Dance Dance Dance

The story begins with the main character awakening from a persistent dream. A dream that he blurs with reality. In it he is being drawn to a hotel where he once stayed with a nameless hooker. She is crying out from him, and he is desperate to help, but is not sure if he is ready for the journey.

"All indications are that I belong to this dream continually."

"She is definitely calling for me. From somewhere in the Dolphin Hotel. And apparently somewhere in my own mind, the Dolphin Hotel is what I seek as well. To be taken into that scene to become part of that weirdly fateful venue."

The protagonist knows that he must go back to the Hotel, but he fears that when he does the simple life he has created for himself will vanish. He decides to go (somewhat against his will) because he feels it is the only way to escape the feeling of emptiness that enveloped him, and to reconnect with his past.

When Murakami writes about the main characters actions in getting to the hotel, his work, and basically all the matters that obtain to his 'real life,' his writing style is one of simplicity. He writes very matter of fact, short sentences that makes you feel the systematics of one's daily routine.

However, when he changes to the protagonist Internal Point of View Murakami gets quite flirty with his writing. It's unique and beautiful. This tends to make me get caught up in the characters hyperactive imagination; more then what is suppose to be the reality that he lives in. This writing style carries the story and adds to it's genius.

When the main character arrives at the revamped hotel the mystery begins. He starts a relationship with a receptionist, and she tells him of a strange encounter that happened to her at the hotel.

"But this wasn't a dream. You know dreams sort of fade after awhile? Not this thing. No way. It's always stayed the same. It's real, right there before my eyes."

"Where the hell was I? I wasn't here at the Dolphin Hotel, that's for sure. I had crossed a line and entered this world in Limbo."

I am constantly immersed in the characters inner perspective, which becomes my perspective since the novel is written in first person. I get get lost and forget what is reality and what is the characters imagination. That's why I love Murakami. The line between this world and the next is almost unseen.