South of the Border, West of the Sun vs. East of Eden

South of the Border, West of the Sun

www.amazon.com/South-Border...

Hajime has arrived at middle age with a loving family and an enviable career, yet he feels incomplete. When a childhood friend, now a beautiful woman, shows up with a secret from which she is unable to escape, the fault lines of doubt in Hajime’s quotidian existence begin to give way. Rich, mysterious, and quietly dazzling, in South of the Border, West of the Sun the simple arc of one man’s life becomes the exquisite literary terrain of Murakami’s remarkable genius.

East of Eden

www.amazon.com/East-Penguin...

In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden “the first book,” and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.

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South of the Border, West of the Sun
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East of Eden
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Pros

  • Thoughtful exploration of memory and desire
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  • Engaging, well-developed characters
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Cons

  • Slow-paced narrative
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  • Ambiguous ending
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  • Limited action, heavy on introspection
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Pros

Cons

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