It was a big disappointment for me as a first time reader of his work. I think he had an idea in the beginning but when it came down to the ending it felt like he had no idea what to do. It seems like one of Murakami's work that is hated by his fans. The things i didn't like: 1) The cliche female character that has relatively bad lines; 2) Homophobic ideals and tone (it was published in 2019)- there was a female character who can "feel/sense" if someone is gay or not + a professor turned out to be gay and our main guy feels disgusted knowing that professor potentially loved/liked him; 3) Mediocre writing-not in bad or good way; 4) Pink floyd was mentioned far too many times than it was necessary; 5) A little Lolita moment that i think was unnecessary.
The objective at the end of the book for finding the formula of soul and connecting with your previous namesake just ended up subtly hinting for buddhist spiritual meditation. I may sound harsh but he tried too hard to sound philosophical on simple things at times. There was no solid development on the search it was just whole surface level adventure and leave all the questions written and unanswered. I think i was not satisfied with the plot and the ending, he left many possibilities that could have been interesting.