It took me a good third of the book to get into his writing style. I guess it probably didn't help that the 2 books I had read before this one were young Adult, so I was geared for something that I could just blast through.
This book takes a liiiiitle bit more work than that!
For the protagonist, bad times come in threes. Every single main character has weird quirks and tics, that really drive home the unusual feel of the book. There is a psychic pair of sisters enlisted by the lead to find his and his wife's cat, but that devolves into many unusual side stories. An almost spirit-like teenage neighbor... that honestly, I was sure for a good 75% of the book was in fact a ghost. So many of the situations seem completely unbelievable, especially for a bit of an anti-hero like Toru Okada.
Having said all of that....
This was still a good read. It was more of a challenge than I expected, with historical accounts of Japanese occupied China in WWII popping up regularly through some older characters.
I did have an interesting mental comparison. Much like the Title-names protagonist in Dr. Zhivago, Toru Okada seems to almost be a spectator in his own life. He knows that mostly he is really just going through the motions in his life. His wife is great, but the marriage is damaged; he has no real friends outside of the unusual relationships that he seems to attract to himself, and they only get more strange. Although, as the characters worm their way into your mind and get mentally classified (yup.. another kook,) you begin to see their sympathetic draw to Toru; he is literally the only normal character in the book!
If you are interested in reading it, bring your A-game and some patience. It took me a good while to get into the writing style.
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Next - Book #6 - Inkheart - by Cornelia Funke
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