Susan Winslow – Google

This book seems to be written by an author who hopes to write a book like Murakami but isn't up to the task. It is almost like Murakami is writing a caricature of himself. I loved The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but Killing Commendatore seems like a pale shadow of Wind- Up Bird. I skipped over the narrator's underground journey, as it seemed too contrived, as if Murakami thought he should put something like that in the novel. It struck me more than a few times that Murakami has run out of ideas and just churned out this book for the money, with his usual themes and motifs. Some authors don't know when to stop-- when they've reached their magnum opus. This was my seventh book by Murakami and I found it the worst. I would not recommend it.

Mesmerizing acting by Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur, a broken man, metamorphs into the Joker. This is a dark, ultimate noir film-- a painful study of a mentally ill and depressed man, abused and bullied and mocked. After his childhood his revealed to him he crawls into his refridgerator (metaphor: cocoon), shuts the door, and later emerges as the free, powerful, and evil Master of Chaos, dancing like the God of Destruction. Scenes of Gotham City are stunning and bleak, realistically portraying a garbage strike and city ready to boil over and burst into flames. Unforgetable performance by Joaquin Phoenix!