Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami's latest effort has split U.S. critics upon its release this month in English translation, with some praising the novel's breadth and surrealism while others write it off as an unfocused "disappointment.""Killing Commendatore" ("Kishidancho Goroshi" in Japanese) tells the story of an unnamed 36-year-old portrait painter who separates from his wife and ends up in isolation after a road trip through northern and northeastern Japan.During a span of months in the mountains of Kanagawa Prefecture south of Tokyo, where he stays in a house previously occupied by a…READ FULL ARTICLE
