What the book is about (taken directly from Amazon)
In South of the Border, West of the Sun, the simple arc of a man’s life–with its attendant rhythms of success and disappointment–becomes the exquisite literary terrain of Haruki Murakami’s most haunting work.
Born in 1951 in an affluent Tokyo suburb, Hajime–beginning in Japanese–has arrived at middle age wanting for almost nothing. The postwar years have brought him a fine marriage, two daughters, and an enviable career as the proprietor of two jazz clubs. Yet a nagging sense of inauthenticity about his success threatens Hajime’s happiness. And a boyhood memory of a wise, lonely girl named Shimamoto clouds his heart.
When Shimamoto shows up one rainy night, now a breathtaking beauty with a secret from which she is unable to escape, the fault lines of doubt in Hajime’s quotidian existence begin to give way. And the details of stolen moments past and present–a Nat King Cole melody, a face pressed against a window, a handful of ashes drifting downriver to the sea–threaten to undo him completely. Rich, mysterious, quietly dazzling, South of the Border, West of the Sun is Haruki Murakami’s wisest and most compelling fiction.
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So I recently realised I really do love Murakami’s writing. He somehow manages to keep me hooked when I know I shouldn’t be, because it is weird and I am slightly afraid I will find a lot of myself in his most messed up characters. Maybe that’s what keeps me hooked.
In a way, one of his shortest books is also one of the deepest books. In no way does it take through a spiralling whirlwind of emotions that The Wind up Chronicle does, but it makes you rethink your life decisions and put yourself in his place. The simplicity of his writing in this book is refreshing and hauntingly deep at the same time.
At no time did I ever have to put down the book and shudder. I was hooked from page 1 till the end. Murakami took everything I thought I knew about living a normal life and told me to stuff it. He then decided I should learn about life the hard way and made his character infinitely relatable, showcasing how a life can change and how we can regret a perfect world.
Damn you Murakami.
Rating: 9/10
Peace.
thesebeautifulwords 