This is probably my 8th or 9th Murakami and I’ve finally come to realize Murakami doesn’t write to please anyone, sometimes it feels like he doesn’t even write to please himself. He writes because he needs to; he needs to free his mind of these thoughts that’ve made a home in his mind. And I have nothing to complain about that, we’re lucky he’s decided to!
This is the first time I took notes and wrote bullet points to refer to when writing the review of the book. This is also the first time I’m deleting them since they will make the review seem mechanical. So free flow it is, dare I say, like Eminem, I’m a Kamikaze.
It’s been more than 10 days since I finished reading Killing Commendatore, I have two reasons for waiting so long to start writing this review. Number one being that sometimes I tend to get a bit excited as soon as I finish a book and end up mostly thinking about the later parts of the book. Second is for everything to sink in and remove all the little random bits like a brain sieve.
This book starts with a very magical Prologue which sets the scene for the book which is followed by a very easy flowing but unique first 200 pages. You can tell things are going to go crazy and can almost sense it, but when it hits, you’re not ready for it. The guiding light for everything is Menshiki, a character inspired by and a homage to Gatsby. Yes, Jay Gatsby! The plot is inspired from The Great Gatsby and Murakami does more than justice to it. The book has multiple references to Gatsby and the uncanny resemblance in the characters of Menshiki to Gatsby and the unnamed protagonists to Nick is beautifully handled. Their relationship is not usual as is with most Murakami characters. What was very interesting to me though, was although based on these evergreen characters, they didn’t over power the plot and they fit perfectly which sometimes isn’t the case. It could 
feel forced if not balanced properly to the new plot.
If you don’t know, Murakami’s picks for the three most meaningful books to him are The Great Gatsby, The Brothers Karamazov and The Long Goodbye. A few years ago he also translated Gatsby in Japanese. So Killing Commendatore is that much more interesting to fans of Murakami.
The book is set on a hill station in a quiet town in Japan, a silent but very atmospheric setting. The mood is created through numerous references to songs, the silence of the hills, the focus on any sounds of around the characters. Murakami fills up the void created by the silence really well and the characters, though isolated have strong and distinct personalities. Another thing very tactfully done is the inclusion of history (References mainly to the annexation of Austria in Nazi Germany)
Midway through Volume one something happens which we realize in the grand scheme of things isn’t as shocking (Kind of like we get used to characters being killed off in Game of Thrones but when Ned Stark is assassinated, we couldn’t believe it!) What I realized later on in Volume two is that I was underestimating the magical element in this book, a pleasant surprise!
Menshiki and our protagonist is joined by 2 other characters, a girl and her aunt which breath fresh air into the setting, especially the girl who becomes the center of everything that happens in volume 2 and Menshiki takes the back seat. I could go on about all the little things that Murakami does to give life to the characters, like how the narrator always notices paintings wherever he goes since he is a painter but I’d be taking a lot away from your experience of the book.
Overall, this book is to be savored, and before anything I’d recommend reading The Great Gatsby and also Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (which forms an integral part of the book)
There was something lacking about the ending, it wasn’t as dramatic The Great Gatsby but then again there are somethings F Scott Fitzgerald did that you can’t imitate.
If book depository ships to you, here’s a link so you can order right away – KILLING COMMENDATORE
which opens the door to a dark past pelted with generational secrets that still haunt them in the present. At the same time, a young Englishman arrives at the Ogandas’ house, seeking his missing father; a hardened policeman who has borne witness to unspeakable acts reopens a cold case, and an all-seeing Trader with a murky identity plots an overdue revenge. In scenes stretching from the violent upheaval of contemporary Kenya back through a shocking political assassination in 1969 and the Mau Mau uprisings against British colonial rule in the 1950s, we come to learn the secrets held by this parched landscape, buried deep within the shared past of the family and of a conflicted nation.
The lyrical poetic narrative style is so cinematic & intertwined with so much emotion that you will feel every character’s pain, happiness, without being directly told. The first couple of pages might seem confusing but give yourself time to get used to the flow of the writing then you won’t stop reading. The politics doesn’t overpower the story but lingers in the background which balances the narrative, putting emphasis on the family saga. Lush description of the beautiful Kenyan Landscapes and the local street life are brought to life through the 
characters eyes, as well as the local slang and deep Kenyan proverbs make the experience feel authentic. It has its dark moments, you will weep at the author explores the injustices that take place through the hands of corrupt leaders and the poor state of living but you will also experience the local everyday life of a Kenyan, Using the public transport matatus, cuisine etc. I highly recommend you give it a try.
The premise is very interesting, Eve is the first girl to be born in 50 years and obviously all eyes are on her in hopes that she can carry forward the human race once she comes of age. Eve is taken care of by a corporation based in a tower where she lives in ‘The Dome’ and is disconnected from the outer world. The only friend she has is Holly (An AI bot controlled remotely by ‘pilots’, one of them being Bram.)
it only comes in play in the second half, there is a huge disconnect. We’re kept in the dark (probably unintentionally) and it doesn’t work. Unless you’re only interested in what happens between Eve and Bram, you’d want to know more about this dystopian world.
development is non existent and sometimes even forced. I think there wasn’t a single one of them that had a distinct identity, it seemed that all of them were set to default character settings and let go.
Let me tell you about a place full of wonder, a place where you will find little treasures in the crevice of every cobblestone street, in every shopkeeper’s store and deep in the gardens that lay beyond every home.
City of Brass is a journey through my town; Cairo
A few reviews after my first, I read a book which I really disliked and wouldn’t recommend to anyone I knew unless they like to read books on the subject. This was The forty rules of love by Elif Shafak. I will not get into why I didn’t like it, let’s just say I was in a pickle on how to write the review without sounding hateful.
