"Killing Commendatore" by Haruki Murakami Audiobook Part 4
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"Killing Commendatore" by Haruki Murakami Audiobook Part 4
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Summary
Published in 2017, Killing Commendatore is a sweeping, surrealist novel that explores art, trauma, history, and the subconscious. Written in Murakami’s signature magical realism style, it echoes themes from his earlier masterpiece, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
Plot Synopsis : The Disappearance and the Retreat The story is narrated by an unnamed 36-year-old portrait painter. His life is upended when his wife suddenly asks for a divorce. Devastated, he goes on a solo road trip before settling down in an isolated mountain house owned by Tomohiko Amada, a famous and aging traditional Japanese master painter who is now in a care facility.The Discovery in the Attic While living in the quiet house, the narrator discovers a hidden, masterfully executed painting in the attic wrapped in brown paper. Titled Killing Commendatore, it depicts a bloody scene from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni, but rendered in the ancient Asuka-period style. He soon realizes that this artwork holds a deep, dark secret tied to Tomohiko Amada's traumatic past in Vienna during the rise of Nazism in the 1930s.The Mysterious Neighbor and the Pit The protagonist's quiet life is disrupted by Wataru Mensa, a wealthy, enigmatic neighbor living in a high-tech mansion across the valley. Mensa offers the narrator an enormous sum of money to paint his portrait.Shortly after, a strange, persistent ringing sound in the middle of the night leads the narrator and Mensa to discover an ancient, stone-walled pit hidden in the woods behind the house. After they unearth and open the pit, reality begins to bend.The Idea Manifests The act of opening the pit unleashes a physical manifestation of an "Idea"—a two-foot-tall figure that looks exactly like the Commendatore from the attic painting. Visible only to the narrator (and later, a young girl named Mariye), this entity speaks in archaic Japanese and acts as a surreal guide.The Climax and the Underworld Mensa reveals his true motive: he believes Mariye Akikawa, a 13-year-old girl taking art lessons from the narrator, might be his biological daughter. When Mariye suddenly goes missing, the narrator must undertake a metaphysical journey to find her.Guided by the physical "Idea" of the Commendatore, the narrator undergoes a ritualistic task: he must literally "kill" the Commendatore to open a gateway to a dark, metaphorical underworld. He navigates a surreal labyrinth of concepts, faces historical trauma, and crosses a subterranean river to return to the real world, successfully ensuring Mariye’s safe return.Key Themes
- Art and Creation: The novel deeply explores how true art requires a piece of the artist's soul and how it can act as a bridge to the subconscious.
- Historical Guilt and Trauma: Murakami addresses real-world historical horrors, specifically the 1938 Anschluss in Austria and the Nanjing Massacre, examining how collective historical trauma echoes through generations.
- Loss and Rebirth: The protagonist’s journey through the literal and metaphorical darkness allows him to process the grief of his failing marriage and the childhood death of his sister, ultimately leading to personal renewal.
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