This is a deeply muddled and uncertain book that I wouldn’t recommend for the classroom or anyone beyond a staunch Murakami enthusiast. Even then, it feels like a good Murakami book took a weird dream - all the facets of the odd and mystical are emphasized, and the real and internal/relatable are either diminished or wholly absent. The book is also far too long and feels more like a novella that got out of hand.

If appreciating Murakami's books is an acquired taste, something you develop by exploring his work book by book rather than something that can happen with any of his books, then it was a mistake for me to request this. I was interested in the premise and I've never read a book by the author, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to start, but maybe I was wrong.

I like magical realism and absurdity, I do, but not when it's meandering and doesn't seem to have a point. And if I have to drag myself through the rest of this book to understand the point of all this nonsense, like it's a chore, then I'm not interested.

There are many things in life that I do simply because I have to, even if they're unpleasant, but I refuse to let reading become one of those things. That's why I DNF as soon as thinking about reading a book makes my eyes roll, and that's what happened with this one. Maybe I'll give any other of his books a try at some other point in life, but this was not it for me.

Book Review: The City, and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami, Translated by Philip Gabriel
Published by Knopf, November 19, 2024

★★★★★ (4.5 Stars rounded up!)

"The City, and Its Uncertain Walls" (English version, 2024) by Haruki Murakami, was first published as a 150-page novella in a Japanese literary magazine in 1980, when the author was still running a jazz bar in Tokyo. It was just about that time when Murakami decided to close up shop and be a full-time writer. He remains an aficionado as evidenced by the jazz influence which pleasantly bleeds into his prose.

The rewritten "City" now a 464-page novel crafted by an older and wiser 75-year-old Murakami 45 years after the novella, took three years to write, protracted due to the coronavirus pandemic. He takes the original story from his 1980 "City" novella and fuses in seamlessly the plot of his 1985 novel, "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World", as the "Dream Reader", Narrator and enigmatic protagonist of "Hard-Boiled", carries the torch through a Kafkaesque maelstrom to the finale of the rewritten "City" novel.

Simply breathtaking!

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// "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" (1985) //

An experiment in the subconscious mind.
The Narrator, a nameless protagonist, is presented as a "human data processor" and rides an elevator underground through the depths of the Tokyo subway to the secret lab of an eccentric old scientist. Eventually, the protagonist receives a special gift from the old scientist.

The skull of a unicorn.

Unicorns. And a town with high walls.
Which leads to a desolate town with a high wall around it, a library without books, a watchtower with a clock without hands, three bridges spanning its lone river, and communal housing. The woods around the town have but one denizen species: unicorns, many of whom die in long winters.

The Dream Reader. His Shadow. And his Love.
It is here where our protagonist morphs into the "Dream Reader", the only position open in the town, where he meets his long-lost teenager girlfriend, the "Librarian", still the 17-year-old she was then. The town is guarded by the "Gatekeeper", and people who are allowed to enter are separated from their own "Shadow". That's right, the "Shadow" is a living, breathing character in these environs, and, severed, becomes a separate but identical person. The Dream Reader's only function is to read old dreams. These are the only items on the shelves of the library without books. It is a world of the protagonist's imagination where "...you'd have to wish your way in". Or fall in through a hole, or climb a river upstream, as it turns out.

The End of the World.
Which leads to that part of the novel which leaves Murakami readers perplexed. The Dream Reader's brain, shuts down, slowly in degrees, locked in his own subconscious. As he parts ways with his own Shadow at the edge of an isolated pool, he meets his own metaphorical end...

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// "The City, and Its Uncertain Walls" (English version, 2024) by Haruki Murakami //

/// "Truth is not found in fixed stillness, but in ceaseless change /movement.
Isn't this the quintessential core of what stories are all about?”
—Haruki Murakami, 2024, from the book's afterword. ///

Part 1.
The first part of the novel is a reprise of "Hard-Boiled Wonderland", with further elaboration on the multi-dimensional romantic relationship between two Tokyo high school kids, coming of age, who find themselves transported through the ether by their own consciousness into a city with walls, a product of their own creation, where they emerged as the "Dream Reader" and his "Shadow", and the "Librarian". Part 1 goes all through that final pool scene when the Narrator meets his metaphorical end, as he parts ways with his Shadow.

/// "The real me lives there, in that town surrounded by a wall..." ///

Parts 2 & 3.
The Narrator finds himself as a salaryman back in Tokyo, now forty-five-years-old. He resigns from his job as a traveling book distributor and moves from Tokyo to Fukushima (site of Japan's post-tsunami nuclear disaster). His becomes the head librarian in a small town. There he meets and becomes close friends with Mr. Koyasu, the library's colorful former head, a man without a shadow. Who as it turns out, passed away long before the arrival of the narrator. Koyasu, too, knows of the city with uncertain walls. He has a romantic encounter with the lonely owner of a Coffee Shop endlessly playing jazz music, just the right interlude for a Murakami exhibition of fancy jazz tidbits.

It is in the library where he meets a mysterious boy he christens the "Yellow Submarine Boy". A boy who draws for the Narrator a map of the city with uncertain walls, and proceeds to tell him their purpose.
"To prevent an epidemic. A never-ending epidemic", says the Yellow Submarine Boy.

The boy vanishes, "spirited away" in classic Japanese anime fashion. He had wished, with all his heart, to go the city with uncertain walls.

The Narrator follows a river upstream — and gets reunited with the Librarian, still at her 17-year-old self, in the city with uncertain walls. And over the distance, on a bridge, he sees a boy. It is none other than the Yellow Submarine Boy, who now wishes to be the Dream Reader. Their conversation is a soliloquy.

/// "Did you know that? The two of us are nothing more than someone else's shadow.
Yes, that's right. It might sound outlandish, but it isn't.
You and I joined together. Since I am, from the start, you, and you are from the start me.
So you're saying it's no big deal which is the real person and which is the shadow...." ///

Even as the Dream Reader's Shadow, in a most unexpected form, recaptures his own consciousness, as the Narrator, in a single breath, blows his own candle out...

/// "Darkness descended. A darkness deeper than anything, a darkness ever so soft." ///
—Haruki Murakami, 2024, from the book's finale. ///

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Magnificent prose, maudlin at times with overextended expressions of puppy love.
In many parts, repetitive. — And yet unputdownable!

Review based on an advanced reading copy courtesy of Knopf and NetGalley.

A quiet, gentle, mysterious story in which it is hard to differentiate between what is reality and what is illusory. In essence, it's classic Murakami. By the time I was 75% through the book I was certainly intrigued with how it would resolve at the end but I also didn't really care because it was so enjoyable to read that I was just happy to be in this story, along for the ride. Compelling characters, interesting questions, relatable experiences of grief and heartache, sure it's magical realism (complete with a nod to Marquez) but it's also about human experience. I very much enjoyed the journey.

I found this novel more enjoyable than I thought I would, given the lack luster reviews that have been posted so far. It is a tale of magical realism...a tale of young love and the pursuit of lost love. It deftly explores the boundaries of reality and unreality in the way only Murakami can, seamlessly flitting from one world to another without leaving the reader behind. The worldbuilding is masterful and intricate, as is the character building. The plot development is leisurely and unhurried, in keeping with the novel's dreamy atmosphere. "It is a fantastical kind of fiction. And probably classify me as some starry-eyed dreamer. That's all." -Murakami. iykyk.

4.5 rounded up.

My appreciation to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC.

A strange tale about a Japanese man that's told in three different locations/time periods. The book interweaves a shadow world/fantasy/magical realism with plausible worlds. I liked each individual story/location but did not like how they overlapped

This book was a little different for me and I could not finish. Probably just bad timing on my part. Too much magical woo-woo for right now.

This is my third Murakami this year and also my third ARC completed before the publication date! Thanks again to Knopf and NetGalley for the opportunity to read it before its release. I enjoyed this story almost equally to Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, though it lacked the mystery embedded in my read of the latter since I already knew the premise of the world coming into it. Regardless, returning to this heady world was delightful as eerie as it seems. The seemingly separate narratives weave together at the end neatly. An ideal early winter read.

The story behind the book is almost more interesting than the story within it. As Murakami himself notes in the Afterword, <i>The City and Its Uncertain Walls</i> exists in parallel with HBW and is not meant to serve as a sequel. I found it fascinating that the premise of both books originates from a very early concept, and this particular novel is a rework of that original story from the 80s.

Murakami is one of the singular most important voices in modern literary fiction. This latest offering is filled with themes and winks we've come to expect from this talented writer--and the weird, strange, and haunting visionary tales we cannot get enough of. This one is both haunting, harrowing, and sorrowful. There is magic, there is intrigue, there is wonder.
This will probably hit the bestseller lists and it should. This is a book you'll want to keep going--and one I will be returning to again in the future.

My thanks for the ARC goes to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor. I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

Genre: Weird Fiction, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Asian Literature

I strongly believe in reading books outside of my norm just to see what else is being created. *THE CITY AND ITS UNCERTAIN WALLS* is in that category for me. I've read a lot of Japanese fiction, and so I thought it might be a good fit. The story wandered a bit in a lyrical way, fighting its way through to define what is real and what is not. In the first quarter of the book, the characters were as etherial as a shadow.

It was interesting and different. I think this book has a niche audience.

I dnfed this book sadly. I found that it didn't have much of a plot and just meandered through the story. I don't know if I needed to read this author's other works to understand what was happening, but overall, this just wasn't for me.

It's difficult to describe this book. It started off with a young love story between a boy and a girl, and introduced us to this small city surrounded by walls. And we follow the main character and his shadows into the city, and out of the city to a remote library.
There wasn't a lot that happened in terms of plot lines. We gradually learned the secrets of the city, and lives of the main characters. There was still a lot of unexplained things in the world. But I think the main thing isn't the story, but the overall atmosphere and vibes from the world.
I still enjoyed it, but found that it wasn't as memorable as some of Murakami's other works.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC!

This title is getting a lot of buzz and despite like Murakami's previous books, I just could not get through this one.

DNF. I actually thought magic realism as a genre had stopped working for me for a moment there. I didn't feel connected to the setting, the protagonist, or the dream-like prose. This is the type of book to get lost into, but only if the author can set it up, which didn't happen since the story was disjointed and we are thrown into it. I will be trying this again when I shake off the feeling of unoriginality that has lately been accompanying Murakami reads.

This novel was my first of Haruki Murakami’s work, and it certainly won’t be my last. I can definitely see how his writing may be divisive, but personally I’m the type of reader to thoroughly enjoy the weirdness of the dreamlike worlds he created in this story, and I look forward to reading more from him!

As one may imagine with Murakami, it's a little difficult to succinctly summarize the plot, but I'll try my best - the story opens with our nameless main character as a 17-year-old boy who has just fallen in love with a 16-year-old girl. The girl tells him stories about a magical land on the other side of the wall where her "true self" lives, but then mysteriously disappears leaving our main character heartbroken for years to come. We then flash forward to our main character as a middle-aged man who somehow finds his way into the mysterious world beyond the wall, where he finds his past love still as a 16-year-old girl, but she doesn't remember him. Throughout the rest of the pages, we meet some more unique characters, enjoy lots of bookish delightfulness as our main character becomes a small-town librarian, and go back and forth from the world on one side of the wall to the world on the other, to the point that we're almost left wondering which one of those is the "real" world. There are unicorns, libraries of books, libraries of dreams, blueberry muffins, shadows, clocks with no hands, and so much more sprinkled throughout the pages, but trust me - it all just works.

Although I'm usually a reader that needs to completely understand every plot point and every piece of a magic system, I was strangely ok with just going with the flow with this one, just accepting the story as it came to me rather than dwelling on trying to figure out the details. My reading experience felt like how I’d imagine wandering through a cloud might feel - you sort of see where you’re going, but there’s nothing to hold onto as you’re floating along the way. It is a long book and honestly quite a bit quieter and gentler than I was anticipating based on a plot summary with so much magical realism, so there were some times that the pacing felt a little off and things seemed to drag a bit. But overall, I really enjoyed this mystical journey into Murakami's head and loved the vivid world-building that made me feel like I was right in the middle of it.

All in all, I had a wonderful time with The City and Its Uncertain Walls, with all of its eccentricities. It’s about so much, but it felt to me that it ultimately came down to what we think of as “reality”, and how “reality is something you have to choose by yourself, out of several possible alternatives.” Thank you so much to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Haruki Murakami's The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a novel that captivates with its beautiful language and intriguing concept. Murakami's prose is often poetic, with many passages that are a joy to read. The author's unique style and imaginative ideas shine through, making the book a compelling experience on many levels.

However, while the language and concept are strong points, the story's flow left something to be desired. At times, the narrative felt disjointed, with certain sections becoming repetitive. This disrupted the pacing and made it challenging to stay fully engaged. Additionally, the world-building in some parts of the book felt underdeveloped.

Another aspect that stood out was the portrayal of female characters. Unfortunately, I found the way Murakami writes his female characters to be lacking in depth and nuance. This detracted from the overall experience and left me wanting more well-rounded and realistic portrayals.

In summary, The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a novel with beautiful language and a fascinating concept, but it struggles with pacing and world-building. Murakami's portrayal of female characters also leaves room for improvement. Despite these flaws, fans of Murakami's writing style may still find much to appreciate in this book.

In The City and Its Uncertain Walls, Murakami explores the boundaries between reality and the fantastical, echoing the themes of magical realism popularized by Gabriel García Márquez. The city can be seen as a manifestation of the subconscious, full of stories and unfulfilled desires, while the interplay between physicality and shadow suggests that body and consciousness may be inseparable.

Murakami wraps gentle prose around sharp-edged philosophical questions like why imagined worlds can feel more desolate than reality. Although he doesn’t break new ground, he distills his recurring themes of loneliness, aging, and the quest for meaning into a beautifully flowing narrative evocative of Miyazaki. Ultimately, The City and Its Uncertain Walls is an ode to the coexistence of the real and the unreal, and I happily fell into the richness of its landscapes while reflecting on my own.

This was SO intriguing, and right off the bat, the 2nd person POV and writing style pulled me in. Usually, I have a hard time with this POV, but this was executed so well that I wasn't bothered by it.

Since this book is based off of some work he's done in the 1980s, the author expresses his common themes of his--memory, solitude, and the shifting line between reality and fantasy. It had the melancholic atmosphere, magical realism, and the sentiments on youth, loss, and longing.

This might not be for everyone, and I understand the problems people have with it. Overall, solid piece of fiction, but I know it requires a certain taste.

I was intrigued by the ideas, but omg this needed to be edited more tightly. It’s incredibly repetitive, describing the same things over and over and over again.

Also, I felt vindicated when I got to the afterword and found this began as a story he wrote in 1980. Because the whole way through, every time I got bored, I’d think jeez, he’s still writing the same damn story after all these decades. Well, yes and no.

You’d think after all these decades he’d find better use for his female characters.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.

DNF because he would not stop talkijg about boobs. I have to review every book I get or my ratio won't hit 100%. Sorry.