Book Review: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

I've been wanting to buy this book for so long because I'm so intrigued about its popularity and any of Haruki Murakami titles. So, I first bought my first Haruki Murakami book - Colorless Tsukuru and His Years of Pilgrimage. For more details, see below:

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Book Details:

• Title: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
• Original Japanese Title: 色彩を持たない多崎つくると、彼の巡礼の年 | Shikisai o motanai Tazaki Tsukuru to, Kare no Junrei no Toshi

• Author: Haruki Murakami
• Translated in English by: Philip Gabriel
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9780385352109
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Published Date: August 12, 2014
• Media Type: Hardcover
• Genre: Literary Realism, Bildungsroman

• Local Store: National Bookstore
• Book: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
• Price: 885.00 php.

• Suitable to Age: 18+
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Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage (view it from Otakore's Instagram)

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Book Review (Physical):

First part of our book review for Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage, we'll inspect the quality and appearance of the book.

Below is the front cover of the book. It shows a cool five finger-like art and you'll find the meaning of it when you read the book:

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage Front Cover

The back cover details the usual bar code and compliments from news magazine:

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage Back Cover

Removing the dusk jacket, shows the gimmick behind it (this book is really attractive):

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage Dusk Jacket Gimmick

Without the dusk jacket, the book art displays a Tokyo railway map (the time i saw it, I started to get curious what's this map got to do with the story):

Below shows the spine of the book (without dusk jacket) and the sides of the dusk jacket:

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage Book Spine

And here's a glimpse on the first page of the book, the Toyko Railways:

Now, we proceed to the second part of our book review for Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage. We'll give this book a verdict at the end and our thoughts after finishing the book.

Do you wear your earpiece? Or your stereo On? Because i set the music to play automatically (check below). You'll be hearing Franz Liszt - Années de pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage), piece number 8 - Le mal du pays (Homesickness). This piano piece has something to do with the story. Please don't take this as a spoiler. I just want you to be prepared before reading the book :)

Source of this piece publicly available by frrc-audio's SoundCloud

Moreover, here's a brief video synopsis of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, source from Knopf DoubleDay YouTube Channel (you may skip this if you want to read the book fresh):

Source: Knopf DoubleDay YouTube Channel

• Character References:
• You may want to familiarize with the character below. Just another reference note. They're in Japanese name, of course. If you're having a problem with forgetting Japanese names, the below list could help you:

• -    Tsukuru Tazaki - Tsukuru means "to make or build"
• -    Kei Akamatsu - Aku means "red pine"       
• -    Yoshio Oumi - Ao means "blue sea"           
• -    Yuzuki Shirane - Shiro means "white root"
• -    Eri Kurono - Kuro means "black field"      
• -    Sara Kimoto
• -    Fumiaki Haida - Haida means "gray field"
• -    Midorikawa - means "green river"             

Book Review (Thoughts):

"You can hide memories, but you can't erase the history that produce them."

- Sara Kimoto (pg. 44)

The story hit me as i can relate so much with Tsukuru Tazaki's younger years. Like the feel of being ostracized and you didn't know why the hell your friends are distancing away from you. The feel of being different because of my fancy odd name. The feel of saying goodbye, a final farewell to someone you've known for so long. And the feel of losing someone who just vanished without any words. These experiences are the same with Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki's. Tsukuru Tazaki with his four best friends, with Sara and with Haida.

Part of the story i like is his years and moment with Haida. I like their intellectual discussions and Haida's storytelling about Midorikawa. I would like to quote this couple of meaningful messages by Fumiaki Haida:

"I want to be free - to go where I want, when I want, and be able to think about whatever I want."

- Fumiaki Haida (pg. 72)

"People whose freedom is taken away always end up hating somebody."

- Fumiaki Haida (pg. 73)

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage is in some way magical, thrilling, and will make you speculate on characters after reading the book. It's a little like Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book not in a way you hop on pages but you'll think about what would happen after finishing the story.

There are times you read a certain plot and you're eager to continue reading for more to find out who did it and who's who til there's no happy-ending for that. But you wouldn't feel the discontentment because you're reading a pilgrimage and it's not something will resolve "that" certain plot.

There's also scenes of sexual fantasy by Tsukuru so i wouldn't recommend this book to be read by age 17 and below.

Finishing the last page of the book, a surge of questions came to my mind. What will happen tomorrow Wednesday (in the book), where Sara will tell Tsukuru if he's with someone and if she will be the woman of his life? Who murdered Shiro? Who raped her? What's inside Midorikawa's bag while he's playing the piano? These questions were never meant to be answered because it's not a thriller novel. Haruki Murakami wrote the ending well for a story of pilgrimage. I really praised this book for that.

So, my final verdict for this book is (rating): 4.0 / 5.0


Trivia:

• Haruki Murakami is a Japanese contemporary writer.
• won several literary awards like World Fantasy Award (2006), Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award (2006), Franz Kafka Prize (2006), and the Jerusalem Prize (2009).

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Otakore Literantadodist
Literateknolohitura.com
November 12, 2014

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Reference:

• Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorless_Tsukuru_Tazaki_and_His_Years_of_Pilgrimage

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Planning to read this book? You can buy the same copy i read at the following (check below):