami’s work by this point, and all of the would-be masterpieces: Kafka at the Shore, 1Q84, Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, and Hardboiled Wonderland. I obviously enjoy the guy’s work, or I wouldn’t keep coming back to him, and I am as excited as anybody else at this newest bid for greatness.
On balance, I think this one delivers yet again. It’s got the familiar tropes of a main character who slowly sheds his all-around-nice-guy persona to reveal peculiar darknesses; a secondary world that may or may not be distinct from what we know everyday; sustained reflections on the nature of art in a world craving for certainty denied it; and even, though not until the end and then only in small bits, cats as totems.
The more I read this, though – and I believe it’s Murakami’s first to deal so extensively with painting – the more I began to see some parallels between Murakami and painters in general. Above all, I found myself thinking of Murakami as a kindred spirit to Marc Chagall. Both had a tendency to reuse mystical tropes, and both worked on either medium-sized or vast canvasses. Both eschewed strict realism but neither embraced anything like full-blown abstraction.
Thinking of Murakami in such a light made me realize that there may not be all that meaningful a difference between his works. That’s not criticism; it’s just an effort at explaining why a single writer has shown he can write at least five different novels sized to be career-defining works. What I’m suggesting is that Murakami is less about plot or arguments and more about arranging a variety of tropes, images, and motifs into ever-fresh ways. His imagination is so deep and his feel for balance so strong that the real question seems to be how a specific composition fits together.
In such a light, it may be that this is somewhat weaker than the other top Murakami’s. Still, I think I’ve felt that about each of them since Kafka at the Shore (which was the first I read). I’ll finish, decide it’s good but a little less good, and then, as I reflect on the whole of the novel in the following weeks. I’ll find it ultimately as satisfying as the others.
That’s certainly my experience here. In the midst of my deep enjoyment of the novel, I was looking for reasons to be skeptical. I was troubled by the inelegant telegraphing of our protagonist’s friend, the son of the great painter, who has some news about his involvement with the protagonist’s ex-wife. I was frustrated that the opening pages essentially reveal the final key images – the faceless man, the idea of portraiture, and the penguin charm of the little girl – and take away some of the joy of narrative suspense. And I was bothered that some major tropes seem to get introduced only late.
And yet, as I reflect on all of this, it’s not so much that those images and tropes are out of balance as that they are out of the balance I would have anticipated. As the novel comes into focus as a whole, I find myself appreciating all at once again that Murakami hasn’t merely recycled his old stand-bys; he has instead reappropriated them for this new literary canvas.
We get a few more explicit articulations than usual of the fundamental Murakami method. At one point, the mysterious Menshiki says, “Instead of a stable truth, I choose unstable possibilities,” and “I choose to surrender myself to that instability.” Our protagonist can’t quite embrace such uncertainty but – and this is the dimension of the novel in which he is like the Nick Carraway to Menshiki’s Gatsby – he does indeed go partway. He’s willing to accept that we can’t know truth entirely but that we have to embrace something. As he puts it near the very end, “Maybe nothing in this world can be certain, but at least we can believe in something.”
In the end, though, I’m less interested in why Murakami does what he does or even for why it works. Instead, I am happy to enjoy the peculiar blend of symbol, fantasy, and melancholy that he finds a way to paint in fresh fashion over one after another of his massive canvasses.
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- J. Morris
- 10-21-18
Big Murakami fan but this book lacked the magic
Narrator did a good job but the book itself seemed phoned in. Having read everything of Murakami's before, several multiple times because I loved them, reaching the end of this book felt like I was reading a bad, soulless imitation of him by someone lacking the intelligence, follow through, and magically meaning imbued everyday world building skills I know Murakami is capable of. Also it just felt lazy and apathetic, like a bad omelet on a beautiful Sunday morning. BTW where were the cats? Where was the travel in the present? why would you spoil your own book by telling the end in the beginning? booo. Even 1Q84 is a masterpiece compared to this and it felt a little off too. That said Kafka on the Shore and the Rat series show Murakami's brilliance when he cares.
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- Tim
- 10-18-18
Mashup
As a fan of Haruki Murakami, I was looking forward to read "Killing Commendatore" and bought it immediately as soon as it got translated to English. He is my top three authors of all time that I always jump to the chance to buy the next novel whenever he publish anything new. Murakami's style of writing hasn't changed much, if not at all. Once you read your first book by HM, you will either think that he is one of the greatest writers in modern time, or thinks that he is just talking about gibberish.
"Killing Commendatore" was much like his other works. Metaphors and metaphors, dreams within dreams, symbolism after symbolism and so on and so on. It was your standard HM's style of writing. This book felt like a mashup with "The Picture of Dorian Gray", "Stranger Things" and "Car Talk."
For those who already read "Killing Commendatore", you already know what I'm talking about by the examples that I gave. For those of you who are thinking about purchasing this book and not understanding my review, I can probably write a term paper on this book and my whole thesis could be the mashup between the three examples.
Once again, as a fan of this author, "Killing Commendatore" left me even more confused on what I just finished reading, but this is why what makes Haruki Murakami who he is. There is no specific genre for any of his novels. All of his books start off very linear, thinking to yourself that "you got this", but as you progress through pages after pages, you are lost in the gobbledygook. This is why I'm a fan of HM. None of his books fit in any genres.
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- Jay Quintana
- 10-30-18
Nothing new, overly long, but...
... if you like Murakami, you'll probably like this. All the familiar Murakami tropes are here -- wife leaving, a well, uneasy friendship between middle-aged man and teenage girl, mysterious being, etc. No new ground is broken, so if you've read all the other Murakami books, but don't read this one, you won't be missing out on much.
Killing Commendatore is basically the equivalent of a greatest hits album. You've heard it all before, but if you like the artist, you won't mind listening to it again. And you may, in fact, really enjoy it.
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- TnJim
- 02-25-19
Get to know Murakami while there's time!
Obviously, this book is very long and you have to be a bit of a Murakami fan to make it through. He is a unique writer and his style is a little bit hard to "get" at first. Anyone, however, who takes the time to figure him out will tell you he is a genius! There's a bit of everything in here. There are recluse artists and unfaithful wives. There are mysterious shrines and underground passages. There are teenaged girls waiting for their breasts to grow and a faceless man ferrying people on an underground river that must be the Styxx. And there is Murikami with his amazing quotes and ideas guiding us through it all. Is it really about the affect of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdowns on the Japanese psyche? Well, maybe it is, but that certainly would eliminate a lot of the fun! Maybe start with _Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World_ or even _The Windup Bird Chronicle_. They would give you a bit of a feel for a style unlike any in modern literature. And go ahead and get started on him before the folks in Stockholm get around to that little prize that must come soon. You'll be able to say you knew Murikami way back when! Actually, he is easier to read than to listen to. You need to be able to easily look back and make sure you haven't missed anything. The narrator here is a bit lifeless with a text that is supremely diffiuclt to read!
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- Rolf
- 12-12-18
Listen to a preview first!
Terrible narrator. So bland and monotone my mind kept drifting. I'm sure the story is great considering the author, but it felt like a teacher assigned the narrator to read aloud in class.
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- Lucifer Sunbeam
- 10-16-18
A magical dream
This book revisits themes and imagery from his earlier novels, to my delight. His stories are like dreams within dreams.
Murakami weaves an eerie, soothing spell.
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- Anonymous User
- 10-12-18
Follow the Metaphor
But watch out for the Double Metaphors!
Murakami's work is like meditation to me , and this is no exception.
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