Book: South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

It's Valentine's Day. Fitting I would finish this book just in time for the infamous holiday. South of the Border is at its heart a love story. It's one of Murakami's more modest offerings but it still carries the emotional weight he's known for and after having read a few books that were heavy on satire and light on emotion, this was refreshing.

The novel follows Hajime, the main character, from his childhood through to adulthood highlighting relationships with various girls. His first experience was with Shimamoto, who he perceived as perfect and it was funny how Murakami described their compatibility. He noted things like how she walked and that they loved the same music. It's funny because the answer I usually give when asked to describe a perfect mate involves the walk and musical taste. Anyway, he's separated from this girl and left with an enormous void which he spends the rest of his life trying to fill. The following relationships were simply a response to feeling lonely, and the want to explore the physical aspects of dating. He never finds anything similar to the love he felt for Shimamoto with anyone else, and even winds up marrying a girl he views as a good friend to have kids and find success in his life.

The conflict is presented when Shimamoto reenters his life by coming into one of the bars Hajime now owns. Even though forty years have passed since he last saw her, the primal attraction he felt when he was younger is even stronger now and it turns his life upside down. Shimamoto is however caught up in something Hajime can never know about and she leaves without warning several times just to come back months or years later.

Shimamoto's mysteriousness introduces elements of the surreal which should be expected when reading Murakami. She never gives a single detail about her life, or if she's in any trouble. All the reader is told is that people are watching her, protecting her, and that she suffers from some affliction that causes her to go into a sort of arrest unless she takes a certain medication. This lack of detail forces the reader to make his own conclusions about what's going on; to interpret little fragments as parts of a puzzle with many pieces missing. Eventually all this ambiguity leads to the climax of the story when Hajime must make the decision to either be with Shimamoto and accept that he'd be throwing his entire life away or never see her again. At first we're led to believe Shimamoto is asking him to leave his wife and family, but this ultimatum may mean Hajime has to sacrifice much more than that.

One of Murakami's shorter, simpler novels, but if you like deep emotional characters grappling with other-worldly conflicts, this is essential reading.

5/5