Like
all of the books by Murakimi that I have read so far, Colourless
Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is captivating and
intellectually stimulating. It is, however, somewhat different to,
for example, IQ84 or Hard-boiled Wonderland and
the End of the World. In both of these books, the imaginative or
fantasy element is much stronger, while in Colourless
Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage a small sliver of
fantasy is book-ended between a large amount of reality.
In
high school, Tsukuru Tazaki belongs to a close group of five friends;
they do everything together, and, if any of the five were to make a
guess about the future, he or she would doubtlessly assume that the
five of them would always remain together. But then something
happens. Tsukuru (whose name means colourless) is banished from the
group without any explanation. He is devastated and depressed and
contemplates suicide. Years later he meets Sara, who is astute enough
to realize that Tsukuru must find out what happened all those years
ago – until he can put the past behind him, he is unable to move
on.
The
book, beautifully written, follows Tsukuru as he peels back the
layers of the past and discovers why he was cut off from the group.
The process is not without pain and even regret, but, by the end,
Tsukuru is able to move away from the idea of colourless to the other
meaning of his name: to build.
Anyone
who loves Murakami will love Colourless Tsukuru
Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.