Genre: Contemporary Fantasy
Published: November 19, 2024
Pages: 705
We begin with a nameless young couple: a boy and a girl, teenagers in love. One day, she disappears . . . and her absence haunts him for the rest of his life.
Thus begins a search for this lost love that takes the man into middle age and on a journey between the real world and an other world – a mysterious, perhaps imaginary, walled town where unicorns roam, where a Gatekeeper determines who can enter and who must remain behind, and where shadows become untethered from their selves. Listening to his own dreams and premonitions, the man leaves his life in Tokyo behind and ventures to a small mountain town, where he becomes the head librarian, only to learn the mysterious circumstances surrounding the gentleman who had the job before him. As the seasons pass and the man grows more uncertain about the porous boundaries between these two worlds, he meets a strange young boy who helps him to see what he’s been missing all along.
The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a singular and towering achievement by one of modern literature’s most important writers.
Thus begins a search for this lost love that takes the man into middle age and on a journey between the real world and an other world – a mysterious, perhaps imaginary, walled town where unicorns roam, where a Gatekeeper determines who can enter and who must remain behind, and where shadows become untethered from their selves. Listening to his own dreams and premonitions, the man leaves his life in Tokyo behind and ventures to a small mountain town, where he becomes the head librarian, only to learn the mysterious circumstances surrounding the gentleman who had the job before him. As the seasons pass and the man grows more uncertain about the porous boundaries between these two worlds, he meets a strange young boy who helps him to see what he’s been missing all along.
The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a singular and towering achievement by one of modern literature’s most important writers.
I received a copy of this book through Netgalley, but then I borrowed the audiobook from my library to actually read it. This is my honest review.
I don't know if this is a cultural thing, or an issue with translation, but it kind of bugged me with how simplistic the dialogue between characters was. The conversations between characters had a very "See Spot Run" feeling to them, even when both characters were full adults. But this book was translated into English and I'm not particularly familiar with Japanese culture, so either of those things could be the cause of that.
I loved the fantastical nature of the mysterious city, the way the walls shifted and moved based on the needs of the town. But I also have some questions about the inhabitants of the town, and how they came to be there in the first place. A part of me wonders if the worn is like purgatory or something similar.
The narration in the audiobook didn't have much inflection to it, which may also have contributed to me feeling like the dialogue between characters was simplistic. It didn't help pull me into the story, but it also wasn't like nails on a chalkboard to listen to.
Overall I give The City and Its Uncertain Walls 3.4723 out of 5 stars. - Katie
Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949 and now lives near Tokyo. His work has been translated into more than fifty languages, and the most recent of his many international honors is the Jerusalem Prize, whose previous recipients include J. M. Coetzee, Milan Kundera, and V. S. Naipaul.
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