South of the Border, West of the Sun.

South of the Border, West of the Sun was another novel from the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, this time translated by Philip Gabriel.

Unfortunately, it lacked both the quality and quantity of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

In terms of length, it wa only 187 pages long. That was less than half the length of Dave's Thesis, with smaller pages and bigger font.

In terms of storyline, it lacked any kind of magical quality found in Murakami's other book. Although a few slightly strange pages towards the end, which did nothing to add to the book though subtly suggest things may not be quite as they seem, it was generally a predictable tale from start to finish.

It follows the life of Hajime, who seems destined to fudge up his love life. He falls in love with a girl at the age of 12, although not in a physical way, but moves away after elementary school and despite thinking about her constantly fails to keep in touch.

He cheats on his first real girlfriend, with her cousin, to whom the girl is very very close. The girl never gets over it and her entire life is ruined. He feels deeply sorry, but apparently just couldn't help himself.

After bouncing around from girl to girl for a few years, he finally settles in with a wife, has two little girls and a great business. All is well. Until the love of his life from when he was 12 pops back onto the sceen. Needless to say, he's learnt nothing, and goes about ruining another fine relationship.

And that's pretty much the entire book from start to finish.

Throughout, Hajime trys to come across not so much as the "good guy," but certainly as blameless as possible. It's never really his fault. He just can't help it.

And it's true. None of us can truly control how we feel towards any other person. But we can all control what we do. Falling for someone new might happen to the best of us, no matter what our intentions. But the decent thing to do is to talk first with your current partner. Let them know exactly where they stand. Choose either or. In a relationship all anyone can do is treat their partner with respect and honesty. If the love dies down, no one might be to blame.

Hajime's actions are therefore packed full of blame and the book basically just feels depressing, with the main character being an unlikable tw*t, leaving pain and misery wherever he goes.

"I'm not blaming you for falling in love with another woman. I'm not angry, either. I should be, but I'm not. I just feel pain. A lot of pain. I thought I could imagine how much this would hurt, but I was wrong."

You can probably give this one a miss, unless u really like this kind of thing.