Anthony Ferrara

Underwhelmed by this revival of the walled city story. I appreciate the context included with the author’s afterward section; however there is too much repetition of the work included in Hardboiled Wonderland without nearly as much of that work’s stylistic and inventive payoffs. Instead, The City seems to wallow in Murakami cliches that I began to skim over with the feeling I’d read the same words and dynamics before in his other books. Another critique is that the writing of the newer characters and devices were clunky just as often as they were graceful. That said, the ending had some beautiful chapters that are worth the slog to get to them. I will give it another read in a few months.