My 3rd time read and still counting! The way Murakami depicts the entire society of Japan late 1960s through his characters is amazing: quiet and solitary Watanabe, depressed and traumatized Naoko, hurt but accepted Reiko, free-living spirit Midori (oh how much I love her), ambitious and arrogant Nagasawa, strange cleanliness and habit of Stormtrooper, etc. The novel seems so depressing at first since death and struggles exist everywhere. But in that moment life, love and hope appear from the dark.
"Hey, there, Kizuki, I thought. Unlike you, I've chosen to live - and to live the best I know how... I'm going to mature. I'm going to be an adult. Because that's what I have to do. I always used to think I'd like to stay 17 or 18 if I could. But not anymore. I'm not a teenager anymore... I'm 20 now. And I have to pay the price to go on living."
"A million things we have to talk about. All I want in this world is you. I want to see you and talk. I want the two of us to begin everything from the beginning."