"Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" by Haruki Murakami

A sign of an average writer is one that writes too much. If you're going to be verbose, at least make me want to dive into beautiful language and imagery. Make me marvel at the language. Make me laugh out loud at the cleverness of some point of metaphor or scream out loud at it's beauty and originality. Show me something I haven't seen before.

Murakami writes too much and he doesn't seem to do it particularly well. His style is filled with platitudes. He uses far too many cliches. You might argue that he's using jargon to develop his characters vernacular, but really it just jars. So far his "clever" similies have been at best, strange. They've afforded me no breath-taking insight into his story. They've made me stop and think, but then I've shaken my head and thought "Oh boy, that was a bit of let-down". His writing has culturally didactic elements. That's kind of interesting. There are humorous moments in the novel too, but unfortunately much of the playfulness seems forced and staged. There is a pseudo-science veneer to "Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" which annoys me. Most of it isn't even plausible. Perhaps it's not meant to be. But if that's the case at least make it novel and interesting. There is too much techno-babble.

I read a review where Murakami said he often sat down with very little plan and no solid idea of the shape a story would take before he started writing it. It shows. That writing approach might sound refreshing and "creative", but if the end result is self-indulgent and aimless it loses any aesthetic appeal.

I wondered at the quality of the paper this book was printed on when I bought it. I was mildly annoyed that it appeared to be printed on recycled toilet paper. That's turning out to be quite a poignant omen.