The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami (2024)
With novels like The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Sputnik Sweetheart, Haruki Murakami has written some of the most affecting prose I’ve ever read. His latest novel, The City and Its Uncertain Walls, starts off on a similar tack. When teen lovers are separated after the girl returns to the mysterious, walled in town from whence she came, the boy becomes obsessed with following her there — but does it really exist? The novel’s first third or so is intriguing, and characterized by Murakami’s trademark writing style (which is equal parts surreal, ambiguous, and poignant) and his usual themes of alienation, regret, and unrequited feelings. At some point, however, the novel began to feel haphazard and ramshackle, as if Murakami was just making things up as he went along, and I didn’t want to wade through all 670+ pages. The City and Its Uncertain Walls was first published as a short story in 1980. I haven’t read the original story, but I suspect that it does work better in a shorter form. Did not finish.
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