South of the Border West of the Sun Haruki Murakami

Well, well, well Mr. Murakami. Written by anyone else this book would have been utter trash but in his hands, Murakami creates the strangest characters who are simply normal. There are no talking sheep men, no magical coincidences, just real life and only a small existential break with death and voids and it's good that way. After reading Murakami I'm always stuck with thinking what it'd be like to be a man. What is it like to be a Japanese man? A man at that. As for plot, there wasn't really any. It was just a good book. It wasn't too long or too short. I can't put my finger exactly why I liked it so nor do I have any reason to speak against it. Maybe if the author hadn't been established in my mind prior to reading the book, I wouldn't have liked it as much. It's always hard to say.

4/5