Since i have been busy a lot lately and i've been itching to make a new entry, i finally found my free time for me to make a book review. Sounds, exciting right? But, here's the thing. I have dedicated myself in reading this particular book that was written by Haruki Murakami for about 2-3 days or so, and now i am going to share my thoughts and opinions about the book: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.

You might ask, why that title?

You see, the title itself, it has a huge message in it. Symbolically, the title Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki has been mentioned at the beginning of the story. And His Years of Pilgrimage was mentioned during the middle parts of the book.

Short summary?
It was during his sophomore year in college, Tsukuru, a 20 year-old man when he thought of dying. You might ask why would he think of death? Does he have a lingering illness whatsoever? Is he depressed?
Well, he is depressed. Because he was abandoned by his 4 friends. Those of whom, have been his bestfriends, the most important people in the world for him. But for such unknown reasons, he was cut off all of a sudden when the time he came home in his hometown in Nagoya from his school in Tokyo. I'd like to stress here that his 4 friends, their names represented a color in the Japanese language. Aka, represents red. Ao, means blue. Shiro, defines the color white, and Kuro means black. And then there came Tsukuru. Amongst the 5 of them Tsukuru is the only one without a color representing in his name. So that's the answer to one question that, why is the title Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki. That's the answer. Although, to answer your other question, what's the meaning of Tsukuru then? If his 4 friends' name meant that it represents a color, What's Tsukuru? In japanese, Tsukuru means to "build" or to "make". A perfect name for his abilities, Tsukuru loves making railroad stations in Japan. That's why he studied engineering in Tokyo because he wanted to build railroad stations.

He was depressed, and in the first 5 months of his day-day living, all he did was to sit down and face the wall and think of death. He did his daily routines, yes. But he felt numb. All he wanted to do was to find a door that leads to death. But one night, as he was also bothered by his series of dreams, he dreamt of a powerful feeling, a negative feeling. He felt jealousy. And that drove him to completely change his physical well-being. After 5 months, he went to the gym, started working out, and he totally underwent that physical change. And from that moment, he moved on with his life. 16 years has passed since his tragic suffering, he now works at a railroad company in Tokyo, he lived quietly, peacefully since then. But hold on, i am not going to continue telling the story. I want you to find it out yourself. It's a very beautiful story, honestly. While there still remains an unanswered question, i'll answer that. Why His Years of Pilgrimage then? Well that. He's a 36-year old man now, and during the time he was in his apartment, he heard this piano piece titled "Years of Pilgrimage" (i forgot the french title of it but, that's the english translation) and he suddenly remembered that that song was played by one of his friends in Highschool, Shiro to be specific. And he loved that piece, for it gave him peace and content. You'll have to read the book for you to dig down deeper on how the story went.

In conclusion, the book itself, it made me cry at the ending of the story. It was so beautiful yet there came the short cliff-hanger moment. But generally speaking, that book became my favorite novel. The flow of the story, the deepness of it. All so well written. So, even at this point, i am highly recommending this to all book readers and to those who are interested as well. You'll love the story i promise.
And that sums up my book review for Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. I'm sorry i was not able to fully jot down the whole story. I want everyone to feel the story to themselves.
Read it. You won't regret it.
- Elaine