A review by rachelhelps
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

3.0

I brought this along for an airplane ride, hoping it would be as gripping as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, but it wasn't. That's okay. I like books that I can put down at any time and then come back to pleasantly; I just wasn't expecting it with Murakami.

There are two settings: a future where information encryption is performed by unpredictable humans and a town where you must lose your shadow to enter and is described as both everything and nothing. Typical Murakami hijinks follow: a divorced man with unusually pretentious tastes meets some attractive women and a crazy scientist. I'm a little sick of Murakami's constant praise of analog media, Russian authors, and Italian cooking. I know, I know, write what you know... but I think he can do better. This is an earlier work so I should cut him some slack. I hope 1Q84 will be better.