Michel Njeim

One thing i never get tired of from reading murakami is his style. His way of writing certainly has a charm to it, which is definitely captivating and immersing to the reader. Now the book showcases the life of our main character, Tooru Watanabe, a college student who had moved to the city to get away from his hometown village, after the loss of his bestfriend, Kizuki. After the attempt of changing his life and run away from his problems, unexpectedly, Watanabe meets kizuki's ex girlfriend, Naoko, whom he also knew. Their development through the story is certainly interesting, as both appear to like each other and are able to feel comfortable around each other. However their connection was limited due to Naoko's own mental illness and therefore had to recover in a mental hospital. After a few back and forth in the development of the story, Watanabe meets a new girl whom he befriends, Midori. The two quickly hit it off, their chemistry is clearly there however since Midori was already dating, and Watanabe had a love interest on Naoko. Now throughout the story, Watanabe was always set on Naoko's recovery in the mental hospital and always awaited her recovery, while also meeting new people such as Reiko who could be seen as Naoko's aid, who was like an older sister to her. All of these characters each connected to Watanabe and each one of them worked through their problems, specifically their traumatic experiences in their past and thats how the story progressed. Now though i immensely dislike Murakami's intense explicit scenes (piano lesson) and from his other books as well, he remains one my favorite authors simply because of his ability to make it seem as though as it was a problem and a feeling that the reader himself was facing, basically wholeheartedly immersing us and allowing us to overlap the characters problems in our own.