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Dec 16, 2009

Andrew rated it:

This is your brain (an egg). This is your brain on Murakami (an egg sprouting arms and legs and attempting to hump other eggs while doing the Electric Slide and attempting to save the world to a killer soundtrack).

If you like Murakami, you'll like it, although it doesn't blend the two twisted sides of Murakami's writing as well as a book like "Norwegian Wood" or "Kafka on the Shore." In each of those novels, the reader gets transitions within chapters, and his ta More...

3 comments like (37 people liked it)

Jan 21, 2012

Kristin rated it:

This is a complex novel, one that required two reads for me. It tells two stories in alternating chapters. In the first we meet a mild-mannered data processor, only all his "processing" is done inside his head. See... he can do this thing, or he had this thing done to him that allows him to access both hemispheres of his brain simultaneously yet separately. He gets recruited for some top-secret government project led by some mad scientist type, who lives holed up in a cave (under a More...

5 comments like (9 people liked it)

Oct 12, 2011

Chris rated it:

Glass-eyed, marbled prison stare,
Functionless form that with will
Would coldly rend limb from limb.
Toothy gates, e'er sealed against
What would gnash and tear, strongly
Aflow with the crimson blood
Of a savaged savage god.

Dooby, dooby, do.

No exit, the maze.
The jazz, it plays.
Dress yes, no stays.
Eat meat, greens graze.

Tunnel-tied dust interludes abound.

Fat girl wrangled.
Grandpa mangled.
Outside dangled.

3 comments like (17 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2012

Stephen M rated it:

Right Brain

Upon the fields, yet of no snow,
frolic an acquiescence we yet to sow,
brilliant beasts, their golden fleece ready to unfurl,
trod this place, the end of the world.

Upon this fantasy, comes one of two
unnamed narrators who works in lieu
of status, volition; vagueness washes his mind,
all Kafkaesque, he becomes a dream-reading blind.

On a lost elevator in the counterpart plane
all events are concurrent and faintly the More...

6 comments like (12 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Brooke rated it:

I'd previously read two Haruki Murakami novels, A Wild Sheep Chase, and After Dark, his earliest and most recent that have been translated into English, respectively. After hearing about how he was one of Japan's most beloved authors, I was really underwhelmed by those two offerings. Sheep was almost too bizarre to really appreciate, and After Dark was short and enjoyable, but nothing special. After reading Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, however, I suddenly Got It.

Th More...

3 comments like (17 people liked it)

Nov 06, 2009

RandomAnthony rated it:

The Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World gets my vote the most unique and frustrating book in the Murakami catalog. I got the feeling that there’s a little bit of the fan in Murakami in this text; his love of PK Dick, Vonnegut, etc. seems present, and I imagine passages of the book were great fun to write as a tribute, if you will, to his influences. However, the cold, metallic neurophysiology, whether accurate or not (I don’t know much about brain chemistry, so I can’t say one way More...

12 comments like (18 people liked it)

Oct 20, 2011

Jimmy rated it:

I have a long history with Murakami. I first read him about eleven years ago. I read The Elephant Vanishes, and loved it. Then I read a couple more. I don't remember the order: Dance Dance Dance, A Wild Sheep Chase, South of the Border West of the Sun, maybe a couple more. I loved them all. Then I tried Wind-Up Bird Chronicles and I just hit a wall. I had finally overdosed on Murakami. I couldn't get into it no matter how I tried, even though I didn't see anything objectively wrong with More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 07, 2008

Tosh rated it:

For the Murakami fan, a great essay by him in today's Guardian about writing and running. A must read for the writer and runner.

http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/well...

Murakami is a rare type of writer for me. If one describe his novels, I would probably not be interested in them. But the thing is he is such a fantastic writer (as well as the translations) that one can't help but be caught up in the dual-narrative of his novels.

And no More...

23 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 02, 2011

K.D. rated it:

This is an OK Murakami. My 8th and still counting. I will always admire his imagination, creativity and passion in writing. He will always be in my Top 10 Favorite Novelists list. But I am rating this as an OK book. Not my favorite Murakami. The reason? It just did not excite me.

Since I became an voracious reader and that happened partly because of Goodreads, I only religiously watch two shows: news (whichever I catch upon coming back home at night) and American Idol. Reading Hard-bo More...

35 comments like (13 people liked it)

Aug 07, 2009

Lori rated it:

Rating to come.

First impressions on finishing:

I found this book so different than anything else Murakami has written. Oh yeah, it's Murakami all right - the aloneness and isolation of people, the stillness even in the craziness of what's going on. But this one was foreboding, very heavy as in pressure building in my brain while reading. For some reason it was very hard for me to read, not in the actual process of reading which was very flowing and simple, but it made me f More...

4 comments like (7 people liked it)

Apr 19, 2008

Yulia rated it:

It's been two years or more since I read this, but in that time, my regard for it has only grown. It's unfortunate Jay Rubin didn't translate it, as there were several awkward passages that I'd hope he would have done differently than Birnbaum, but not knowing Japanese, I have o way of knowing what Murakami intended or which translation takes more artistic license in his work. But these small lumps aside, it was a great feat to mix or go between a more recognizable world and an alternative rea More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 20, 2010

Jennifer (aka EM) rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

15 comments like (8 people liked it)

Dec 18, 2008

Julia rated it:

Murakami is one of my top 10 authors, and this is my favorite book by him. He's part of the magical realism world, with the emphasis in this book on the "magical". The story alternates chapters that have 3 word titles (the "real" world) with those having 1 word titles (the world of the protagonist's core consciousness). The "man" is never named, but has been part of an experiment in the "real" world where he can "shuffle" data (sort of like Keanu More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 16, 2008

Rob rated it:

This book was just a mind-blowing read through and through. It's like packaged brain damage. In a good way.

--- upon 2nd read: ---
Obviously not as surprising on the second but equally potent. Great extended metaphor for mechanisms of learning and memory. And its craft does not diminish.

--- Murakami meta-commentary: ---
ALSO: Does anyone have any idea what is up with Murakami's apparent fascination with juvenile female supporting-perhaps-even-central plot cha More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 07, 2011

Bucletina rated it:

Incipiente muestra de aquel estilo que Murakami habría de llevar a su máxima expresión en "Crónica del pájaro que da cuerda al mundo" y "Kafka en la orilla". Al leerlo conviene dejarse llevar y expandir el pensamiento para poder disfrutarlo. No da respuestas acabadas, no posee una estructura tradicionalmente lógica ni cierra nada. Quizás por eso mismo es que, quienes nunca hayan leído a este autor, puede que encuentren esta novela un tanto psicodélica y confusa. Para mí es Mu More...

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 13, 2011

Jason rated it:

4 Stars

I am giving this book four stars solely on the merits of Murakami. Their simply is no other author remotely like him. Couple this with the fact that these are translated works, I am blown away at the quality of his writing. The prose in his novels is delectable, lyrical, and at most times a bit magical too. His novelization is bold with structures that match. This is my 4th Murakami novel, I am an enamored fan.

In this book The Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 03, 2009

Artnoose rated it:

This is the first book I've read for my dystopic science fiction book club. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it so much because it's amazing or if it just resonated with me at this moment, like the sound of a dream being tapped out of a unicorn skull.

It took me over half the book to realize that this is really two books in one, each one with a different running header (a term introduced to me by my housemate). I do like books that jump back and forth, whether between stories or in time. The More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Sep 15, 2011

Matt rated it:

In Franz Kafka's often-overshadowed novel The Castle the main character is a land surveyor, who spends the entirety of the story trying to gain entry into a big walled castle to do his job. His efforts are basically to no real end, until he is finally told he is going to be allowed in while he is on his death bed. Haruki Murakami is often compared to Kafka, and I would say that Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is the first of his novels that I have read in which this influence is More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 19, 2009

ari rated it:

Hardboiled Wonderland is my third Murakami novel and fourth book over the course of the last six months, and my admiration for his writing has developed from a puppy love to a mature one. Gone are the expectations of flawlessness and romanticism because I feel like I now know what to expect, but what remains is even more compelling and significant to me.

There are still aspects of Murakami (and/or his translations) that really irk me, much like moving in with a significant other only t More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 03, 2008

Rachel rated it:

It was a very interesting book. Kept you guessing and the sci fi factor was very well done.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 10, 2009

Marvin rated it:

Another amazing novel by Haruki Murakami. The book is actually two stories told in alternating chapters: "Hardboiled Wonderland" is a Chandleresque science fiction detective tale about a sort of cyber-empath that is caught between two factors, The System and The Factory which are fighting for dominance. "The End of the World" is a Kafka influenced fantasy about a town in which unicorns exists and the inhabitants are separated from their shadows. The main protagonist comes to More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2012

Xavier rated it:

Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, what can I say about you. Well, you entertained me with Inklings that reminded me of Ink but perhaps scarier... You felt like a dream, kind of like most every other novel by Murakami :) I liked the added touch of, "When was the last time I peed?" One of the great Truths in life :) The End of the World also felt like Kino's Journey an anime about a young boy/girl who travels to strange towns in order to discover what each has to offer, to More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 07, 2011

Paula rated it:

I first read Hard-Boiled Wonderland . . . back in 2003, at which time I listed it as one of my Best Reads for that year and would probably have given it 5 stars if goodreads had existed 7 years ago. This time around, I still really enjoyed the novel, but with a few reservations. Here's what I wrote back in 2003: The central character here is a “calcutec” whose conscious self becomes uncoupled from and supplanted by his unconscious self due to some experimental machinations by the Professor. The More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 10, 2011

Oscar rated it:

Es una historia extraña. Se compone de dos hilos narrativos. En uno de ellos el protagonista es un calculador, una especie de decodificador humano, que es requerido por un profesor, un anciano científico, para codificar los datos de su último experimento. La seguridad es crucial, ya que los semióticos y su Factoría, rivales del Sistema, donde trabaja el protagonista, quieren hacerse con este invento. Además, La Factoría parece que ha logrado aliarse con los tinieblos, unas criaturas carnívoras q More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 17, 2009

Ben rated it:

Whew, blew me away. The influences from Orwell and Kafka are clearly here. Existential meditations, amazingly imaginative, the multitude of interesting and important thoughts that can sprout from the reader's mind. The whole thing is pure genius.

"That's the way it is with the mind. Nothing is ever equal. Like a river, as it flows, the course changes with the terrain."

Typically, Murakami works his way through your subconscious, toying with recognitions of th More...

38 comments like (34 people liked it)

Oct 21, 2008

Shivering William rated it:

I can't help but shake the feeling that a great portion of Haruki Murakami is weird for the sake of being weird. That isn't to say that some of it doesn't resonate wonderfully, pulling me into his strange world where I legitimately never know what's around the next corner. But I get exhausted reading it sometimes.

This book really lags in the middle. It's like watching The X-files or Lost and waiting for the enlightening explanation of what the hell is going on. And then it come More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 01, 2008

Allen rated it:

The following is a chronological ordering of my reading of Haruki Murkami's novels to date:

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (March-April 2006)
A Wild Sheep Chase (April 2006)
South of the Border, West of the Sun (April 2006)
Sputnik Sweetheart (June 2007)
After Dark (June 2007)
Kafka on the Shore (July 2007)
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of The World (April, 2008)

Of these novels, Kafka on the Shore is a wondrous marvel and has the most fully-i More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 03, 2008

Andrea rated it:

I had to think about whether or not I loved this book, which, I ultimately decided, must mean I didn't.

It's always hard with translations because you never know if the book's wonderfulness or awfulness is the fault of the author or the translator. This is an interesting case, as it is really two books in one and I do not feel the same about them.

"Hardboiled Wonderland" is narrated in an overly detailed, unemotional, almost computer-like way. I believe the author More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 28, 2008

Pyk rated it:

Imagination. Do not read the book if you do not have it.

Hard-boiled Wonderland is an exercise of imagination if you run out of daydream. An imagination that takes you out of your shell but later sets you back grounded. It is a book that requires sheer imagination, so you can understand humor in reality especially the ordinary ones.

Haruki writes 2 stories in alternate sequence - one seeming to be the prelude of the end of the world, another a wonderland - but likely to con More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 23, 2010

Magnus rated it:

I don't think I have ever read a book that that I have initially understood so little of and yet felt so strongly compelled to keep reading. This is the kind of book you wish you didn't have to put down, and, unlike Dan "Cliffhanger" Brown, Murakami grips your attention in a very good, genuine way, not in the "artificial" way that Brown does (if you know what I mean, no you probably don't, but oh well...). It took time to put the pieces in the puzzle together. But it was wort More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

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