Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami

I am going to be up front with a full disclosure that I am a huge Murakami fan. After reading 1Q84 for the first time, I went through all of his books in a row and he moved to the top of my purchase anything he writes list. So, when I heard about this book coming out in Japan, I waited impatiently for the translation to come out and grabbed it on day one of release.

I am writing this because I can fully see how someone might not enjoy this book. It is slowly pace, gets very strange, and there are inappropriate conversations about breasts between a young girl and an older man.

For the Murakami fan, this book is probably the most Murakami that he could be. It contains the typical Murakami man- a main male character who is mostly detached from life looking in on it as a curiosity and loves sex, even though he is detached from that too. It contains a Murakami world- some might call it magical realism, but I would say it is mostly fantastic with a little bit of realism to give the reader an anchor. It also contains talking paintings, bells which ring mysteriously, trips into the unknown, and moments that will leave you scratching your head. To me, if this is your first Murakami, I would say try a different one before taking the plunge into the 700 pager that this is.

In Japan, this came out in two separate books which is important because book 1 is mostly a slow trudging setup, while book 2 takes the world which was slowly built and crumbles it with so many fantasy scenes that one begins to question what was real.

At its core, it is about a painter- Tomohiko who is known for his portrait paintings. After he and his wife separate and he takes a “find yourself” camping trip for a few years, he settles into the home of an artist who is dying. In the attic, he finds a painting titled “Killing Commendatore.” One day, a rich man,  from on top of a hill comes to his house to commission a painting of himself. After resisting, Tomohiko decides to take the painting on, but does a technique he has not done before. At this point, a mysterious bell begins ringing, but I won’t say why. As time moves forward, the rich man become bolder and asks for another portrait. This time the portrait is of a young girl who may or may not be the rich man’s daughter. After accepting and as the girl poses, more strange things begin to take place which will lead Tomohiko down a path into another world wrapped around his current world.

Let me re-emphasize, this book is about 700 pages and at times is mind numbingly slow, but stick with it! By the time you get to book 2, whoa nelly!

What I enjoyed most about this book is it feels as autobiographical as Murakami is going to get. As Tomohiko talks about his painting process and what it feels like to create, I believe we get a glimpse into Murakami’s writing process. As the paintings begin to beacon and call to the painter, I think we see what writing is like for Murakami. In fact, there was a line in the book where Tomohiko states how he feels he is in a fantasy world with bits of reality peeking in. To me, that easily describes a Murakami book.

It is a trudge and this book took me about a week+ to finish because of that slowness, but the payoff in book 2 makes it all worth it. This shouldn’t be your first Murakami though. Become a fan first and then dive head first into this one.