"South of the Border, West of the Sun" by Haruki Murakami: A Captivating Novel of Love and Loss

Salvo: Shorter than his usual books, but still very unique.

United Kingdom on Dec 15, 2023

Vxo: Exactly what I wanted and in excellent condition!

United States on Jul 19, 2023

Areeb Ahmad: I liked the story, I was disappointed in his actions throughout. Did he deserve it? Idk. Was she real? I think not.

United States on May 26, 2023

Ralph Ooi: I read this many years ago with the hardcover and I have forgotten all about how simplicitic this book is and yet it is able to strike a cord deep within me, even with this second read. I miss this period of Murakami's writing as the author himself has evolved all these years that I don't think he would repeat himself and produce something like this ever again.

United States on May 03, 2023

Bass Man: Somehow this author manages to resonate so deeply with my inner thoughts and experiences it becomes painful to read.
I dreamt about this book for three nights, it plucked away at memories and thoughts which I had long since buried. I gave it 5 stars because it is of course a work of genius but disturbing for me nonetheless. Reviewers such as P L must have lead a very conventional and dull life to describe it as 'twaddle'. Now that's a word that says as much about them as it does about their capacity to understand, something my dear father would say about any film made after 1960. Horses for courses perhaps so don't judge them. I shall brace myself to read another Haruki Murakami novel but only when my emotions have settled down again.

United Kingdom on Apr 26, 2021

Rammi Kumari: If I have to describe the book in one word, I would call it “hallucinogenic”. The book focuses on Hajime’s romantic relationships who’s been feeling a sense of loneliness and incompleteness. Having a single child was rare in Japan after the war and Hajime finds it difficult to be around kids as everyone’s having many siblings. Then he found a friend in Shimamoto who’s also a single child. They started spending time together and developed a fondness but they lost each other because of circumstances. The story begins with Hajime’s childhood and takes us to his middle age life where he’s still clinging to the past and longing for something even when he has everything to comfort him. It explores one of the complex human emotions; love and the possibilities of “what-ifs” and “what might have been” of unrequited love.

This book has an open ending, leaving the readers with lots of questions to mull over. But, you will find the significance of the title later in the story.

This is my second book of Murakami and I’m completely in love with his unique writing style. The way he weaves a story with a trace of surrealism, making everything so mysterious,...

India on Aug 02, 2020

shivani.rohellashivani.rohella: South of the Border, West of the Sun by Murakami revolves around Hajime's life and his conflicts. He befriends Shimamoto during his childhood. They have so many similarities and they feel very much connected. However, Shimamoto changes her school and they drift apart. Hajime meets her again after several years but both of them are now married. Hajime then feels conflicted and faces several dilemmas which becomes a very important part of the book.
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I was already a fan of Murakami when I picked this book to read. The first few pages left me a little disappointed because I had high expectations from him. The narrative wasn't much engaging initially. However, it got better and I loved the mystery around Shimamoto. Also, I loved the fact that Murakami highlighted a few aspects of the Japanese economy and the lifestyle of people there. Coming to the story, it is one of personal dilemma, fate, love and lust at the surface level but it has symbolic references too. The entire episode of Hajime and Shimamoto could be viewed as protagonist's imagination because of the internal void he faces and the guilt he has regarding his past actions.
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Overall, it is a good read but...

India on Apr 02, 2019

Leserin: Ein Glück, wer in seinem Leben die eine Liebe getroffen hat und auch leben durfte.

Murakami beschreibt hier, was manche spät im Leben erkennen müssen: dass sie den, den sie hätten lieben können, wollen oder sogar müssen, zum möglichen Zeitpunkt nicht erkannt haben und / oder ziehen ließen. Irgendwann trifft man auf eine Person, die einen an diesen Menschen erinnert oder - wie hier im Buch - man trifft eben jene Frau wieder, für die man bestimmt war ... (Mehr sei aus Spoilergründen nicht verraten.)

Ich fand es interessant, dass dieses frühe Werk von Murakami schon alle Motive beinhaltet, die er in späteren Büchern exzessiv ausarbeitet (wie etwa in 1Q84): Murakamis Hauptmotiv ist die Suche nach der einen Frau, begleitet von Verlusten anderer Frauen, die seine Protagonisten versuchen aufrichtig zu lieben, ihnen ein guter Partner zu sein, darin aber regelmäßig scheitern. Nicht zuletzt deshalb, weil seine Protagonistinnen stets große Geheimnisse in sich bergen, Trägerinnen von Mysterien sind, deren Entschlüsselung dem Mann nie ganz, oft gar nicht gelingt.

Ich habe das Buch gerne gelesen. Einziges Manko waren die letzten drei Seiten - da überdreht...

Germany on Dec 08, 2018

jim rice: Cold. I feel cold. My mouth is dry, my hands are shaking, and I feel my heart beating in an angry irregular cadence.

It seems as though Hajime was right when he said that, “what’s missing never changes. The scenery may change, but I’m still the same old incomplete person,” and right now I feel the stab of my own incompleteness nearly as acutely as when that “something inside me was [first] severed, and disappeared. Silently. Forever.” For a book overflowing with decelerations of love and some of the most perfectly over-the-top admissions of the power of desire… the need to yearn… the want to need… to seek “the sense of being tossed about by some raging, savage force, in the midst of which lay something absolutely crucial,” or to “want to be bowled over by something special,” it has done a surprisingly good job of crushing a heart that has been continually struggling to keep beating in the face of its own ineffectuality.

This novel drips with foreboding foreshadowing; I am not surprised by the outcome, but Murakami was able to keep me desperately hanging on to a misplaced sense of hope. I wanted this novel to surprise me as much as I hope to...

United States on Jan 31, 2014

D. Gold: I starting reading this book on January 4th and read it in one day. It was a really casual and easy read. I enjoyed the real life obstacles and dreamlike plots but personally did not favor the fatalistic characters especially the narrator with his obsessive narcissistic male perspectives. The empty characters here are not very likable at all. What immersed me though, are the psychological experiences and his autobiographical story.

It starts out with a sexually intense frustrated high school boy who wants more from his first love but when he gets older he lingers of emotions of regret, guilt, self centeredness, self punishment and tormenting inner voices. He doesn't know what he wants or knows who he is. He is an unsatisfied character that yearns to be with his lover again. He hurts people and his inability to learn and form attachments continue. After he marries he meets up with his first love again to only be confused and jaded. He finally gets what he wants but he is still not satisfied with his life in end. The story does leave everything unresolved like many relationships that end do. The ending of this book left me wanting to know more.

I learned more lessons...

United States on Jan 05, 2011