44 pages • 1 hour read
Haruki MurakamiA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The narrative flashes back to Tsukuru’s college years. While swimming at the college pool, Tsukuru befriends a younger man named Haida. Haida is more intellectual than Tsukuru and tends to think more abstractly than Tsukuru; however, both are similarly introverted and “not very sociable” (44). Like Tsukuru, Haida moved to Tokyo to attend college, only his home town is Akita, in the northern part of Japan.
In an aside, we learn that Tsukuru’s father died when Tsukuru was 30 years old. We also learn that there is some ambiguity to Tsukuru’s name, which can mean “create” or “build,” though his father intended the latter meaning.
Unlike Tsukuru, who has older sisters, Haida was an only child. Haida also thoroughly enjoyed classical music; he and Tsukuru often listened to classical music together. One day, they discuss the arrangement and the melancholic effect of Le Mal du Pays, a piano piece by Liszt (the title means “homesickness”). The conversation then turns toward the philosophical. As their friendship grows, Tsukuru feels relief from the pain caused by his old friend group’s rejection.
The chapter ends with Haida asking Tsukuru if he wants to hear a strange story about his father, also named Haida.
Haida tells Tsukuru a strange story about his father. Haida’s father spent much of his young adulthood aimlessly, living a bohemian style life. While working as a handyman at a hot-spring resort in southern Japan, he met a guest in his mid-forties by the name of Midorikawa, which, significantly, means “green river.” One evening, Haida’s father watched Midorikawa play the piano. Midorikawa was a musician of rare skill and ability; when he played the piano, he was entirely engrossed. After Midorikawa finished playing, he asked Haida’s father to have a drink with him in his room. Haida’s father accepted the offer. The two men began chatting, but the discussion became somewhat strange: Midorikawa asked Haida’s father about his belief in logic, and then revealed something highly illogical—his belief that he has only one month to live. Midorikawa was neither sick nor suicidal; he simply knew he would die in a month because a month earlier someone told him that he had two months to live. Midorikawa then told Haida’s father that every person has their own color and that, as a result of accepting certain death, he could now see these colors as auras. Midorikawa referred to this newfound ability as a “death token” (70). Midorikawa then offered to pass on the ability to Haida’s father. Haida’s father was highly skeptical of Midorikawa’s story, but Midorikawa only said that one day Haida would believe him.
The narrative returns to Haida in the room with Tsukuru. It is late and the two turn in for the night.
The narrative shifts back to the present as Tsukuru is once again about to meet Sara for another date. As Tsukuru arrives at the restaurant where he meets Sara, she greets him by giving him a necktie as a gift. As the date proceeds, Sara presses Tsukuru about the friend group that dropped him when he was in college more than 16 years ago. She asks him whether it is finally time for him to get over it. When Tsukuru admits that he still regrets happened, Sara suggests that he confront his former friends and force them to explain why they abandoned him without explanation. Sara then tells Tsukuru that unless he resolves to get to the heart of the matter, she will no longer see him and even threatens to not have sex with him. They discuss the psychological effects of the abandonment. Sara requests that Tsukuru give her the names of the four friends so that she can help him track down their whereabouts. The date finally concludes, and after returning home, and with some reluctance, Tsukuru sends Sara the list of names.
Notably, like every character from Tsukuru’s past, Haida also has a color in his name, which means “gray field” (44). The narrator points out that gray is a quiet color, but nonetheless with more presence than complete colorlessness. Fittingly, Haida is described as being a deeper and more formed version of Tsukuru. Both are introverted and not originally from Tokyo, but there the similarities end. Unlike Tsukuru, who pursues his train station engineering expertise exclusively, Haida possesses far more wide ranging interests. When Tsukuru first meets Haida, Haida sees in Tsukuru’s single-mindedness evidence of The Formation of Self: “this might sound rude, but I think it’s an amazing achievement to find one specific thing that you’re interested in” (43). However, in response, Tsukuru “thought the younger man was poking fun at him” (43). This exchange highlights Tsukuru’s lack of confidence in his approach to living. His focus isn’t a measure of maturity, but instead is indicative of a young man who is struggling with his sense of self, highly aware of his own shortcomings but unable to figure out what to do about them. This is why Tsukuru’s becomes defensive in response to Haida’s compliment.
It is significant that Tsukuru’s name means “build”—because Tsukuru does for a living exactly what his name says, makes it less an abstract piece of nomenclature and more of a job title. The novel wonders what this correspondence of name and purpose means, especially since in Tsukuru’s case the name is crucial to his being a person at all: Before Tsukuru was given his name,
he’d been nothing- dark, nameless chaos and nothing more. A less-than-seven-pound pink lump of flesh barely able to breathe in the darkness, or cry out. First he was given a name. Then consciousness and memory developed, and finally, ego. But everything began with his name (49).
The passage implies that from the moment we are born and given a name, life is a never-ending exercise in figuring out who we are and how we occupy our place in the world. And this is exactly what the novel’s construction as a Bildungsroman (a word that also has “construction” or “formation” as its root) will document: Tsukuru will build more than train stations, as, in many ways, his greatest challenge is to construct meaning and an identity.
Haida’s anecdote of his father and Midorikawa introduces elements of the supernatural into the text. The idea of a death token being passed around from one person to the next sets the reader up for a transition; however, rather than introducing the genre of magical realism, the anecdote only adds a layer of possible symbolic interpretation, once again blurring the lines between Dreams and Reality, imposing surrealism onto the atmosphere of the novel. Murakami’s world often feels surreal, especially for Tsukuru.
By Haruki Murakami
Appearance Versus Reality
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Coming-of-Age Journeys
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Friendship
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Japanese Literature
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Magical Realism
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Memory
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Music
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New York Times Best Sellers
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Sexual Harassment & Violence
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The Best of "Best Book" Lists
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The Past
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