The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.38 (567 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0679775439 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 607 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-05-31 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Japan's most highly regarded novelist now vaults into the first ranks of international fiction writers with this heroically imaginative novel, which is at once a detective story, an account of a disintegrating marriage, and an excavation of the buried secrets of World War II. In a Tokyo suburb a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife's missing cat. Soon he finds himself looking for his wife as well in a netherworld that lies beneath the placid surface of Tokyo. As these searches intersect, Okada encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists: a psychic prostitute; a malevolent yet mediagenic politician; a cheerfully morbid sixteen-year-old-girl; and an aging war veteran who has been permanently changed by the hideous things he witnessed during Japan's forgotten campaign in Manchuria.Gripping, prophetic, suffused with comedy and menace, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a tour de force equal in scope to the masterpieces of Mishima and Pynchon.
Kindle Customer said Like A Dream. Reviewers seem to love this book or hate it. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. This beautifully written, difficult to understand book reminds me of the best of David Mitchell. Things happen to the lead character as he makes his way from one contact to the next, initially accepting everything and denying nothing, eventually accepting nothing and denying everything as he seeks the return of his lost wife. Some events are explained, many. "Interesting" according to Max. Haruki Murakami is a very slow writer. I have read this book and a demo of another written by him. The development of this story takes quite a while. In the beginning I was intrigued but eventually I became exhausted with the slow development of the story. The story is a strange one and it is very thought provoking though. The theme is fairly clear but it takes a while to piece it together. I have read the English translation of this. Murakami writes in a way that branches out like thought. Murakami trusts the reader to put thought Jasmine Murakami writes in a way that branches out like thought. Murakami trusts the reader to put thought into the book, to organize the events that take place, and think about the meaning behind them. Unlike many of his novels, this one ties up most of the plot at the end. There is a definite end to the book, though there is not a definite end to the story. If you're reading through it, I suggest thinking about the book on breaks to delve
Meaning always seems to be just out of reach, for the reader as well as for the characters, yet one is drawn inexorably into a mystery that may have no solution. If Toru is supposed to be a Japanese Everyman, steeped as he is in Western popular culture and ignorant of the secret history of his own nation, this novel paints a bleak picture. Like the winding up of the titular bird, Murakami slowly twists the gossamer threads of his story into something of considerable weight. Bad things come in threes for Toru Okada. He loses his job, his cat disappears, and then his wife fails to return from work. The tropes of popular culture, movies, music, detective stories, combine to create a work that e