Haruki Murakami is a name needing little introduction, widely regarded as one of the more prominent authors in the realms of magical realism.
His recent novel, Killing Commendatore, follows in the same tradition, following a young portrait painter from Tokyo who ends up in the mountain home of a famous artist.
The discovery of an unseen painting in his attic unleashes forth a set of mysterious and inexplicable events, one which can only be closed through perhaps the strangest journey the young painter will ever have in his life.
Haruki Murakami Undertakes a New Journey
As they age, most authors have a tendency to change and develop their styles and habits, generally in an attempt to progress towards what they consider being perfection. In most cases, if you take authors who have written for decades and compare their earlier works to their later ones, it's difficult to admit they were produced by the same person.
However, there are some special cases where even decades into their craft, an author will always observe certain unchanging elements, eternally present in their work. I would venture to say Haruki Murakami belongs to this specific category of people, and I believe his recent novel Killing Commendatore demonstrates it as well as any other book.
Transporting us yet again into a world of strangeness and magical realism, we make the acquaintance of a young portrait painter whose wife has just left him. In an attempt to find himself he ends up in the mountain home of a famous Japanese artist, Tomohiko Amada. While searching around his house, he comes across a previously-unseen painting stuffed away in the attic, but little does he suspect, there is a very good reason for it to be kept away from the eyes of the world.
Unknowingly, the young portrait painter unleashes a series of mysterious and seemingly magical circumstances, and the only way to close Pandora's box is to undertake what will most definitely be the strangest journey in his life.
Drawn him into a world where fewer and fewer things are as they seem, the young painter must contend with a physical manifestation of an idea, a Nazi assassination during the Second World War, an uncomfortably precocious thirteen-year-old girl, and a faceless man who desperately wants his portrait drawn, among many other things. In the end, no lives touched by the portrait in the attic will remain unchanged.
Returning to the Master Canvas in Killing Commendatore
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Haruki Murakami, he truly is the type of author to have similar landmarks from one novel to the next, even if they do take on different shapes and forms along the way. While over the years he has certainly experimented a bit here and there with various perspectives and ideas, I feel specifically in this novel he returns a bit more to his roots, to the elements he knows intimately well and which shape his internal world.
As such, on one hand we have a list of familiar elements making their return, such as uncomfortable fixation on adolescent girls, soul-searching at the bottom of a hole, a faceless embodiment of capitalism, and of course our protagonist, a technology-averse loner whose wife just left him. These were just off the top of my head, but the book felt chock-full of characters and events which heavily call back to many of the author's other works.
In my opinion, this is exactly what is creating a bit of a division in opinions on the novel's quality. For many people, seeing the seventy-year-old author going back to what he knows best and giving us the familiar stuff we've come to love is something we should appreciate.
However, for other people this retreading of previously walked territory has gotten a bit tiresome, and I will admit it felt like the depth of it all left a little to be desired. In my opinion, it all meshed well enough for me to get lost in it and appreciate it, but at the same time, I do admit it is possible my perspective was coloured by my admiration for the author and love for his previous works.
Ultimately, I think it's up to you to decide if you're looking for the good old classic Murakami experience, or would prefer for him to try something new.
A Narrative with Closure
As far as the actual narrative itself goes, I felt it switched between large chunks of interesting story which moved things forward, and smaller chunks where few things of significance happen, even from a thematic perspective.
To begin with the negative and get it out of the way, some sections felt like they dragged on because they focused on characters who were ultimately largely inconsequential to the story, which made me wonder why he really integrated them there in the first place.
It left me with an impression something unfinished, not fully formed, as if Murakami was rushed to meet a deadline. However, those segments don't dominate the story in any sense of the word, and they can definitely be pushed through without much trouble.
Now, looking over at the more positive aspect of the storytelling, when things are moving forward, they leave you with no time at all to get bored in any way, even as we are being presented with familiar elements from the author's career. There is always something curious happening which keeps the plot in motion, with there being no shortage of outlandish ideas, unusual themes, metaphors, history lessons and more.
If there is one thing which sets this novel aside from the author's other works, it's the amount of closure he provides us with at the end. Generally-speaking, Murakami's novels tend to end with a whole lot of unresolved plot points and little fanfare, mimicking how real life generally goes.
This time around though, most of the plot points are explained and closed down at the end, and the few topics left unresolved feel like nothing compared with how little we usually get. He doesn't provide all of the answers, but he does give us more than enough to go on and draw our own conclusions, which in my mind, is one of the strongest distinguishing marks of a good Murakami novel.
The Final Verdict
Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami might not be the author's absolute best work, but it definitely belongs on the pantheon of his better novels in my opinion. Tracing over the master canvas he has come to know so well, the author gives us the exact type of story we would expect from him, feeling like a consummation of all his work up until now.
If you're new to the author or don't mind retreading familiar territory, then I would definitely recommend you add this novel to your collection.
 | Haruki MurakamiPersonal site Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer and author of numerous bestsellers, some of which earned him the Franz Kafka Prize, the Jerusalem Prize, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and others. Some of his better known works include Hear the Wind Sing and Kafka on the Shore. |
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