Haruki Murakami’s “Killing Commendatore” is, in many ways, a walk down memory lane, visiting many of the themes and devices of his earlier books. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, or a good thing, but it is a thing.
The protagonist, like many previously, is a man trapped in a situation that seems to be of his own making, but may be part of a larger system, one he must struggle to understand before he can try to escape it. The often passive nature of the man (never named as far as I can remember, though I might be wrong) can be off-putting as he lets the weird world act upon him for most of the novel without resistance or dismay.
The secondary characters, like “Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,” “IQ84,” and other Murakami books, are strange beyond belief. They get stranger as the author moves again into the territory of magic realism. There also similarities to previous works in a fascination with a particular piece of music, and the introduction of a symbolic object that represents a gateway between worlds. Add to this a connection to atrocities in WWII, and you might wonder if you are reading a new book at all.
However, it is worth reading. Murakami’s clear, simple prose is a sharp and refreshing counterpoint to the outrageous events of the story. As usual, you find yourself rooting for the protagonist (wishing perhaps that he would be more proactive), and even more for some of the other characters.
As a side-note, and as someone who was once well-read in Japanese history, I was surprised that he used the term “Nanjing Massacre” (at least in translation) and described the brutality of the Japanese army when it ravaged that Chinese city. This could not have gone down with the rabid nationalists in his country, and I wonder if it hurt his sales. Power to him for telling truth to trolls.
All said, I enjoyed the book, and recommend it, especially to Murakami fans. It’s not up there with “After Dark,” my favourite, or “Kafka on the Shore,” or even “Hard-Boiled Wonderand and the End of the World,” but please give it a try. If you haven’t read any Murakami yet, it would be a very good start.