I’ve read a ton of Murakami. Hard-Boiled Wonderland is my 19th Murakami book. It’s safe to say I enjoy his writing for the most part. I didn’t enjoy this one much though. My major gripe is that it’s basically just a sci-fi fantasy novel. Normally, Murakami writes thought provoking magical realism, which can admittedly confound and frustrate in its apparent meaninglessness, but this novel did not seem to even attempt much metaphor. Surely I missed the point; I was surprised to learn that this is Murakami’s favorite of his own novels. The alternating narratives existing in two separate worlds (whose boundaries are much closer than the reader initially thinks) were nifty and well-executed, but the fantasy world (“The End of the World”) is much too fantastical. Dipping so much into fantasy, in my opinion, really hurts the quality of the story because very little in this world can be construed as relatable. And in its inaccessibility, it becomes useless to the reader. 

The “real world” portions are also bogged down by their strong sci-fi bend. Even for Murakami who wears his influences conspicuously on his sleeve, he seemed to be ripping off Vonnegut with many of the sci-fi touches and language. Other than these complaints, the writing is normal Murakami fare, and it’ll be a take-it-or-leave-it book for many. It was a more fun read than I’m letting on, but even as a Murakami apologist, I don’t think it’s a powerful work.