The City And Its Uncertain Walls: Reading Murakami After Eight Years
A Story About Love, Loss, And Giving Life A Second Chance
Hello!!!
This is Joyie and welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet where I talk all things books!
This week I’m still reading Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen. Have you been reading anything this week?
As you know, last week I finished Haruki Murakami’s The City And Its Uncertain Walls. I first learnt about this book in August from my account manager at work, who is native Japanese. Then in December, my coworker gifted me a copy and made sure I read it before buying new books.
Murakami has been one of the most influential authors of my life– one of the major inspirations behind my decision to learn Japanese. I always enjoyed his writing. But the last time I read one of his books was in 2017, and I was pretty young back then, and didn’t engage with books critically. In the following years, I’ve heard some good criticisms of his writing. So, now reading this book at twenty nine was… interesting.
When I started reading, I jokingly thought to myself, let’s see how many pages we can go until he starts talking about the breasts of a schoolgirl. And the answer was six. Not a great way to beat the allegations, but I digress.
I’ve always found Murakami’s writing very immersive, very captivating. I get lost in his worlds to the point that when I finish his books, I go for a few days feeling somewhat maladjusted to the world. I tried to figure out why this happens, now I think it’s partly because of how he engages all the senses in his storytelling.
Books often rely too much on visual information. But by also engaging the other senses, the reading experience can be made a lot more well-rounded. On the very first page of this book, Murakami describes the fragrance of grass (smell), cold water rushing over ankles (touch), the screech of birds (hearing). So, right from the opening scene, I’m quite literally transported into the book’s world. And of course this continues throughout the rest of the story. And it’s very interesting because this is a Murakami story in the most typical sense, there are fantastical, magical elements that make zero sense in a real world, yet with his writing style, they become very real.
Love and loss, as they are with most of Murakami’s works, are major themes in this book as well. Our protagonist lost his high-school girlfriend when he was eighteen, and was never able to get over that loss. Since then, he spent his life mourning and almost obsessing over that loss, practically refusing to live. That is, until the story unfolds, forcing him to confront his grief and, ultimately, to choose to live again—at forty-five. I like this message that you can simply decide to live your life again, one day, no matter how much time has passed..
I loved watching the protagonist building up a mundane, yet meaningful life, and I really loved his second love story and its contrast with his first.
My feelings for her were not the same as the ones I had at seventeen for that girl. That was clear. Those overwhelmingly powerful feelings, a laser-like focus on one object, etching it into me, would never return (and even if they did, I doubt I could handle the intensity). The feelings I had for the coffee shop woman were more diffuse, more sensible, wrapped in soft clothing, restrained by a certain wisdom and experience. Something to be grasped over a longer time frame.
And another important fact was this—I was not seeking all of her. Her entire being wouldn’t fit, perhaps, in the small box I possessed now. I was no longer a seventeen-year-old-boy. Back then, I had all the time in the world. But now, the time I have now, and the ways I can use it, have become so limited. What I sought now was the gentle warmth that lay inside, beneath her defensive wall. And the rhythmic beat of the heart that lay pulsing beneath.
At this point, was I asking for too little? Or too much?
Overall, I really enjoyed this book, it reminded me why I enjoyed reading Murakami so much, and has gone down in my list of books I want to read in their original Japanese.
What about you? Have you read The City And Its Uncertain Walls? I'd love to know!!!
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That’s it for today, I'll be back in your inbox next week.
Until then,
Joyie 🌻
This is on my TBR for this year. I'm looking forward to it!