Common tropes in Murakami - Alana

 Hi guys!!! While writing my paper about music in Murakami's writing I've gotten to thinking about other common tropes in Murakami's writing. Over the years I've come to expect to read about wells, cats, spaghetti, and emotionally distant young men when I pick up one of his books. Yet, I've heard from friends who've read Murakami that they don't particularly enjoy how much of his writing seems based on tropes. They feel that it becomes redundant or uninteresting when these strange elements are constantly repeated. I have a very different opinion on the matter. Personally, I love seeing these tropes pop up again and again. I think there is a sense of his work being one whole thing because of the recurrence of similar tropes. The same goes for similar storylines. There are countless mentions of a french student girlfriend who commits suicide throughout Murakami's writing, though the story is typically rearranged and retold in a number of different fashions. There is something epic about reading a novel and knowing it is part of something bigger, that there is a monolith of built behind every mention of wells or French students. I will say that there are some downsides to this, a reader shouldn't have to read everything an author has wrote in order to get the meaning of their work, that's for sure. But, personally I think without knowing the whole of it there is still so much meaning to be found in Murakami's works even as they stand alone. So basically I want to ask you guys, do you find the recurring tropes and plot lines tiresome? Do you think they get boring the more that they're used? Do you think they create a sort of barrier to entry of understanding Murakami's works? Or do you think they are a positive aspect of his writing? Do they enhance your reading experience? -Alana