I just finished this book yesterday, and I’ve got some thoughts about it. It’s been awhile since I’ve read a Murakami book, and I’ve been reading a ton of books in the meantime. So hopefully this book review is a little less biased towards Murakami, even though I’m still a huge fan of his.
Tons of spoilers
The City and Its Uncertain Walls, as a novel built over time.
I read the afterward of the book, as I do with all books, and Murakami talks about how he took a long time to write this book. He had never meant for it to be published as a full book, and during the COVID period, he worked on it slowly again, to become a book.
The stories do feel as if they were built over different periods of time. Very much like the main character who grows in the different worlds he’s in, the story builds a little more each time the other world is revisited. It’s only revisited twice in that sense, but yet, I sense the parallels and I enjoy them.
I feel the growth of the story as the story starts out somewhat simple, the summer time love between teenagers, and how it affects one’s own mind into their adult life. In the adult complexities, other adults also have their own quirks based on how they were too. Together, it comes together awkwardly, and sometimes because of the awkward joining of adult stories, it forms a more cohesive oneness. The main character does have love after the summer time love, and it’s not a simple love; it’s complex, as all adults are.
The Character Building of Murakami Characters in the Murakami Universe
I don’t dislike the characters, but I do expect them to be a certain way because they’re Murakami characters. They would ask questions pertaining to existential issues, and sometimes they go into their magical worlds because of that. One side does something, and the other side feels the after effects of it. When the Yellow Submarine boy bites the mans ear, and the soothing of the herbal balms in the Town naturally affect the man in the town of Z**. It’s a lady soothing the man, in both sides of the story. I expected this from Murakami Characters, in the Murakami world. I actually thought a little more would happen, but otherwise it did not.
I actually expected something to happen with the Front Desk lady and the main character, but thankfully nothing happened. The only thing linking them were their experiences with the Old Man. That’s a good enough and clean enough relationship for me.
And jazz, of course they love jazz.
The Abrupt End
I knew this would happen, but it was still sad when it happened. I want to know what happens next, but of course you know what would happen next: the man would be in place of his shadow, in the town of Z**, and he would find the coffee shop lady being the perfect lady for him at that point, having now gotten enough of the girl who brews the tea for him. Yellow Submarine boy would happily be the Dream reader, and the Tea Brewing girl would continue to enjoy her role taking care of him.
I think with an obvious end, it’s great to just end it like that. In a sense, it’s an old dream you wake up from, and you know how that dream would have ended. That’s what makes it the dream that it is.
How I appreciate this book (and Haruki Murakami) in 2025
I haven’t had books with paragraphs dedicated to the scene or personal internal struggles a character has with his emotions, not for a long time. I have some glimpses of that with Sally Rooney books, but the way Haruki Murakami takes his time with it, you know the world is build nicely for you. He wants you to feel the weather change, and the temperatures play a role in hinting what the characters feel. The warmth as comfort, and cold as testing and trying. The way the beasts are talked about but not clearly stated, and you just have to guess what it might be. (Thankfully he just tells you straight up that they’re unicorns, immediately my mental imagery formed it much better.)
In the line of all the short sentences and really short paragraphs, I enjoy a Murakami book. It’s different and it’s not meant for an audience who wants something dramatic and fast paced. It’s not slow, but it’s not drama every page around. Some scenes are revisited multiple times, but that’s because a person would actually revisit an event in their head multiple times. Some books just won’t have a mental double take, but this book has lots of that. Half a reason for this, I bet, was from the serialized column it came from the first time he wrote it. But I also think he wanted to keep the repetitive element inside, so that it has some of the flavour from before.
I still like Murakami, he’s all of 76 years old this year. His writing inspires me to start writing, because he started late. There are other writers who started later, but Murakami just has That Spot in my heart as the author who started later, but still made it work extremely well. I can never guess the right time era of his work, it just is very 90’s and in that sense, it’s timeless in its own right.
Leave a Reply