Haruki Murakami's The City and its Uncertain Walls

 The City and its Uncertain Walls 

By Haruki Murakami 

Published Year: 2024 (English Translation)

Page Count: 672 pages 

Medium Used: Kindle Scribe 

Genre : Magical Realism, Alternate Worlds, Young Adult, 2025-read. 

Rating : 4/5

This book has 70 chapters and until I reached 67, I was fully inclined to give it a 5 star rating. To say that Mr.Murakami botched the ending would be an understatement. He left many loose ends untied and unanswered. Some aspects of the novel left me totally combobulated and asking myself, what the hell is this logic? Where is this driving the narrative? I am fully sure that the author didn't come up with the plot framed fully in his mind before he started writing but went on building it up as his work progressed. Unlike his other books where I gave a similar low rating, it is not because of some cringy sex scenes or overwhelming smut that I am removing points here. I must be either stupid to look for logic in a magical realism story or it is definitely missing some satisfying element to my questioning mind. 

A young boy of seventeen falls deeply in love with a sixteen year old girl. Together, they build this fictitious city with moving walls and dream reading. The boy falls so deep in love with her that after she goes away from his life, his social life dwindles to nothing. He is left yearning for her company way into his forties and every relationship he ever had was overshadowed by this deep yearning for her. Naturally, he only had fleeting and short term relationships with women. So one day, he is actually transported into this magical city which is guarded by a powerful and strong gatekeeper. The gatekeeper doesn't allow anyone to enter without separating their shadow from them and no one ever can go out. Time has come to a halt or more like one day doesn't differ from the next here. The man and his shadow differ in their desire to stay cooped up in the place. The shadow finds a way to escape back into the real world, leaving behind the man to his own passions. The man in the city meets the girl (still sixteen) everyday and they have a sort of platonic, distant bond - which surprised me. From the start, they didn't have much of a sexual tension to be honest. So the shadow makes out to the real world and quits his job, moves to a small town and becomes a librarian. He meets a younger woman who is averse to sexual relationship but wants something meaningful. What then happens to the real person, the man in the city? Do the shadow and man ever get back together? 

What left me confused is how the shadow-man had his shadow when he escaped back into real world. The loose ends are what is left unsaid about the woman and the man at the end. Will they come together or what? Has his life long yearning for the girl ended now that he made his choice? And what is the nonsense about climbing coconut trees above their height and hanging in space because the time is not moving. Totally befuddled by this lack of logic here. 

I liked the parts the characters played and the narrative is gripping. I liked Mr.Koyasu and was unhappy that his role ended. 

Do check out for sure. But be wary that the author took some logical liberties with the plot. It is very good till the last 3-4 chapters which feel dragging and bordering on boredom. Somehow I trudged through them. :) But this is still Murakami and obviously, his magic is there.