Information of the Book
Haruki Murakami’s the 14th novel published on 13 April 2023 in Japan. The title is same as his novel “The City and Its Uncertain Walls” which released in 1980 on a Japanese Magazine “Bungakukai”. But he rejected it, and part(s) of the motif and the story of the rejected novel was adopted in “The End of the World” of “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World”. A a new novel for the first time in six years of which he published, from “Killing Commendatore” (2016).
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I began writing this work at the beginning of March 2020, when the corona virus began to rage in Japan, and it took me nearly three years to complete it. I hardly ever went out or traveled for long periods of time, and I continued to write this novel day after day in that rather bizarre and stressful environment, like a “dream reader” reading an “old dream” in a library. It may or may not mean anything. But maybe it does mean something. I feel this firsthand.
Haruki Murakami
Haruki Murakami’s latest 1,200 full-length novel, his first in six years, is long-awaited!
I must go to that town. No matter what happens – just as if an “old dream” is being unlocked and awakened in a hidden archive, a sealed “story” begins to move deeply and quietly. A 100% pure Murakami world that will shake your soul. (Shinchosha)
Haruki Murakami’s latest 1,200-page feature, The City and Its Uncertain Walls, his first in six years, is long-awaited!
The contents… the connection with his phantom work… all will be revealed on 13 April!
Still, we can’t sit still until the release…
This is a summary of the passion of our staff! (Kinokuniya Bookstore)
Comments by stuffs of Kinokuniya Bookstore are below.
Six years have passed since “Killing of Commendatore” in 2017. The years have changed, technology has evolved, there has been Corona and there has been war. In these times of drastic change, I look forward to seeing what stories Haruki Murakami will show us now and what I myself will receive. (Y. T)
I spent my school days completely absorbed in Murakami’s works after I unearthed a copy of “Hear the Wind Sing from the depths of my sister’s bookshelf. After reading his works, I couldn’t escape from the “Murakami style” in my brain conversations, and when I wrote a letter at that time, I was in a terrible state.
I was so sorry to have read all of Murakami’s works that I made a decision when I was a student to keep a stock of works until a new work came out, but as time went by, I changed my mind to “read what I can while I still have my life”, and now I have no stock, so I am looking forward to reading the new work. (Shiho Matsui)
Through Haruki Murakami’s novels, I was able to encounter many different books. The Brothers Karamazov, Anna Karenina, Red and Black… etc., which appear in the stories. The title of the book, which will be released on 13 April, is connected to The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland, and I am filled with anticipation!
I am grateful that Murakami-san’s book is newly released and I can pick it up and read it.
At first I thought it was a strange title, but as I read on I realised it was the title of a Nat King Cole song.
The main character, ‘I’, encounters the song when he is in primary school. Haruki Murakami quietly describes the loneliness, conflicts and regrets experienced by me,
Haruki Murakami quietly depicts the loneliness, conflict and regret I experience, and expresses them realistically. The music in the story will attract you and you will want to read it again and again! (Laphroaig)
I wonder why. Whenever I travel, I always take Haruki Murakami’s “Hear the Wind Sing” with me. San Francisco, Istanbul, South India… I wonder how many more times I will read that paperback book, which has been exposed to the winds of foreign lands and is completely worn out in my jeans pocket, before I die. No matter how many words I use, I believe that the best way to convey the appeal of Haruki Murakami is to have him read Haruki Murakami. I would like to savor his works while feeling the happiness of living in the same era and being able to read his new books in real time. (Mr. Ikeda)
I have been a fan of Ms Murakami’s since “Norwegian Wood”.
I feel that Ms Murakami’s novels are pulsating with passion in her unaffected writing, and yet they always feel like they are gently close to my heart.
In one of her essays, Murakami says that the important thing is “to keep yourself as sane as possible and to love someone as sane as possible”. Whenever I feel lost, I try to ask myself what is “decent”.
I am very much looking forward to the new work.
I feel happy to be able to read your new work in the same time, in real time.
The story is told simultaneously in two worlds: ‘The End of the World’, a tranquil fantasy world with high walls and no contact with the outside world, and a real world with dark circles and weird people? The two stories are told simultaneously in the world ‘Hardboiled Wonderland’.
How are the two stories connected?
And when the two were connected, I was excited to read the end of the story, but my expectations were belied.
To this day, this is still my favourite of Murakami’s novels.
When I found out that the title of his next novel was “The City and its Uncertain Walls”, I wasn’t the only one who hoped that it would have something to do with “The End of the World”.
I wonder if anything will be told after that, or…
And maybe my expectations will be betrayed, but I also like that feeling of betrayal.(Izumi Okamoto)
A high school student who somehow wanted to become a teacher was attracted to The Seventh Man in his Japanese language textbook and somehow picked up The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland at a bookshop on the pretext of taking a break from studying for his exams. He was so struck by this work that he began to study for his exams in between reading, and was unsuccessfully unsuccessful. However, not at all discouraged, he built a system whereby he could buy a library book in two days by reducing his lunch fee of 500 yen to 200 yen when attending a preparatory school, and he became immersed in the swamp of the story. He found himself going into the Faculty of Literature, where he could study contemporary literature, without even taking an entrance exam for the Faculty of Education, and his graduation thesis was, of course, The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland. I also found myself working at Kinokuniya bookstore. When I joined the company, I was a counter in the social field, but for some reason, when 1Q84 was released, I was put in charge of literature at the Umeda flagship shop, one of the leading bookstores in Japan, and I experienced that enthusiasm. It has been more than ten years since I said in my speech when I was transferred from the Umeda head office that I don’t think I will ever experience greater excitement as a bookseller. When I saw the words of the title of my new book, ‘The City and Its Uncertain Walls’, I announced that I was retracting my previous statement. And then he declared once again. ’13 April 2023 is my peak as a bookseller.’ (Yasuki Ozawa)
In the school library, I picked up a copy of The Screwed-up Bird Chronicles out of a simple desire to read something thick! I picked up The Nejimaki Bird Chronicle out of a simple feeling of “I want to read something thick”. Once I started reading, I was immersed in the mysterious and rich world view. I still remember the pleasant feeling of fatigue after reading it. I am ashamed to say that there are still many works I haven’t read yet, but I have made a friend who loves Haruki Murakami’s works, so I will enjoy her recommendations first, with a glass of Cutty Sark in hand. (Chiyuki Tamamoto)
We have been waiting for the release of your new book. I am excited to be able to visit the Halki World again. (Tomoko of Islets of Langerhans)
The most common reason given for becoming a bookseller that we have heard so far is “I want to put Haruki Murakami’s new book on the shelves by myself”. Many booksellers talk about this dream: there may or may not be one bookseller in every shop who wants to put Haruki Murakami’s new book on the shelves.
There are probably not that many opportunities in life to be able to put it on the shelves on the day it goes on sale. I hope their dreams come true. I want them to line up Haruki Murakami’s new book to their heart’s content on the release day. I will not stand in their way. So come 13 April, I should rest. I would like to stay home for them and read Haruki Murakami’s new book.
I said to the manager at ……. The manager mutters without taking his eyes off the PC screen. ‘I, you know, I’ve never met a bookseller who wants to put Haruki Murakami’s new book on the shelves. There are a lot of people who want to read it,” he said, looking me straight in the eye, “but it’s you after all. It is you, after all, who will have to put it on the shelves on the day it comes out.”
As it is, on 13 April, I have a copy of The City and Its Uncertain Walls in front of me, which I can’t even read, so I have no choice but to just keep piling them up. Seeking: a bookseller who wants to put Haruki Murakami’s new book on the shelves. (Sachie Kagawa)
I’m looking forward to a new book after all these years.
When I heard the new book was coming out, I said, “Yay!” I couldn’t help but shout out.
Haruki Murakami’s works are clothed in the atmosphere of the times and give us a chance to think about “now”. Murakami’s novels are perfect in their metaphors and humour, but they also tell us what we need to look at.
I’m excited about your new book. Let’s enjoy it together!
Also, the binding of Murakami-san’s works is also very nice, and I’ve been collecting her books. (Momoko Yoshimatsu)
Form, Style & Structure
Three chaptered long novel of 661 paged novel, is formed by 70 short sections. “Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel García Márquez (1985) is described as a reference.
Background of the Work & Author
The same titled middle scale novel of 150 manuscripts, published in 1980. Then Murakami rejected it, the novel was unfinished and not mature. So he wrote his one of masterpieces Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World which based on the rejected novel. But he had decided to aide and rewrite the one recently and he started write this novel from the begging of 2020. Because of the pandemic of Covid-19, he shut himself in his house and was only to wrote during about 3 years. The first draft was only chapter 1 of this book.After the completion of the chapter 1, he thought it’s necessary to write a continuation of the story. The situation of the Covid-19 pandemic affected the story or not, Murakami doesn’t know, can’t know. But there would be a kind of meaning or something. (Afterword)
Summary Synopsis
When I was 17 years, I came across a girl of 16 years and we made correspondence. I dated with her once or twice a month, and we talked the City of which her true substance lived. I entered the City of her dream world…
In the City, that is enclosed by the tall and very strong wall, my job was only to do dreamreading. I went to the library, the spirit of the girl worked at, and read three old dreams everyday. The winter had came, the shadow of mine demanded me to go out from the City within a week…
After returning from the City, when I was middle forties, I resigned my job to think about job. And I got a job of the chief librarian of the Z Town Library, in a rural town in the mountains of Tohoku. But the job is unusual, unreal and lonely like the job of dreamreader. Then I knew the former chief librarian Koyasu had lived in the City, and he was ghost. And I got to know a mysterious 16 years old boy went the library everyday, M who only to read so many books at there, and memorized them comletery. After a while the boy drew a map of the City and brought it me, and he told me that he wanted to…
Plots
A. Adolescence with the girl in the this real world (Chapter 1)
B. Time in the City (Chapter 1)
C. Middle age years after returning from the City (The narrator worked as the chief librarian of the Z Town Library.) (Chapter 2)
D. (Content of the Chapter 3)
Outline
Timeline
Chapter 1
The narrator and a girl came across, the last autumn at the reception of the “High School Student Essay Concours”. And they had been corresponding by letters. (2, 4)
They had had a date once or twice a month. (2)
She send a long letter to him and she made confession of a strange dream. (8)
On May, they had a date and took a very long walk. (11) She shed and she said her heart only became stiff sometimes. And she said her substance lived in a far city and spent a complete another life. (13)
The narrator was informed about the City by the girl. (1)
During the summer, they talked about the City enthusiastically. (15)
At a time of the autumn, the letter from her stopped. But he continued to send letters. (15)
At a time of the winter, he got the very long and last letter from her. Later, he read the letter. On it, she confessed she was only a shadow without a substance, she had lived in the City by she became three years old, she and drove to this world. (17)
He continued to send letters and called by telephone but can’t got a response from her. He have not heard from her when he had gotten the last letter. (19)
The next year, on February, he passed the entrance examination of a private university in Tokyo, then he moved to Tokyo. (19)
During the summer vacation, he came home and visited the house of the girl but there was a doorplate different to her name. (19)
One year had passed and he became 18 years old, but he was still waiting. (21)
Around age 20, he awaked he had to spend a decent life, then he made friends and a new girlfriend. After the graduation, he got a job at a book agency. (23)
Long time passed (after he became 45 years old), when he awoke he was in a hole of burning daed beasts. (23)
The narrator entered the City, he left his shadow to the gate guard and his eyes was gouged by the guard to become a dreamreader. (9)
The narrator met the girl at the library in the City. But she said she had never met him. (5)
The narrator begun to do dreamreading in the library and talked with the girl as a librarian of the library. (7) He went to the library and do dreamreading everyday. During the autumn it continues regularly. (9)
During the pastime, the narrator begun to make a map of the City, and it continued for two weeks. (12)
He was suffering a high fever. An old man took care of him. (12)
The winter had came, the narrator visited the place of shadows, to see his shadow. (14)
The narrator and the girl visited the bond in the south end of the City. (16)
The shadow of the narrator was in bad condition, so the narrator visited him. And the shadow demanded to go out from the City and join together with him within one week, then he told the girl in the City wasn’t true substance, she was in the outer world is true. (16)
At the library he said my shadow started to pass away to her. But she said she did n’t know about shadow, because she was pulled out the shadow when she was three years old and never met again. (18)
The narrator told the girl that he would left from the City, and he had met her shadow in the outer world. (22)
A snow falling day, he decided to go out from the City, visited the room of his shadow, took an old horn and went and climbed the south hill. But the wall moved and sanded in their way, and the wall told they can’t go over the wall by words. Then he dashed for the wall by the advise by the shadow and went through the wall. (24) But the narrator told to his shadow that he couldn’t go out from the City yet and he decided to rest in the City to do dreamreading including the old dream of the girl. The shadow went to the outer world alone. (25, 26)
Chapter 2
In this real world, the narrator remembered the experiences in the City. He go to the office everyday and work regularly as a usual non-specific man. (27)
He dicided to resign his job to think about the experiences in the City. He spent his life by the saving for while. (27)
He saw a long dream of a small library in a local city. In the dream, he worked as a desk clerk of the library. I saw a dark blue beret on the end of his desk. When he woke up, he wrote down the content of dream and decided to get any job of any library. (28)
He asked his former colleague of a book agency, Ohki who took charge of libraries, to look for a job in libraries. After a week, Ohki answered that he found a job, and would go to a library of a local small town in a day is convenient for the narrator. (29)
A wendnesdy the narrator and Ohki visited the town of Fukushima, in which the small library existed. (30)
The narrator went to the library and had an interview with the chief librarian, Tatsuya Koyasu. And he told in fact, he already retired, the position was empty and looked for a person to take over his job. (30)
He begun to work at the Z Town Library as the chief librarian with helping by the librarian Soeda and became friendly with part-time job worker ladies. (31)
The winter had came. Mr. Koyasu showed the narrator his secret place in the half underground and depths in the library. (34)
He moved his office to the room in the depths. When Koyasu visited the room, he felt and realized the border between the reality and the alter world, and flowing of time was broken. (35)
In a deep winter day, Mr. Koyasu called the narrator to the room in the depths. And Koyasu made confession he was a man had not shadow, he had no body in this world and he was an existence of his consciousness or a ghost, and had already passed away. (37)
The narrator talked about Koyasu with Soeda. She said she knew Koyasu had passed away, and only she and the narrator can see Koyasu. (38)
A boy was born and named “Shin” (Forest). He sent a very happy childhood by the love of his parents. But, when he was 5 years old, he ride a bicycle and passed away by a car accident. (40)
Before six of a Sunday in the end of June, the wife of Koyasu disappeared, and commit self-destruction by throwing herself into a river. (The time is 30 years before.) (40)
After the self-destruction, he begun to do eccentricities such as wearing beret and skirt. (40)
When he was 65 years old, he rebuild a library from his liquor factory. (40)
(…)
Characters
Narrator – 17 years old boy. In the real world, he lived in a calm suburban district neat the sea and was a third grade student of a public high school. He and the girlfriend met once or twice a month, they had had a date. (2) His father worked at a pharmaceutical company. And his mother was a housewife. (4, p. 23) He was fond of libraries and reading books alone. (4, p. 23 – 24) The only dreamreader in the City and his job is only to do dreamreading. (7, p. 39 – 40)
The girl in this world (you, girlfriend ?) – 16 years old girl worked at the library of the City from 17:00 to around 22:00. (1) In the real world, she lived the place nor far to the narrator, the distance is it costs 90 minutes by the train. She was a high school student of a private high school for girls. (2) Her father had been a local public servant and was a office clerk of a preparatory school. And her mother passed away by a cancer when the girl was three years old. (4) She confessed that she was only a shadow without substance. (17)
The girl in the city – A girl worked at the library of the City. She must be the spirit of the girl, but she didn’t own a knowledge or memory of this world. The girl in the City said she was born in the City and never went out from there. She should be alter person or had an alter spirit. (7, p. 42) She said she didn’t know about her own shadow because her shadow was pulled out by her when she was three years old and never met again. (18, pp. 137 – 138)
Gate guard (3- ) – A big man was loyal to his job.
The younger sister of the girl – Six years younger than than the girl. (4, p. 23)
Grand mother of her mother side – The only person, the girl can open her heart. (4, p. 23)
Mother-in-law of the girl (4)
A old man (12, pp. 81 – ) A former soldier, nursed the narrator when he was suffering a high fever.
Chapter 2
Ohki (28, pp. 200 ; 29) A younger colleague of the narrator in a book agency.
Soeda – A middle thirties lady and an only librarian of the Z Town Library from Nagano, with docile face, slim and 160 cm tall. The pivot of the Z Town Library, the library can activate by her ability. (30, pp. 214 – )
Tatsuya Koyasu (30, pp. 216 – ) – The chief librarian of the Z Town Library. A fat middle aged man. But the fact he had already retired, he rested the library to hand over his job to someone. He wore a dark blue beret and a skirt. He was born in a wealthy family of a liquor maker. He entered a private university of Tokyo and his specialization was economics to success his family business, but he really want to spealize literature. After the graduation, he spend a stable but bore life with running the liquor factory, and he want to write a novel but it completed. When he was 35 years old, he fell with a woman, then they married as a “visiting marriage”. When he was 40 years old, a child of them was born and named Shin (Forest). But the child was died by traffic collision when 5 years old. For a while his wife committed suicide, then he gradually do eccentricities such as wearing skirt and beret. When he was 65 years old, he rebuild a library from his liquor factory, run the (substantially private) library as a chief librarian.
Komatsu – An unsociable little and middle aged housing agency man of Z town. (31, pp. 226 – 228)
Part-time job worker ladies (31, p. 230 – )
The husband of Soeda – A teacher of a public elementary school of the town. (32, p. 327)
The wife of Mr Koyasu (39, pp. 315 -) A woman 10 years younger than Koyasu, when he was 35 years old, they married as a “visiting marriage”. She visited and stayed Koyasu’s house in Fukushima every Friday from Tokyo. When he was 40 years old, a body was born to them. (39)
Shin Koyasu – The child of Mr Koyasu and his wife was born when Koyasu was 40 years old. He named Shin (Forest) by Mr Koyasu. He sent a very happy childhood by the love of his parents. But, when he was 5 years old, he ride a bicycle and passed away by a car accident. (40, pp. 323 – 327)
A coffee shop owner and stuff young girl
The boy, M
Two older brothers of M (p. 526 – )
(…)
Groups
Locations (State, Prefecture, City, Town)
Local town
The City – A city is informed by a girlfriend, enclosed by the toll wall. To enter the City, one must have a special requirement. (1) The secret place of minds of the narrator and the girl (4, p. 27) Once it prospered, but it became ruined. (12) People live in the City can’t go out from there except duties. And people among the craftsman district and the housing district didn’t visit each other. The City has no electricity and gas. The girl had lived in there in her childhood, but her true substance still lived there. (15, pp. 108 – 11 ) The narrator’s shadow said the City was created and kept by the narrator and his imagination. (20, p. 146) And the narrator said the City should be the country of shadow. (20, p. 147) And the shadow said that people in the City should didn’t know they are shadows. ; The shadow said this City has many contradictions from the origin. Some devices were set to solve the contradictions and functions (beasts, dreamreading and so on) as rules. And the City was a very technical and artificial place. (25, pp. 176 – 177)
The real world (this world)
Tokyo (19 – )
Z Town – The place the library exists(-ed). A small local town in the mountains, in Fukushima prefecture, Tohoku region. It necessary to visit there from Tokyo, though Kohriyama by the Hohoku Bullet Train, and though Aizu-Wakamatsu by the train, then transfer to ride the local train. (30 -)
(…)
Places (Room, Shop, School, Public Space, Station)
Chapter 1
Liberary of the City – A non-specific old stone house, put up a plate of number “16”, and the wood door was very heavy. The front room is 5 meters square, humble and shabby, the back room is the almost same and had a door to the stacks. (5, p. 28 – 29) The library of the City stocks old dreams, instead of books. (p. 39) I think the place is like a sacred place of Christianity.
Central plaza
Gate – The only gate of the wall in the City.
Foundry
The place for the beasts – (p. 20)
Craftman district (9, p. 59 – 60) – There’s the home of the girl.
Housing district (10, p. 61) – The district had been a housing district for public servants and soldiers of the City, but it became ruined. The narrator was held a small and simple room in the district.
The place in which shadow lived – The place was in the middle space between the City and the outer world. (14, p. 103)
The bond – A weird bond of the river of the City formed at the south end of the City.(16, p. 117)
Chapter 2
The Z Town Library – A sober two-story wood building in the mountains in Tohoku region, was old but renovated recently. The house had been a factory housing of a liquor maker. (30, pp. 212 – 213) Substantially, the library was a private possession of Mr Koyasu. (39, pp. 309 – )
A 50 years old wood house (31, p 226 – ) – The house in Z town, in which the narrator moved and lived.
The room in depths of the library (34, pp. 258 -) – There was a wood stove is the same one excited in the city. (34, p. 261)
A coffee shop in a street of Z town (42 – )
Key Elements, Keywords & Keyphrases
Shadow (1, 8, 9) – People in the City had no shadow. One can’t enter the City, one follows one’s own shadow. The narrator took away his shadow and left his shadow to the gate guard, then his shadow small jobs at out of the wall. (9, p. 55) The girl said, she felt she was a kind of shadow of something, sometimes.
The wall (1 – ) – The tall and very strong wall encloses the City. The gate guard said “If there’s the perfect thing in the world, it must be this wall”. And it wasn’t made by anyone, it had been existed at the first. (7, p. 37) Eight meters tall. (15, p. 108)
Beasts (3 – ) – Mysterious beats live in the City. ; The shadow said they are a function to give off potential negative energy of the City.
Horn (3) – A instruments to call beasts to the gate.
The Gate (3 – )
Cat (4 – )
Reading books (4 – )
Heavy coat (5 – )
Old dream (5, p. 30 – ) – The shadow told the narrator that old dreams are kind of mental reverberations were left by the main bodies were drove to the outside.
Dreamreader (5, p. 30 – )
Deep green glasses (5, p. 30 – )
Herb tea (5, p. 31 – 32) – The special drink to a dreamreader(s).
Letters (4, 6) – The narrator and the girl had been correspond each other in the real world. His letters were written concrete real things, but her letters were written vague inner things. She wrote her dream she had seen. He tried to write his dream but it failed.
“This world” (6, p. 36)
Old dreams – The library of the City stocks old dreams. Their shape is like an egg and their surface is hard and smooth like a marble stone. (7, p. 38 – 39) Old dreams were unclear not consistent, they are “chaotic microcosmos” and “gatherings of leavings”
A strange dream of the girl (8, p. 52)
Eternal (11, pp. 66 – 67)
Map of the City (12, pp 75 -) The narrator begun to make a map of the City by his own will and curiosity. At first, he traced the wall to know the shape of outline of the City.
Curiosity (12, pp. 77 -)
"My heart only become stiff sometimes.” (13, p. 87)
"My heart and body are separated certain amount.” (13, p. 93)
Dreamreading – Deamreading is the act that one only to see and feel old dreams. The narrator read three old dreams everyday, and got the feeling of passing of the reading. (14, pp. 98 – 99) Dreamreading must be the method to calm down spirits or/and mental reverberations of substances. ; Dreamreading is an act to set free an old dream or a spirits from its shell. (26, p. 181)
"Body is shrine in which sprit lives“. – Saying by the gate guard. (14, p. 107)
Theme park (16, p. 128)
A psychological enclosure as a fear – A word by the shadow. (25, p. 176)
Chapter 2
"Our reality progresses separating to several paths in our each inner-side.” – A monologue by the narrator at the beginning of the chapter 2. (27, p. 186)
Dark blue beret (28, p. 195 ; 30, pp. 219 – 224 ; 40, pp. 338 – 339) – A dark blue beret, the narrator saw in a long dream, then he founded it in the chief librarian loon of the Z?? Town Library. The beret is a belonging of Tatsuya Koyasu. A niece of him bought in Paris during a travel.
Skirt (32, pp. 231 – 232 ; 40, pp. 338 – 339) – Mr Koyasu begun to wear beret and skirt, after the while that his wife had committed self-destruction and passed away.
Black tea (32, p. 233 – )
Big old well (33, p. 251)
Bunch of 12 keys (34, p. 260)
Old Wood Stove – It was the same as the one in the City. (34, p. 261)
Koyasu’s watch (35, p. 273) – His watch had its plate, but there were no hand.
Brain, physical body and spirit (36, p. 292)
Holy Bible (38, pp. 302 – 303)
Wednesday
Bleubeery Muffin
Maps of the City, were given by the boy, M
Plague (p. 447)
Endless Plague (p. 449)
Grey duffle coat (pp. 467 – 468)
Absolute individual library (p. 474)
Bowmore (p. 536)
(…)
Cultural Things on This Novel
2001: Space Odessey (42, p. 363)
Cole Porter’s song “Just One of Those Things” (43, p. 368)
Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmonde (50, p. 431)
Antonio Vivaldi (p. 472)
Alexander Borodin (p. 534)
“Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel García Márquez (pp. 575 – 577)
Music
Impressive Scenes & Important Descriptions
Riddles, Mysteries & Questions
Thought & Philosophy
Interpretations, Analysis & Memos
The City must be the same as “The End of World” of "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World”. The plot about the City in the chapter 1 is almost same as “The End of World”.
And the motif of library and reading books (or dream) resembles “Kafka on the Shore”.
The former part of the story of the City is almost same as “the End of the World”. But the story of the real world or “this world” is completely different.
The chapters description by the narrator in the City uses a Japanese pronoun “WATASHI”, instead in the real world it uses “BOKU”.
The job of the chief librarian of the Z Town Library is solitary work and not connected with anyone except Soeda and Yoyasu. So it’s equal to the job of a dreamreader.
Conclusion
I think this novel is a vivid combination of his unique style of urban adventure stories (“The Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World” “Dance, Dance, Dance” and “Kafka on the Shore”) and his another unique style of romance novels (“Norwegian Wood” and “Sputnik Sweetheart”). It’s one of greatest fruits of his literature career.
The entire message of this novel is how we cope with the reality and/or stories.
References
"Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World” by Haruki Murakami (Shinchosha, 1985)
Details of the Book
The City and Its Uncertain Walls
Haruki Murakami
Shinchosha, Tokyo, Japan, 13 April 2023
672 pages, JPY 2970
ISBN: 978-4103534372
Related Posts and Pages
Symmary Synopsis & Book Review | The City and Its Uncertain Walls
Timeline of Haruki Murakami
Works of / Œuvre Haruki Murakami
Literature / littérature / Literatur Page
Books by Haruki Murakami (US)
eBooks by Haruki Murakami (US)
Audiobooks by Haruki Murakami (US)
Haruki Murakami Author Page (US)