I read like 5-6 Murakami books when I was in college, and I mentioned him to a professor once asking if they read him. They casually responded with:

“kind of a one trick pony, isn’t he?”

And I couldn’t un-hear those words the next time I read one of his books… and that kind of finished him for me.

Japan has a huge and rich literary tradition. Murakami isn’t even one of the best Japanese writers of his generation, much less of modern Japan in general.