I know all my books are rated at 5 stars... it's simply that I'm not bothering to review any book that I don't think is wonderful. And this book is soI know all my books are rated at 5 stars... it's simply that I'm not bothering to review any book that I don't think is wonderful. And this book is sooooooooooo wonder-full. The narrator is a 30 year old man living in a suburb of Toyko with his wife, Kumiko. He has recently lost his job and is settling in as a "housewife" when Kumiko walks out the front door one morning and doesn't come back. His life then becomes a dreamy labyrinth that new acquaintances and people from the past gently help him navigate as he tries to solve the riddles his wife is trapped within and behind. This book has everything you could want in a novel. For me some of these things are: Characters, places and ideas that form perfectly in your mind.... mystery for the sake of mystery.... synchronicity.... characters one can admire and/or relate to.... questionable symbolism.... an underlying love story.... and of course wild ideas. It's also about 600 pages, so you can really settle into it. I wish I could convey how this book affected me in a 200 word review, but I don't feel like I can. I guess I might say that I'd introduce this book as wholeheartedly as I'd introduce sledding to a neophyte: You should try this! You'll be glad you did! ...more
This book totally rocked me. It is to most other astrology books what fresh-squeezed organic orange juice is to Tang. Some of the claims it made aboutThis book totally rocked me. It is to most other astrology books what fresh-squeezed organic orange juice is to Tang. Some of the claims it made about my sign shocked me so much I had to put the book down to digest them and pick it up again later. I've read certain sections over and over again and every time I find something new and valuable that I never really noticed in the text or never considered fully. I'd say this is one of my 'desert island' books, except that good books make me realize how intricate human beings are and how incricately linked we are to other human beings, so being on a desert island in this desert-island-for-the-rest-of-my-life scenario would probably drive me to find a way off the island or kill myself trying, not sitting around reading books. Anyway...read this book. You won't regret it....more
This slim and lovely little book could be a deeply satisfying otherworldly trip between your dinner and bedtime if you devour stories you love like I This slim and lovely little book could be a deeply satisfying otherworldly trip between your dinner and bedtime if you devour stories you love like I do (115 pages). The narrator is 90 years old with over 500 notches on his bedpost, so to speak, but is about to experience a "first" in his relations with women. A book you might hug after finishing....more