Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - La muerte del comendador, Libro 1

Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

La muerte del comendador, Libro 1 by Haruki Murakami

6 reviews

cword's review against another edition

slow-paced

3.5

I loved the slow build of scene and character, though i could have done without the lengthy repetitions throughout. The constant references to a 13 year olds breasts are unnecessary; it seems the author is incapable of writing women as human beings. Every reference to a female character is laden with sexual references or descriptions of their body/breasts. Aside from this the writing is alive and compelling, hence it disrupts the feel of the book when female characters are brought into the narrative. What was the imagined raping of his wife about??
The ending seems rushed and incomplete. There’s a final sprint to close the various open plot lines. Our main character, the artist, goes on a lengthy journey through another sort of world in order to “free Mariye” from wherever she has been taken to. Turns out she was hiding out at Menshikis house and just needed to wait for cleaning day so that she could make her escape. Hence, the entire plot line of the artist fighting through the metaphorical world, killing the commendatore, has absolutely no meaning? It did nothing to free Mariye, so he might as well have stayed home. It seems an oversight in the plot to me, rendering the crescendo of the plot meaningless.

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persimmons's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.75

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franzjulz's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The Ideas and Metaphors were deeply intriguing. Wanted more, but satisfied...

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lilreddress's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I really enjoy Murakami, but find him hard work (possibly as a result of the translation rather than the original writing) and the female characters are comically awful at times.

I think nothing would have been lost if we just didn't mention the aunt or child's breasts at any time. It was pretty irrelevant to the story, and was pretty uncomfortable coming from a male writer. I think a female author would have probably left them out, or at least would have written female voices in a more realistic way.

The length is also questionable. I kept stopping reading to go read something else instead and coming back to it. I don't mind slow paced, and in fact the artist holed up in the country cottage gave some nice cosy vibes, and I loved reading about the everyday parts of life. However, this was truly glacial. Could have cut a hundred pages and still had the story intact, I think.

This is one of his weaker ones, but still very good. And definitely matches the level of weirdness I have come to expect.

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hannahblundell's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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scout_jones's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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