I'm not sure how I really feel about this novel. It's supposed to be a semi-autobiographical piece and if that's really the case, I must say... If I had been a classmate of a 17-year old Murakami, we would have had a BEEF together because he seemed truly kind of obnoxious. On the other hand, I must say that I enjoyed the heck of the last pages of the novel. It's definitely far from a book that I would recommend but I'm glad I gave it a shot.