rinnyssance's reviews
439 reviews

I know that I'm supposed to like this person because he checks all the political left's boxes for what the market demands, but this book is terrible. Objectively, I had friends who wrote better poems in middle school. Sometimes I think I just don't understand poetry and then I realize, yes, I do. I understand a beautiful poem when I see one. I'm just not easily duped by bullshit. Now, I am giving him two stars because I really admire his courage to write a book. That's difficult to do. But when I compare this work to work alike, it would absolutely not stand up to it. I can't understand if the angle is political or emotional. I don't feel like this writer has developed as a poet just yet.

This story is something like a metaphor. There's a young man running from his fate and tormented by his past, and an old man living in the present and has no memory of the past, who is looking for something but he has no clue what. The two characters are somehow living parallel to one another but never meet. Murakami blurs historical periods, cultural traditions, music, fashion, food, and ghost stories in this novel as the two characters go through a series of surrealist adventures.

I highly recommend playing the songs that he mentions while reading this book. I always do this while reading Murakami and it really immerses you into the world. Describing what this book is about complicates things, but the book leaves us with no easy answers. I was left in awe at the acceptance of the shared confusion that both the reader (myself) and the characters experience.

There are so many reasons I love this book. I've read it a few times but this time it really did me in.

The first reason was because everyone immediately just accepted that Gregor was now this insect. They didn't question it and immediately tried to accommodate him. Everybody, except his father, who was more frustrated than anything that he wouldn't be at work that day.

His sister was interested in helping him find the food he liked, and even concerned that the furniture was getting in the way of the exploring he'd been doing in his new condition. All changed when his mother finally came to visit him and move some furniture and saw him for herself. She passed out. And his father acted as though it was some inevitable event of his condition that he'd harm her.

You saw Gregor grow more and more lonely. Able to understand his family, but unable to communicate. Able to remember his goals and ambitions, but is unable to fulfill them. Slowly, his family grows more and more frustrated with his condition, and the behavior becomes even more heartbreaking.

This time, when Gregor's father throws the apples at him, I realized what that meant. The defeat that Gregor felt. The pain and crippling that he'd experienced. At that point, Gregor began to give up. He accepted his condition. He stopped eating. His family, too, gave up. They moved people into the home and began moving furniture into his bedroom. No longer making space for him.

Eventually, Gregor's sorrow sets in. As he begins to accept he'll never be as he was, so too does his family. Most heartbreakingly, his sister begins to say that he's probably no longer himself. Gregor is no longer inside of his body, and this monster could not possibly be her brother.

You begin to realize that this change in their circumstances is linked to his. Although they still have servants, it's clear from discussions that the family's quality of life has been affected by Gregor's transformation. His current state is becoming an inconvenience and they need to get rid of him. To their convenience, he allows himself to die. And the family only briefly mourns before they begin discussing their new life. As though his death was a relief to them.

Gregor's "metamorphosis" can be said about any sudden change that someone can go through. And as someone going through an emotional change, and seeing how the ways that people are willing to accommodate that transformation change through time, and how useless you are when you're no longer useful, it struck a nerve with me.

This is a very good story.

Not gonna lie, I like Hemingway. I know that's an unpopular opinion these days.

I probably read all of these stories too fast and in succession. And reading them alone probably made it hard for me to understand. But I did enjoy what I did get. While Hemingway is seen as a misogynist in today's lens, I think there's something to be learned about who men were before they had Play Stations. And I found this series of stories to be pretty interesting.

One of my favorites included women. Like White Elephants. Where the girlfriend asked her boyfriend to "please please please please please please please" stop talking. I also liked The Bullfight. A story about a man who just would not accept that he was too old to be doing what he's doing. Completely overwhelmed with delusions of grandeur.

I felt like these stories were honest. None of them claimed that men were perfect. In fact, they highlighted the imperfections of these men. Hemingway wanted you to see that they were imperfect, most importantly, without supporting women in their lives. They were all lost. Even when they pretended they were brave around other men. Deep inside each man was deeply flawed.

I think that makes it a worthwhile collection of stories.

I thought I would need a little time before I rated this book, but I'm pretty confident it only deserves three stars. I read it in three sittings within the span of a week. Someone spoiled part of it for me, but it wasn't the end of the world in the end.

Some of the things I am about to say are semi-spoilers, but they won't ruin the story for you.

A few people have told me this is their favorite book, but I believe they're all younger than me. One thing that really bothered me was that these people were only 36, talking about their lives as tho they were completely over. Perhaps this is a Japanese thing.

It also didn't seem like Tsukuru got any closure in the book. There were way too many loose ends in this book. I'm okay with books with loose endings but this book just didn't seem finished. From a mysterious phone call, and mysterious stories, to mysterious disappearances. The only answer we really got were why these friends decided to separate from Tsukuru sixteen years go. And even then, I didn't like how dismissive they were of it all. As though the past was the past when it completely changed Tuskuru in both mental and physical ways.

I don't know, this just wasn't the best of his books. But as usual, there will be erections.

This one was way too boring to finish. I thought Hemingway was a good writer, but this book did not keep me engaged at all.