Many visitors come to Japan Kaleidoskop reading the book reviews. I am always excited about seeing my statistics, which show the book titles people choose the most. Above all the most read article in 2015 is A Short History of Japanese Literature Part 5. And these are the most read book reviews on Japan Kaleidoskop of the whole year.
Top Ten of Readings of 2015:
1. Men without Women by Murakami Haruki
2. Thousand Cranes by Kawabata Yasunari
3. The Makioka Sisters by Tanizaki Jun’ichirô
4. Seven Japanese Tales by Tanizaki Jun’ichirô
5. Naomi by Tanizaki Jun’ichirô
6. Snow Country by Kawabata Yasunari
8. The Nakano Thrift Store by Kawakami Hiromi
Japan Kaleidoskop 
Two of the short stories from Murakami’s collection are terrific: Yesterday and Scheherazade. Both left me wishing that he had written more. That is the highest compliment I can pay to a short story: that the story and characters were so engrossing that I wanted to read more about them.
I just recently read Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki. I found it to be a very insightful and poignant portrayal of a man’s struggles to cope with his intimate relationships with others. My only criticism is that it ended without the kind of closure I would have liked. Maybe he’ll write a sequel some day?!?
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Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki is different from bis former books. I must admit, that it is not my favorite. It seems to me, that Murakami wrote it under a lot of pressure shortly after 1Q84.
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I agree that there was less surrealism in Colorless than in most of his other books.
I think Colorless is somewhat similar thematically to Norwegian Wood in that it is also about someone struggling with very painful psychological problems. Murakami demonstrated wonderful sensitivity in how he portrayed the distress that Tsukuru and some, but not all, of the other characters are experiencing. If he had taken more time to write in more depth about the other characters, it would have been even better….in my opinion.
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Thank you.
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