Murakami is one of my favorite authors...this book does not deliver. The book felt rushed and unfinished.

Although I'm the biggest fun of Mr. Murakami, used to look forward to his every new release, I have to say this book is not what I love Mr. Murakami for. Indeed, for the last couple years with each new book something seems to get lost. Where is the author of the early novels? For me it seems like too much success, too much demand does not work for him. He just can't--and should not--spew out a book per year, write under this sort of pressure, after all he is not Stephen King or a Disney studio writer...
I miss the magic of his early work. I can't help but feel that each of his new book has been written under pressure which really kills the precariously delicate balance of his earlier works.