My rating: 5 of 5 stars
After this book the next ones are bound to be disappointing. Am trying to read something dramatically different, but I still can’t really get into it!
This book is so cleverly written, but not, you know, *clever* in a contrived way, just downright brilliant. The realism and the magical realism mix together seamlessly and you often have to stop and think about these parallel universes and where they meet!
Tengo, Aomame and Fuka-Eri have moved into my mind and I think they are going to stay there forever like only a handful of other protagonists of all the books I’ve read. The way these characters’ destinies are slowly entwined is nothing less than fantastic and I had little thrills along the way when new threads appeared.
Lastly, the translation. I had some qualms about reading a book translated from Japanese into English and not into my native Danish. But so many people had advocated the English edition that I was convinced. And I have not regretted it – I can’t possibly imagine any other translator so elegantly explaining Japanese words and expressions, yet maintaining a beautiful and very Murakami’sk tone throughout.
