Haruki Murakami is a frustrating author to fall in love with. On a sentence level, he¡¯s relatively easy to read. However, his concepts are tantalizingly deep, sometimes because they are complicated but other times because he only gestures at them and asks the reader to fill in the blanks. And that¡¯s exactly what he has done in his most recent work ¡°òTÊ¿‡âéLš¢¤·¡± (¡±Kishidancho? Goroshi,¡± ¡°Killing Commendatore¡°), which was published in Japan on Feb. 24.
Murakami¡¯s lexicon has evolved over the course of his career, but ¡±Kishidanch¨ Goroshi¡± shares many phrases with 2009¡¯s ¡°1Q84,¡± and knowing them will ease you into this 1,048-page novel.
First, you should know that the Ö÷È˹« (²õ³ó³ÜÂá¾±²Ô°ì¨, protagonist) is a 36-year-old »¼Ò (gaka, painter) whose wife has asked for a divorce. The artist specialized in ³éÏó» (³¦³ó?³Ü²õ³ó¨²µ²¹, abstract paintings) in university but turned to ФÏñ» (²õ³ó¨³ú¨²µ²¹, portraits) to make ends meet after graduating.
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