By Rachell Carbajal
Recently, I’ve gained love for reading books. When I was younger I enjoyed books and reading very much. That love faded away, but currently I’ve been back on the train to reading. So far, the books I’ve read are great, but no book really flipped a switch in my mind until I picked this book called Colorless by Haruki Murakami at my local library. This book sat on my shelf for a good two weeks, until the due date was coming up, so I decided to give it a try. Nonetheless, I was not disappointed by the way this amazing book was written, the only disappointment that came across was the translation of this book, this book is originally written in Japanese but was translated in English, for more viewers. The English translation was phenomenal, but I can’t imagine how much more beautiful it would be if I read it in its native language. (unfortunately, I can’t read Japanese) Still, I was at a loss, and still am when it comes to explaining how much I could relate to the main character and how it changed my perspective on our own relationships either it being friendships, romantic relationships, and family relationships. The main gist of this wonderful book, the main character Tsukuru Tazaki is faced with a great loss of one of his beloved friends even more tragically, no one knew the cause of death. This great loss caused Tsukuru to have nightmares as to why and how his friend died. The death of Tskuru’s friend led Tskuru to spiral into depression, fortunately Tskuru is able to get back up, and go on a journey as to what really led to the death of his friend. Although that is the main gist of this book, there is much more to it, like; the idea of depression, it’s okay to not know what you want to do later in life, sucidice, and other very heavy topics. The way Haruki included such heavy topics, it really made me see and reflect on relationships differently, especially friendships, that sometimes friendships could really hurt over anything else, that they are important as romantic relationships and family relationships. From the main character’s own name to his long journey, this book has got to be one of my top picks from what I’ve read in my lifetime, and one of my favorite picks from Haruki Murakami’s works as well. If you ever get the chance to read this book, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and won’t be able to put it down until the very last page.