![]() Murakami never tries to assemble such mystical statements into a cosmology. ![]() ![]() Later on, in the wake of another emotional shock, Tsukuru thinks to himself: “Everyone has their own special sound they live with, though they seldom have the chance to actually hear it.” He then passes to his listener the gift of not being afraid of death. “Each individual has their own unique color,” the musician says. In one brilliant scene, a man who has retreated to a hot spring in the south of Japan encounters a dying jazz musician. Almost every person he tracks down tells him a story. Tsukuru encounters quasi-religious guides, false prophets, danger, and spectral presences that he knows he should not trust. The shape of a pilgrimage has some built-in pleasures, all of which Murakami exploits to maximum effect. Tsukuru meets a woman who encourages him to resolve his long-broken friendships. Ironically, while they stay behind, he leaves their provincial town, travels to Tokyo, and becomes an engineer of train stations.Īs in “South of the Border, West of the Sun” - another Murakami book haunted by a tune - this novel moves forward by looking back. ![]() He is the follower, the listener, the least bold. Tsukuru is the only one among his friends who isn’t given a color. Tsukuru remembers how Shiro’s “calves were like glazed porcelain, white and smooth.” The piece is part of “Years of Pilgrimage,” a series of suites Liszt composed after traveling. One of them, Shiro, a pianist, liked to play Liszt’s “Le mal du pays” (“Homesickness”). ![]()
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