Haruki Murakami

"The much-anticipated new novel from the internationally acclaimed, best-selling author of 1Q84 and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Killing Commendatore is an epic tour de force of love and loneliness, war and art--as well as a loving homage to The Great Gatsby--and a stunning work of imagination from one of our greatest writers"--

Killing Commendatore

my last highlight for this book. what a good way to end it 🤍

“Perhaps nothing can be certain in this world,” I said. “But at least we can believe in something.”

The tears were so warm it felt as if blood was spilling from her heart. I continued to hold her like that. The girl had needed to cry. But she hadn’t been able to. Probably for a very long time.

“Your true heart lives in your memory. It is nourished by the images it contains—that’s how it lives.”

What difference did it make who had shelled out the money? We’d shared the same music for a period of time, lived our life together listening to it. Even if we had been able to divide the records, we could never have separated the memories attached to them.

“Artistic creation can never be a one-way street.”

Memory can give warmth to time. And art can—when it goes well—give shape to that memory, even fix it in history.

“It might get pretty scary sometimes.”

“Knowing more about yourself, you mean?”

Mariye nodded. “If you want to know yourself better you have to bring in something different from someplace else.”

“I’d like to see things as you see them,” she said. “Look at myself through your eyes while you’re painting me. I think I’d understand myself better if I did that. And you’d probably understand me better, too.”

“Only by taking his own life was my uncle able to recover his humanity.”

That stock of memories would become the flesh and blood of the portrait I wanted to paint.

“There is a cry in this painting, a plea that the artist desperately wanted people to hear.”

“I think it’s pretty cool that you carry that scene inside you.”

I think it was the first time I’d seen her smile. 

It was as if a ray of sunlight had shot through a crack in an overcast sky to illuminate one special spot.

the way murakami describes it in words!! wow

There was something in Mariye’s eyes that reminded me of Menshiki, though I had to look closely to see it. I had felt the similarity before, but it still surprised me. Their gaze had a strange radiance—“a frozen flame” was the phrase that leapt to mind. That flame had warmth, but at the same time, it was cool and collected. Like a rare jewel whose glow came from deep within. That light expressed naked yearning when projected outside. Focused inward, it strove for completion. These two sides were equally strong, and at perpetual war with each other.

To turn out a true portrait, I had to discover 

“I like things I can see as much we things I can’t.”

However we thrash about, we are all thrown in one direction or another by our natural talent, or lack of it. That’s a basic truth we all have to learn to live with.

Nature grants its beauty to us all, drawing no line between rich and poor.

“Drawing someone means understanding and interpreting another person. Not with words, but with lines, shapes, and colors.”

What I was teaching them was less how to draw than a way to view the world.

“How much loneliness the truth can cause sometimes.”

“What is important is not creating something out of nothing. What my friends [you] need to do is discover the right thing from what is already there.”

There are probably things people are better off not hearing, as well. But they can’t go forever without hearing them. When the time comes, even if they stop their ears up tight, the air will vibrate and invade a person’s heart. 

but if you’re going to walk down a road, it’s better to walk down the sunny side, right?

It was my first Murakami book, and I remember being hooked instantly. I didn't want to finish it quickly, I just wanted to live in it for as long as I could. I wanted to be in that world, to smell the air of the mountain, and fresh paint. I wanted to walk around the scenes, and talk to the characters.

Picked up to read it again years later, and already feel the same vibe. It'll be great to relive it.

eryc

It was my first Murakami book, and I remember being hooked instantly. I didn't want to finish it quickly, I just wanted to live in it for as long as I could. I wanted to be in that world, to smell the air of the mountain, and fresh paint. I wanted to walk around the scenes, and talk to the characters.

Picked up to read it again years later, and already feel the same vibe. It'll be great to relive it.

Eva Ströberg

Wow! What a book! A must read for Murakami fans

Mina

My first Murakami book and it was a good one, from the writing to the imagery to the themes the book explored.

I love long books even if only because I can't finish them quickly and I have to stick with the characters for a long time. It's another kind of immersion that's only possible with time (a fermenting kind?). Nothing much happened in terms of plot considering the length of the book. But reading Murakami's always about the writing for me. The plodding pace and frequent description of daily life were always meditative, the quietly, barely looming suspense added light spices, the strange incidents were lusciously puzzling. I also like how he wrote painting and portrait as a medium that denudes and immortalizes souls. Like,, what a celebration of a personhood. I got a bit obsessed with portraits (and biography in tandem) around this time because of this book and Funny Weather. It's quite enjoyable tho I'd rather recommend any non-fans to just skip this and pick up his other books wgwg.

shadee

took wayy to long for me to finish this book. not surprised that the ending wasnt as satistying.

sarah

I wanted to like this so bad. The plot is boring, forgettable (I’m writing this quite some time after reading, and frankly I cant even remember what exactly the plot was) and drags like you wouldn’t believe. This book easily could have easily been like a hundred pages shorter. 

The only sections of this book I liked were the ones discussing artworks or the act of painting but there wasn’t enough of this in the book to make it an enjoyable read for me. Overall super disappointed since I was really looking forward to this one.

jess

Every so often, I need my Murakami medicine. This unadulterated hit really scratched that itch. 

Frederik De Bosschere

altlovesbooks

"None of us are ever finished. Everyone is always a work in progress."

I enjoyed this book a lot, as I do most of Murakami's stuff. While I was expecting a more conclusive ending (not sure why, as most of his stuff is interpretative rather than conclusive), I enjoyed how imperfect all the characters were. Murakami spent a lot of time talking about breasts, but he does in all his books so it wasn't entirely unexpected. I can see where it would turn people off, though.

claire law

This is the second book that I’ve read from Murakami, after 1Q84. I only have 1Q84 to compare this to, but the amount of needless repetition is definitely less than there was in 1Q84 (which is what made 1Q84 almost unbearable to me). 

The book definitely is slow in the beginning, but picks up by a LOT within the last 150 or so pages. I would say even the menial daily routines that Murakami (sometimes painstakingly) takes his readers through is even more important when contrasted with the final stretch of the book. 

Overall, I really did enjoy this novel. lt’s such a perfect middle between reality and non-reality, so much so that the two become indistinguishable.

Fernando Bolaños

** spoiler alert **
           I’m a fan of Murakami’s work, but this one wasn’t his best. The plot and the characters were interesting and classic. However it could have been more concise, many things felt repetitive. Also there’s a limit on how the description of a thirteen year old’s chest is crucial to the plot, we got it on the first three times it’s mentioned, please stop!

wow… this is my first time reading a work of murakami’s and it has left me speechless. it was a long read, but the journey i shared with all the characters was truly worth it. very creative and intriguing and though i usually would have hoped to have answers to my questions, i think that leaving them unanswered was the best way to go and i’m glad that mr. murakami decided to leave it at that. 

the protagonist was never named and i find that cool honestly. my favorite character out of this novel is definitely the commendatore! i wish i could have an Idea as a friend, too 😭 and mariye is truly an interesting child and i loved the connection that the protagonist and she had thru their shared secrets. 

this book is definitely one to remember and being an art enthusiast myself, i really enjoyed all the descriptions of art here and the process of creating it. it ignited a spark within me and there were a lot of instances that i wished i could see the actual paintings mentioned in the novel. nevertheless, i really loved this whole novel (even though it had some uncomfortable parts but what is art without that) and i’m surely looking forward to reading more of murakami’s works. :)

ps. i recently just got back to reading and i actually didn’t expect to finish a novel as long as this right away, but once i picked it up i couldn’t stop. so good!

will also be remembering this book as the first one of mine that i annotated lots & even doodled on some pages <3

wow… this is my first time reading a work of murakami’s and it has left me speechless. it was a long read, but the journey i shared with all the characters was truly worth it. very creative and intriguing and though i usually would have hoped to have answers to my questions, i think that leaving them unanswered was the best way to go and i’m glad that mr. murakami decided to leave it at that. 

the protagonist was never named and i find that cool honestly. my favorite character out of this novel is definitely the commendatore! i wish i could have an Idea as a friend, too 😭 and mariye is truly an interesting child and i loved the connection that the protagonist and she had thru their shared secrets. 

this book is definitely one to remember and being an art enthusiast myself, i really enjoyed all the descriptions of art here and the process of creating it. it ignited a spark within me and there were a lot of instances that i wished i could see the actual paintings mentioned in the novel. nevertheless, i really loved this whole novel (even though it had some uncomfortable parts but what is art without that) and i’m surely looking forward to reading more of murakami’s works. :)

ps. i recently just got back to reading and i actually didn’t expect to finish a novel as long as this right away, but once i picked it up i couldn’t stop. so good!

will also be remembering this book as the first one of mine that i annotated lots & even doodled on some pages <3

Allison

I got so far along and couldn’t bring myself to give up on it. The story was very repetitive and kind of boring , but the mysterious characters kept me interested enough to want to finish.

Finn Salter

I don’t know if my taste is just getting bad but I could barely get through this book.

Uahuu Tujendapi 

This is an obvious 4/5 for me. Murakami always does this, he starts the story off slow, giving you small mundane details that are hardly memorable and then as the story progresses he sucks you in deeper and deeper. But he never gives you enough to be completely satisfied. Murakami is not the type of author to have everything wrapped up nicely in a bow by the time you're done, Killing commendatore is open ended and we are left to wonder what became of the characters after all this intrigue. If that's something that annoys you i would steer clear of this one. Side note: I think the conversations with the 13 year old girl about the size of her boobs was odd and uncomfortable, it didn't add much of anything to the story

Mutter

For some reason the translation didn't sit well with me: it felt too chatty, and there were grammar mistakes. Else this was a joy to bask in. Slow in the second act, but gripping in the third quarter. Serene, melancholy descriptions of contemporary Japan and modern life, made to seem timeless by the characters' use of a mash of technologies. I usually read Murakami expecting a certain experience, and this book delivers everything; to some this is a sign of a broken record. My favourite parts were the charming and precocious conversations with the little girl. Maybe the story is a little drawn out, or maybe it just necessitates a long time to tell.

Quite frankly, this book was stunning. 

It was very, very difficult to put down as soon as I've started. On its own, it's clearly a masterpiece, and a culmination of many years of experience as a celebrated author. 

I also especially love reading fiction with protagonists who are artists, or who are devoted to the arts. So this book hit a lot of the right notes for me. I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it.

But.

I can't give it five stars. I know, the author almost definitely cares about my feedback here (sarcasm). But I'm trying to be more conscious about my reactions to media, so it's important for me to suss out my instinctive reactions to what I am reading here. There are two things that are bothering me. I'm not really good at this "review" thing — this is basically meant just for me to gather my thoughts in one place, and probably no one will specifically be reading this anyway. I'll do my best to enumerate why I'm just a bit bothered.

Women
I have also read 1Q84, the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, after dark, and probably something else I'm forgetting right now. What I mean to say is: this isn't my first Murakami rodeo. 

Something that just really, really bothers me about the women in his works is that none of them are allowed to just be normal women. I'm putting this point first because I'm trying to explain a deeper, more ineffable discomfort I have with reading the depiction of women in his books. Like, it's fine. He's not calling me and asking me for his advice. So whatever, right? But it just feels like, every single woman, from the youngest to the oldest one just have to be enigmas for the POV character — who is 9 times out of 10 male in his books, as far as I know — to try and suss out. For his own character development. Like it's definitely some new, interesting, original evolution on the whole manic pixie dream girl trope. In his books there are plenty o' dudes who are just allowed to be themselves, like just normal guys that the main character may talk to. There are PLENTY of weird, eccentric, enigmas of men too, but it just seems like that's the rule for ALL WOMEN in his universes. The women are not allowed to not be enigmas, puzzles, part of some mysterious and evolutionary journey that the MC is going on. From the twelve year old Mariye to the dead twelve year old Komi all the way to the oldest women in this book, through the entire cast of female characters we see in this book, it's the same damn thing. I really don't know why.

The Rape of Nanjing

Okay so as someone who has read Iris Chang's Rape of Nanking and learned about the rape of Nanjing through some of my own older family members' accounts — is it not fucking WEIRD how Nanjing is referenced in his work? I'm framing this as a question rhetorically. I know its weird. 

I may be coming from a certain perspective due to where I am — immersed in the Chinese community around my hometown and my university — that anything other than full acknowledgement of the atrocities committed is a heinous way of representing the events. Like, if you are GOING to represent the rape of Nanjing, to do so in a manner that deviates from historical facts does a disservices to the legacies of the victims who are still fighting for the acknowledgement of those war crimes by the Japanese government. 

So disclaimer: as it's in a book by a Japanese author, it's probably huge that the rape of Nanking is acknowledged in any way at all, because of how problematized the narratives of those wartime atrocities are in Japanese politics and society even to this day. So I am bearing that in mind as I am reading this work, and I am definitely not trying to call Murakami out as a terrible horrible person.

At the same time though...no spoilers, but the events at Nanjing play a role in one of the key character's family's backstories, because one of his family-members was a soldier who took part in the invasion, occupation, and atrocities at Nanjing during the Japanese invasion of China. Here are the excerpts where he's specifically addressing the historical facts of what occurred:




Okay. So. He is retelling the events because he's talking about the psychological impact the events in Nanjing had upon a soldier that went there, who wasn't meant to have become a soldier. As a musician, he was supposed to have been excused from the war by his wealthy family, but his paperwork was fucked and he was shipped off to war and made to fight at Nanjing.

So he's already trying to illustrate: the war was hell for him. He took his own life after experiencing Nanjing from the POV of a soldier invading and occupying the city.

So then, why not mention at all any of the horrific atrocities that occurred through the retelling? The women who were raped by the hundreds, pregnant women disemboweled by the Japanese soldiers for sport, civilians who were buried in the mud up to their shoulders and then their heads kicked to death? Children made to watch as their mothers and grandmothers were raped, and then were raped afterward? A laundry list of human rights violations and unimaginable, horrifying torture. What I've listed is only the start. I would highly recommend, if you happen to be reading this review and haven't read Iris Chang's book, to please check it out. 

I don't want to have as his defense that it's "too much to ask of a Japanese author" because that would presume a certain ineluctability of this bias on his part just by his being Japanese, and I think that's a different kind of racism, perhaps. So I am holding him to account as I would hold any author of any ethnicity that, if he's going to invoke the rape of Nanjing, it's just really fucking weird to do it like this, to make it sound like any other battle by dancing around the specific atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers using euphemistic terms like "a massive number of noncombatants were sucked into the conflict and lost their lives" for the rape, slaughter, and butchering of civilians that took place.

I mean, we have to hold Murakami to account simply because his work reaches such a wide audience throughout the world. Iris Chang didn't go through the horrific process of documenting the Rape of Nanking in her incredible book, didn't make the interview subjects relive their trauma again and again, so that a widely read, stellar work of art like this could then spread the wrong impression of the "massacre" there, make it seem like just everyday war violence. No?

And this would help his point! Of how traumatizing it must have been for a conscripted soldier to look on as these atrocities took place! Of how fucked it would have been for his commanding officers to be ordering him to carry these things out! So it would make perfect sense for there to be at least passing mention of that in the summary of the events. But the summary given in the book just makes absolutely ordinary the scale of evil and butchery that took place in Nanjing. It's just not good practice as a writer. It's unconscionable to me as a Chinese-American.

So yeah. I guess I just wanted to tell everyone who's looking through all the reviews for this book: keep this in mind even as you read.

We all live our lives carrying secrets we cannot disclose. 'Beguiling... Murakami is brilliant at folding the humdrum alongside the supernatural; finding the magic that's nested in life's quotidian details' Guardian When a thirty-something portrait painter is abandoned by his wife, he holes up in the mountain home of a famous artist. The days drift by, spent painting, listening to music and drinking whiskey in the evenings. But then he discovers a strange painting in the attic and unintentionally begins a strange journey of self-discovery that involves a mysterious ringing bell, a precocious thirteen-year-old girl, a Nazi assassination attempt and a haunted underworld. A stunning work of imagination, Killing Commendatore is a surreal tale of love and loneliness, war and art.

Celina 

As always the writing was beautiful, but I was pretty disappointed with this book. The concept was really interesting and the parts were it was actually brought up were good. The problem was that is that it was way to long. Unnecessary scenes between the protagonist and various woman, conversations which were not really interesting and did not furthen the plot at all and the ending was really disappointing. Also something that bothered me so much were the conversation between the main protagonist and the little girl that were really uncomfortable. 

Sloan, Kara

Definitely not what I was hoping for having read a few of Murakami's other works. VERY slow, not nearly as other-worldly, and incredibly repetitive. I'm not sure the intent was for us to feel as aimless and bored with life as the main character or not, but it took the full first half of the book to even get somewhat interesting, and even then, not much happened. Took a long time to get through cover to cover.

Liv Rockwell

Murakami pulls together prose, imagery, and the power of belief into this storyline. Through the story of a artist's time during a marriage break, Murakami explores the importance of belief. The things and ideas we believe in (although not visible) play such a large role in our actions and life's outcomes. In the mountainous landscape we see an artist come to terms with his beliefs about himself as a man and artist. We also see how others' perceptions and beliefs about their lives influence their actions.

This was my third Murakami novel. A thicker novel, you know that you're reading a long novel but it doesn't feel like you're trudging through it. As always, it left me wanting more Murkami, just maybe not immediately after. I need some processing time.

Omar Fernandez

Bought at Spoonbill & Sugartown Booksellers on Sept 14, 2020

Interesting characters. 
A man is dumped by his wife, she started seeing someone else. He stops painting portraits for a living and goes on a trip driving around the mountains in Japan. He eventually moves into the house of an acclaimed painter with a complex life story. He starts uncovering it while simultaneously meeting his neighbors, Menshiki, a man with loads of money and a profession no one understands. Menshiki is always perfectly dressed, drives a Jaguar, listens to classical music, lives alone in a huge mansion across the valley. He reveals at some point the reason he lives where he does. He also takes a deep interest in the chiming bell from under the pit. There's also Mariye, the interesting yet odd girl living next door. She's in her early teens and obsessed with her boobs not having grown yet. She is quiet and very observant, hard to decipher. 

There's something in Mariye and in Menshiki, in their personalities, which is alluded to but never brought out. 

There's also the Man in the White Subaru Forester... Who had something sinister which the main character starts to bring out while painting him. His portrait is never finished as it would have brought out something else that's terrible, something sinister.

Maria Skliarova

Olivera Mitić

4.75/5🌟

Vau, al je ovo bilo putovanje. 

Ako bi nekome trebalo da prepričam ovu knjigu, nisam baš sigurna da bih se snašla. Zato to svakako neću ni da radim, već ću umesto toga malo pričati o nečemu drugom.

Ubistvo Komtura je najmurakamijevski Murkami koji sam do sada čitala. Imam utisak kao da je čovek dostigao neki meta level samosvesti pa nas sad sve kolektivno čika i namerno se igra sopstvenim klišeima. Dajte onu bingo tablu za sve tipične Murakami karakteristike, pa da izvučemo bingo bar 2-3 puta (neimenovani, pasivni sredovečni muškarac kao protagonista, klasična muzika, misteriozna predadolescentna devojčica, spremanje hrane, paralelni svetovi, neočekivani telefonski poziv, Čovek Bez Lica i tako dalje i tako dalje). 



Ovo je moj šesti roman ovog autora i njegova fikcija mi je, čini mi se, postala neka zona komfora. Vraćam mu se svaki put kad mi treba neko "utešno" čitanje u kojem okvirno znam šta me čeka i sa kakvim ću emocijama izaći iz knjige. Istovremeno, svako čitanje je i nostalgično i prijatno i vodi ka nekoj introspekciji. Znam da na kraju neću dobiti neki grandiozan rasplet od kojeg mi pada vilica, pa je tako slučaj bio i sa Komturom, ali to nikad i nije bila poenta sa delima ovog pisca. Prosto upadnete u njegove romane, pustite da vas vode gde vas već vode i uživate u onom konstantnom osećaju da samo što se nije desilo nešto veliko, kao što se i inače nekad osećate ovako, van književnosti. A kad sve to prođe i ispostavi se da se i jeste desilo 300 stvari, ali nijedna toliko zastrašujuća koliko ste mislili, bude vam okej da nastavite dalje isti kao i do sad, samo sa nekoliko iskustava više i tim jednim flaširanim periodom života o kojem ćete naknadno s vremena na vreme razmišljati. Eto, to je meni Murakami.

Kohana

I just cannot get myself to enjoy a Murakami book. I read 320 pages ; after which I realised at this point I am just torturing myself.
The book has no plot line and I think that’s the most annoying bit for it. It’s just so many things happening and yet somehow it managed to bore me. It was gripping and intriguing at first but then it slowly started becoming so dull and left like such a bore. I feel like have not taken anything from the book and I feel like all it did was just waste my time . I have absolutely No idea what Murakami is trying to say through this book.

Killing Commendatore

Reviews

Highlights