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35th out of 463 books
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97 voters
My rating:
add to my books
A Wild Sheep Chase (The Rat #3)
His life was like a recurring nightmare: a train to nowhere. But an ordinary life has a way of taking an extraordinary turn. Add a girl whose ears are so exquisite that, when uncovered, they improve sex a thousand-fold, a runaway friend, a right-wing politico, an ovine-obsessed professor and a manic-depressive in a sheep outfit, implicate them in a hunt for a sheep, that m...more
Paperback, 300 pages
Published
2003
by Vintage
(first published October 1st 1982)
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Joel
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Shelves:
2011,
52-in-2011,
detective-y,
favorite-authors,
japan,
personal-collection,
translated,
cats,
vote-getters,
murakami
Reading Murakami is like experiencing someone else's dream. Trying to review Murakami is like trying to remember your own -- scattered events, confusing narrative lapses, inexplicable elements, petrified whale penises. A series of images:
And then you wake up. And wonder what that was all about.
And then you wake up. And wonder what that was all about.
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'A Wild Sheep Chase' is a trippy tale with a mix of detective story, myth, fantasy and philosophy. Though it can be enjoyed simply as a fable at its face-value, just a little thought reveals a multi-layered allegory. On one hand, "the sheep" could signify post-war Japan itself. At the same time, the protagonist's sheep chase also ends up being a search for his own identity, his emotions and meaning of his existence. It is as much a physical journey as a spiritual journey. There are als...more
Chris
rated it
·
review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Fans of the impossible and the fantastic.
Shelves:
translations
When one is approached by a random person and asked to locate a life form that is physically unable to exist, but which you have a picture of, and you choose to do it because you have to, you know you're in for something fantastical. Part noir thriller, part philosophical daydream, the wild sheep chase moves effortlessly along (partially due to the brilliant translation), and scene by scene we are more and more drawn into the story of soon to be thirty year old J. Philosophical detours into en...more
Jaci
rated it
·
review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
people who want a rather light read that can develop into something deeper
Shelves:
read-in-2008,
own
A Wild Sheep Chase was the third book that I have read by Murakami. I found out after I finished that it is that third book in "The Trilogy of the Rat". The first two books in this series are now out of print, but after reading A Wild Sheep Chase, I think I have to chase down some used copies of the novels and experience the trilogy in full.
I interpreted the novel to be a story of emotion journey more than a story of physical journey. There was an actual journey involved ...more
I interpreted the novel to be a story of emotion journey more than a story of physical journey. There was an actual journey involved ...more
Mariel
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Miss New Zealand
Recommended to Mariel by:
Little Bo Peeping Tom
I wish I could have written about Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase here when I'd read it. I wish that goodreads was around back then. The magical and plain old world as we know it life through best teacher voice (this is my favorite kind of voice because I'm a confused person) that made the every day seem full of possibilities. Sinister possibilities as well as good ones. That's my favorite kind of thing, the ability to make that stuff interesting, with easy humor. I'm really into the b...more
Murakami, even thought he's super famous, is someone I wouldn't read if I read the plots. They sound on the surface too new agey for me. But the fact is he is an incredible craft-style writer that makes you want to turn the page faster and faster. I rarely met a person who doesn't at the very least enjoy his books.
"A Wild Sheep Chase" is one of the first for him to go into a sort of fantasy world - but still based on the world that we know. There's Tokyo but it could b...more
"A Wild Sheep Chase" is one of the first for him to go into a sort of fantasy world - but still based on the world that we know. There's Tokyo but it could b...more
The first couple chapters of Haruki Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase are beautifully written and very effective--they slowly start to weave a story about a man's unsuccessful romantic relationships. These initial chapters are told with an intense attention to detail, both physical, visceral details and emotional details.
But then the book gets "weird" and takes a nose-dive.
I say "weird" in quotation marks because nothing in the first two hundred and fifty ...more
But then the book gets "weird" and takes a nose-dive.
I say "weird" in quotation marks because nothing in the first two hundred and fifty ...more
Amanda
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommended to Amanda by:
Sam Rosenberg
Shelves:
book-club
I think most accurately 3.5 stars.
Exactly what it purports to be: a wild sheep chase. Our protagonist sets out to a far corner of Japan in search of a mutant sheep on a deadline imposed by a mysteriously powerful man in black. Along the way we meet a girl with beautiful ears, the perhaps saddest cat in a Murakami book yet, a chaffeur who calls up God every night, and many people associated with sheep.
I actually liked A Wild Sheep Chase better than some of the other Murakami f...more
Exactly what it purports to be: a wild sheep chase. Our protagonist sets out to a far corner of Japan in search of a mutant sheep on a deadline imposed by a mysteriously powerful man in black. Along the way we meet a girl with beautiful ears, the perhaps saddest cat in a Murakami book yet, a chaffeur who calls up God every night, and many people associated with sheep.
I actually liked A Wild Sheep Chase better than some of the other Murakami f...more
No se si A Wild Sheep Chase pertenece al realismo mágico, al postmodernismo o a la novela de detectives, pero al parecer es ya parte de la firma de Murakami el balancearse indiscretamente entre estos generos.
Protagonista, Rata, J, Novia, Secretario, Chofer, Hombre Oveja, Profesor Oveja, son todos parte de un Japón que se ha recuperado de la guerra solo en apariencia, pero que soporta con un orgullo terco y en secreto heridas muy profundas, un Japón en que la tecnología avanza demasiado...more
Protagonista, Rata, J, Novia, Secretario, Chofer, Hombre Oveja, Profesor Oveja, son todos parte de un Japón que se ha recuperado de la guerra solo en apariencia, pero que soporta con un orgullo terco y en secreto heridas muy profundas, un Japón en que la tecnología avanza demasiado...more
Herrikias
rated it
·
review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Animist anticapitalists
Recommended to Herrikias by:
Sonja
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
The latest Murakami I read was also my first: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, given to me by Nina for my fifteenth birthday. It is widely considered as the "poster boy" book for Murakami, with the inconspicuous and jaded narrator and his wild search for something even he cannot understand, and all the strange and fantastic elements and characters he meets along the way.
And though a lot of themes and small details from Wind-Up Bird reappeared in Sheep Chase, I think I became mor...more
And though a lot of themes and small details from Wind-Up Bird reappeared in Sheep Chase, I think I became mor...more
This was my first Murakami experience and I don't know if I was adequately prepared for what to expect. In 2002, a guy I was briefly seeing raved about Murakami and gave this book to me with the highest recommendation but, just as our relationship quickly fizzled, so did this book. However much I liked the novel's first half, the aimless and other-worldy ending turned me off Murakami until 2005, when I had to cancel a trip to Japan the day before my flight and ended up going to the hospital an...more
This book, as others have said, was slow to pick up. Many elements are familiar, seeminly standard washed out Murakami male lead looking lacking meaning. Initially a complete lack of identifiable female characters with ummmm...character...a sense of nhilistic freedom.
Also as others have said, it picks up a great deal around the half way mark, once the character gets on the quest. The sketching of Hokkaido makde me want to go there, as Pat said, the environment, the atmosphere of the ...more
Also as others have said, it picks up a great deal around the half way mark, once the character gets on the quest. The sketching of Hokkaido makde me want to go there, as Pat said, the environment, the atmosphere of the ...more
Anna
rated it
·
review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Murakami completists only--not a good entry point into his oeuvre.
I have to say that I didn't like it quite so much as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I have yet to encounter anyone who violently dislikes Murakami, but this particular novel contains many of his trademarks carried to such an extreme that I imagine any would-be detractors would certainly hold this particular novel up as reason enough to dismiss his body of work: meandering plot, unsatisfying ending, inexplicably surreal imagery, pop culture allusions. It definitely started out with some promise, b...more
I don't know what it is about magical realism that seems most appropriate to a foreign setting. Is it the different-ness of foreign places that allows us to believe that magic hides behind everyday lives, and only a few stumble upon it, or is it the straightforward, bootstraps-hard work-money-success nature of America that precludes it? Either way, this story is a great introduction to Murakami. The story is so interesting and compelling that some of the quirks are barely noticeable. For exa...more
I read this book after being medically evacuated to Singapore, while locked up for a two-day recovery in a French hotel. I couldn't walk very much at the time but it was no matter thanks to this book.
For me, it is Murakami's best, a lucid dream strung together with some of the most beautiful phrases in literature. At the risk of sounding pathetically infatuated, it made me happy to be alive; it gave me the hope I often lack about the potential for creative genius in our times.
...more
For me, it is Murakami's best, a lucid dream strung together with some of the most beautiful phrases in literature. At the risk of sounding pathetically infatuated, it made me happy to be alive; it gave me the hope I often lack about the potential for creative genius in our times.
...more
I wasn't all that impressed with this book. I love Murakami and have read three other books by him. The ideas in this book are good and some of them kept me thinking and even inspired me to write about them, but the themes took over the book and the plot and characters suffered. I found myself only finishing it in hopes that somehow I would end up being impressed by it, as I was with the Wind Up Bird Chronicle. Whta I did really like about it and this can be said of all his writing is that the s...more
dear murakami,
seriously.
best,
m.
p.s. one of the things i have noticed about murakami which is quite specific to me (perhaps?) is how utterly he destroys me. i find myself being taken into a world of symbols and thoughts and characters that bring me through to strangely heightened dreams and feelings and thoughts in the meanwhile of reading. there is something deeply connective about the lonliness that permeates his work. the lonliness as he defines ...more
seriously.
best,
m.
p.s. one of the things i have noticed about murakami which is quite specific to me (perhaps?) is how utterly he destroys me. i find myself being taken into a world of symbols and thoughts and characters that bring me through to strangely heightened dreams and feelings and thoughts in the meanwhile of reading. there is something deeply connective about the lonliness that permeates his work. the lonliness as he defines ...more
I have read a few of Haruki Murakami's other books and this was my least favorite. It was simpler and less dreamlike than his other books I have read. I like his books because they don't always make the most sense. This one was about a guy who receives a picture and a letter from a friend with sheep. There's one sheep that is not like the rest. A man proposes a mission to this guy to find this sheep. Or rather he forces the guy to do it. Murakami takes the reader from Tokyo to the contras...more
It somehow reminds one of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This is also a strange and surrealistic book in which the hero is left with a very flat feeling. The fantasy bits are very straight-faced as if the author needs to use ghosts, but does not want to offend the reader.
It is quite slow-paced: a lot of watching snow or somebody's ears and there is such a lot of coffee-drinking and smoking that the reader is quite relieved when the stuff run out.
But the plot revolves around a sheep that...more
It is quite slow-paced: a lot of watching snow or somebody's ears and there is such a lot of coffee-drinking and smoking that the reader is quite relieved when the stuff run out.
But the plot revolves around a sheep that...more
Something a rookie reporter fresh out of college might've written for practice: "...A friend rang me up and read it to me. Nothing special. Something a rookie reporter fresh out of college might've written for practice."
^in a sense, the first paragraph of the book sums up how i see this book itself. when i first opened the book and began reading, it was somewhat engaging. i do enjoy the way Murakami describes peculiar objects. the specific description of the whale penis realy caught ...more
^in a sense, the first paragraph of the book sums up how i see this book itself. when i first opened the book and began reading, it was somewhat engaging. i do enjoy the way Murakami describes peculiar objects. the specific description of the whale penis realy caught ...more
So this was the last book I had to read for my Modern Japanese Literature class and my first introduction to Murakami’s list of works. It was fascinating, offbeat, and definitely enjoyable.
I loved the prose. It wasn’t laden down with traditional metaphorical images that can usually be seen in Japanese novels, and had a more upbeat, modern tone to it that can easily be connected with. Another cool thing was the lack of names, or what the characters were named in this book. You might ...more
I loved the prose. It wasn’t laden down with traditional metaphorical images that can usually be seen in Japanese novels, and had a more upbeat, modern tone to it that can easily be connected with. Another cool thing was the lack of names, or what the characters were named in this book. You might ...more
I have to say that I’m pretty much obsessed with Murakami’s A Wild Sheep Chase now.
In his interview with Paris Review, Murakami said that Norwegian Wood is a strategic choice, written as his attempt to break into the mainstream, an easy reading that might attract people to read his other works.
In my case, it’s the other way round.
Norwegian Wood is the first Murakami book I read. After that I found Kafka on the Shore but somehow decided that I’ve had enough Murakam...more
In his interview with Paris Review, Murakami said that Norwegian Wood is a strategic choice, written as his attempt to break into the mainstream, an easy reading that might attract people to read his other works.
In my case, it’s the other way round.
Norwegian Wood is the first Murakami book I read. After that I found Kafka on the Shore but somehow decided that I’ve had enough Murakam...more
A couple great moments fill this extravagant and bizarre tale with humor. One favorite: "She said nothing, but seemed to be deep in thought. Probably trying to picture angry sheep beating their heads together." (p. 271).
Sections change quickly, from imitation history book to chilling tongue-in-cheek mystery.
The style, delightfully digressive, allowed for many entertaining and interesting sections. For example:
"'...the world itself is so mediocre that you a...more
Sections change quickly, from imitation history book to chilling tongue-in-cheek mystery.
The style, delightfully digressive, allowed for many entertaining and interesting sections. For example:
"'...the world itself is so mediocre that you a...more
I hadn't read this book since 1999, when I was consuming Murakami like a madman. I've always felt very warmly toward Murakami, for the typical reasons but also because I discovered him (specifically, Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World) randomly as I was shelving books in my minimum-wage job at the Barnes and Noble on Shattuck and Durant. I hadn't yet become sufficiently cool and college-y to be in the know about Murakami and other intellectually hipster type-things (remember, J: "...more
Wow. I'm surprised, and let me tell you why. Whenever I discover an author, it is usually because I've heard about his/her great work. Then I fall in love. Then I read earlier works. Then I'm disappointed. Oh, the earlier works are often good, perhaps even great, but after reading the book that put that author on the map, so to speak, it is often a bit of a let-down. Let's see. For example, I find Possession by A.S. Byatt to be one of the most ingenious novels written in my lifetime. It blew me ...more
Hooked on Murakami after reading "The Wind up Bird Chronicle," I am now working my way, with real pleasure, through all the great man's works. In fact, I am already beginning to worry what I will do with myself when I have read the last one. To be honest, not all of his books are of the same standard, although all are bewitching in one way or another. A Wild Sheep Chase is, I believe, one of Murakami's early works, and, to a certain extent, it shows, the writing being just that tad rou...more
Haruki Murakami est un grand auteur japonais. Ses romans se caractérisent pas l’insinuation du fantastique, bien souvent poétique, dans le quotidien des personnages. Il surgit incidemment, sans que l’on sans rende vraiment compte, un peu comme quelque chose qui nous paraît bizarre mais que l’on ne remarque pas tout de suite. Puis, petit à petit, il prend de l’importance et devient prépondérant dans l’histoire. N’allez pas croire pour autant que c’est là, et uniquement là, que réside l’intérêt de...more
Unbeknownst to me, A Wild Sheep Chase is actually the third and final book in a trilogy (The Trilogy of the Rat), however, the other two novels in the trilogy were never published in English outside of Japan, indeed, they are more like novellas, and featured as serials in a Japanese Magazine. With that in mind, I went into this book assuming it was a standalone affair (presumably, for UK readers, this is supposed to be the case). What I got was standard (yet brilliant!) Murakami tone, surreal, w...more
Kirstie
rated it
·
review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
People who love Japan, alternate realities, sheep
I made a mistake in reading Dance Dance Dance before A Wild Sheep Chase, not realizing that they were even related in terms of their story lines..don't make the same mistake I made...read this one first before the other and I think it will be a little less confusing. This one has to do with ghosts and mythological sheep if that makes any sense but truly about isolation as well. This is where the idea of The Dolphin Hotel is also introduced and some of the characters join in Dance Dance Dance. ...more
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Haruki Murakami (村上春樹) is a popular contemporary Japanese writer and translator. His work has been described by the Virginia Quarterly Review as "easily accessible, yet profoundly complex." Critics suggest his work draws from film noir and contains elements of magical realism.
Since childhood, Murakami has been heavily influenced by Western culture, particularly Western music ...more
More about Haruki Murakami...
Since childhood, Murakami has been heavily influenced by Western culture, particularly Western music ...more
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