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Killing Commendatore

A novel

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Killing Commendatore

Written by: Haruki Murakami
Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
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About this listen

 The epic new novel from the internationally acclaimed and best-selling author of 1Q84

In Killing Commendatore, a thirty-something portrait painter in Tokyo is abandoned by his wife and finds himself holed up in the mountain home of a famous artist, Tomohiko Amada. When he discovers a previously unseen painting in the attic, he unintentionally opens a circle of mysterious circumstances. To close it, he must complete a journey that involves a mysterious ringing bell, a two-foot-high physical manifestation of an Idea, a dapper businessman who lives across the valley, a precocious thirteen-year-old girl, a Nazi assassination attempt during World War II in Vienna, a pit in the woods behind the artist’s home, and an underworld haunted by Double Metaphors. A tour de force of love and loneliness, war and art—as well as a loving homage to The Great Gatsby—Killing Commendatore is a stunning work of imagination from one of our greatest writers. Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction
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Beautiful writing. Wonderful story that keeps you captivated. Perfect narration. I’m sad that the journey is over and will definitely listen to this book again.

Outstanding

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Amazing book to listen to.
Loved the narrator performance and voice. Kirby is really a talented narrator.

Good book, even better narrator!

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My first audio for Haruki, read most of his stuff. I loved it! Kept me interested all the time. And those girly voices Kirby unfounded talent! LOL

Another great attention keeper

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Menshiki was the unanswered question for me in this one. The man in the White Subaru Forester somewhat less so. The protagonist, his wife, his friend, his boss, Mariye, her aunt and Tomohiko Amada were all either familiar characters from prior books or reasonably understandable. Loved the back story on Tomohiko and the whole schtick about the actual painting and the magical realism unleashed in true Murakami style. A little disappointed by the ending which seemed to fizzle out a little, especially as the author had telegraphed part of it at the beginning (why did he put his own spoilers in?).
The narrator for me was not the best, certainly not as good as the team in 1Q84. He was not good on female characters, not very good on clearly defining the lead characters e.g. protagonist has an American accent, Menshiki speaks like a Japanese person using English as second language but other than that they didn't feel inhabited and it just felt like a reading out loud. The thing, above all, that really drove me nuts though, was his pronunciation of the word shone (as in rhymes with gone) as "shown".

Charted territory

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Fans of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and A Wild Sheep Chase will easily find themselves at home with Killing Commendatore, a head-tripping tale that's a lot more subtle and subdued than some of his other work that relies on magical realism.

The relationship between the Narrator and Menshiki is really, for me, the core of this story, with the third figure - Tomohiko Amada - lurking in the background. There's a wonderful circularity in the story too, with the plot arcs generally being resolved in a satisfying way. I realize I'm being vague and general, but it's hard for me to say anything more without delving into spoilers. Again, if you've loved any of Murakami's other work, especially the two other novels of his that I've mentioned earlier -- this is something you can't miss.

Some words on Heyborne's reading: at first I found it a little jarring to hear his voice narrating the story - but I ended up really liking the way he performs the narrator, The Commendatore, and Menshiki, especially in the middle part of the book where you see them doing the most of their interactions in the story. Towards the end though, his performative reading delved into melodrama to the point where it almost sounded over the top. Still, despite that, Heyborne does a good job with the material, especially in the first half of the book where we get to know the rut that the narrator's been living in.

Another head-tripper in the Murakami tradition...

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