Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Murakami (IQ84, 2011, etc.) turns in a trademark story that blends the commonplace with the nightmarish in a Japan full of hollow men.Poor achromatic Tsukuru. For some inexplicable reason, his four best friends, two males, two females, have cut him off without a word. Perhaps, he reckons between thoughts of suicide, its because they can pair off more easily without a fifth wheel; perhaps its because his name means builder, while all theirs have to do with colors: red pine, blue sea, white root, black field. Alas for Tsukuru, he lacked a striking personality, or any qualities that made him stand outthough, for all that, hes different. Fast-forward two decades, and Tsukuru, true to both his name and his one great passion in life, designs train stations. Hes still wounded by the banishment, still mystified at his friends behavior. Helpfully, his girlfriend suggests that he make contact with the foursome to find out what hed done and why hed deserved their silence. Naturally, this being a Murakami story, the possibilities are hallucinogenic, Kafkaesque, and otherwise unsettling and ominous: Gray is a mixture of white and black. Change its shade, and it can easily melt into various gradations of darkness. That old saying about not asking questions if you dont want to know the answerswell, theres the rub, and theres Tsukurus problem. He finds that his friends' lives arent so golden (the most promising of them now hawks Lexuses and knowingly owns up to it: I bet I sound like a car salesman?); his life by comparison isn't so bad. Or is it? Its left to the reader to judge. Murakami writes with the same murky sense of time that characterized1Q84, but this book, short and haunting, is really of a piece with older work such asNorwegian Woodand, yes,Kafka on the Shore. The reader will enjoy watching Murakami play with color symbolism down to the very last line of the story, even as Tsukuru sinks deeper into a dangerous enigma.Another tour de force from Japans greatest living novelist. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.