1. “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his years of Pilgrimage” by Haruki Murakami

“The colorless” was written by the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, who was proposed for the Literature Nobel Prize in the past. This is not his first book that I have ever read.

a) Summary of the story:

A 19 year old Japanese man, student of civil engineering in Tokyo, is totally depressed after his four best friends decide mysteriously to keep him away from their lives from now on. Finally he manages to survive from the extremely deep depression but the wound in his soul never leaves. When he becomes 36, his current girlfriend, Sarah, makes him try to find out that important truth of his past, so as he to be free to continue his life without the heavy weigh in his soul that was caused by the abandonment.

a) Its advantages according my opinion:

Its plot is interesting. It makes the reader want to find out the truths that will be revealed as he goes on reading. Generally it is a story that bases its interest on the plot and not in detailed, lyric descriptions.

b) Its disadvantage: It leaves a question in its end about the important concern of the hero regarding if he is finally going to find happiness next to Sarah or if she has already chosen another man, while he was trying to find answers about why the best friends he had ever had in his life abandoned him in the past.

c) A meaning hidden in the story:

Sometimes someone feels abandoned, betrayed and extremely hurt by people who left from his life. He/she makes wrong, sad conclusions about his insufficiency and worth as a person or friend and about the other people’s behavior. However, the truth may be totally different. The people who have left may have faced a worse life drama than his and his case may have been much more advantageous than theirs.