Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
No man is an island, 25 Sep 2000
By A Customer
This book haunted me from page 1, and is still haunting me now that I've read it. I started reading this book when I was jet-lagged after returning from a trip in Japan; and reading it did not help at all. I was completely gripped. I ended up reading chunks of it in the middle of the night, and living in a state of detached sleepwalking during the day. Thank God I've finished it and managed to have some real sleep.Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is about an "I" who is quite similar to the other "I"'s of Murakami's novels: the narrator, Okada, describes himself as completely normal, feels that he is somewhat a failure in life, feels detached and alienated, is well cultured especially in literature and music, knows the names of the Karamazov brothers and uses swimming and ironing as an anti-stress therapy. Not feeling very happy with his life, he quits his job for a break and to think about his next move. At around the same time his cat disappears, he meets a bored neighbour in her mid-teens, and his wife starts arriving later and later everyday from work. Okada's life becomes mundane: looking for his cat, listening to music, reading history books, shopping, cooking and eating at odd hours, chatting with his neighbour, waiting for his wife, a phonecall, or a letter, etc. Strange characters start to make their appearance in his life, telling him their life stories and slowly dragging him into a world of mysticism and occult. Mysterious events begin to take more time from his everyday mundane life giving this novel a very dark and surreal atmosphere. This novel is very well written (thanks to both the author and the translator). It is clever, funny and also melancholic. It is full of witty remarks. It is quite a big book, made up of 70-80 `bite size' chapters that are very easy to read, and also addictive -- "I just want to read one more little chapter, just one and then I'll stop reading and go to bed, I know I can stop whenever I want to, I just need to know what happens next otherwise I would never be able to sleep, it's only 5 o'clock in the morning, that gives me 3 full hours of sleep before waking up to go to work..." Well, it seems that I can go on talking about this book for ever. This is a story of alienation and detachment, of the feeling that others have control over your life, that your options are very limited and that happiness is unattainable. Not all puzzles can be solved, and not everyone can be understood. Highly recommended.
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33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
Insanely entertaining and thought provoking., 10 Jan 2003
I grabbed this book off a shelf, never having heard of Murakami before, a few years ago before taking a plane to Greece with some friends. We were celebrating finishing our exams, staying at a tacky resort and basically drinking and sunbathing, but after a couple of days I found myself ducking out of bar crawls to head back to my room to read The Wind Up Bird Chronicle!The Wind Up Bird Chronicle is a bloody difficult book to explain. There are so many different, and seemingly bizarrely unrelated, strands to the story. The only real constant is Toru, the main character, and as with many other works by Murakami he is a somewhat passive presence, trying to get his head round the flurry of unusual events, emotions and observations on life. His life is turned completely upside down, but rather than over-focusing on the strange goings on, we also have beautifully written pieces about such banal events as making pasta. On one level the Wind Up Bird Chronicle is almost fantastical in nature, so bizarre are the events, but Toru acts as a grounding force. His doubts, worries, and an imagination that all too often causes him pain, are very normal aspects of any person. It is his very mundanity and passive nature that allows the events to occur - many of the characters he meets simply because he doesn't have anything else that he could rather be doing, and therefore expands his mind and perspective. Toru as a character provokes sympathy, but it is the events around him that provoke our interest. As a character he is purer, for want of a better word, than the central character of other Murakami books. In some ways he is simply a convenient centre on which to secure the rest of the story, which at times threatens to scatter out of control. Yet I became so convinced by the view of the story through his eyes that I felt quite close to him as a character, and felt that my own reaction to such events would be similarly bemused, or self doubting. The Wind Up Birds Chronicle IS a confusing book. There were many times when I had to go back two or three pages to reread, largely in a case of 'double-take' - I wasn't sure, or couldn't believe, that something was happening in the way it was described. But considering the various strands, it's an impressive achievement to draw them together as effectively as Murakami does. This book is, in my opinion, a true classic.
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
Thoughtful and self-reflexive, 11 Feb 2006
Having been aware of the hype surrounding Murakami I was cautious when I began reading this novel, considered by some to be his masterpiece. I was expecting a throw-away offering from Japanese pop culture, but was impressed by how intelligent the book is.
True, if you are seeking a coherent story with a well-rounded plot you will probably be disappointed. The narrative revolves around the main character and his search for his lost cat. By way of a number of loosely-connected episodes, involving some intriguing and eccentric characters, and unexplained supernatural occurrences, this search develops into an investigation into the very nature of his own being.
There are, however, strong themes that are ever present in the fates and thoughts of the characters. At one point Murakami hints that there may, in the end, be no explanation for the supernatural events of the story. But that is entirely in keeping with the reflective passages on secrets and trust, reality and illusion, unity, doubleness and disintegration. I especially liked the chapters featuring the WWII veteran Lieutenant Mamiya - this character and his war stories are just brilliant.
This is a highly introspective and personal story that is not afraid to discuss matters that might not be suitable subjects at the dinner table. Murakami is also highly aware of his presence and role as author, and this is possibly where the main interest of the novel lies. The central questions of the novel seem to be, how far can language convey the ineffable? And what exactly constitutes reality and consciousness?
Despite being a deceptively easy read and capable of evoking highly lucid images, this novel is perhaps better suited to the reader with a slightly more serious attitude to literature, who has the time to interpret the story from the scattered hints and moments of realisation.
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