Elise's review

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (Paperback)
by Haruki Murakami

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/106484.Hard_Boiled_Wonderland_and_the_End_of_the_World?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (Paperback)" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1203130138m/106484.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/106484.Hard_Boiled_Wonderland_and_the_End_of_the_World?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3354.Haruki_Murakami">Haruki Murakami</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3595329?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 4 of 5 stars I can't say much about Hard-Boiled Wonderland without reiterating what's already on the back of the book jacket. Yes, this book is a "hyperkinetic" and "relentlessly inventive" "narrative particle-accelerator." And yes, I highly recommend it.
 
 I enjoy this read and I enjoy it more than A Wild Sheep Chase, although, same idea: a nameless protagonist leading an otherwise average life is swept into a fantastic, jarring and curious adventure (apparently recurrent in Murakami's novels, but I'd have to read more before saying so for sure). This book is set in alternate-reality Tokyo, in the midst of the information wars between the System and the Factory. The protagonist is sent on a journey that leads him, among other places, to the office of an oddball scientist and his chubby granddaughter (decked in pink), to an aqueous subterranean world of wretched INKling-monsters, to the library, to a mythical pastoral world of horned beasts and dreamreading, and right straight inside his own mind.
 
 Phewf. And my, it's beautifully written. Poetry (she kisses her hand). Pure poetry.
 
 A month before reading this book I had named A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" my favorite-ever-best Bob Dylan song. I was tickled by Murakami's homage to Dylan (and his later reference of that song):
 
 "I can tell Bob Dylan in an instant," she said.
 "Because his harmonica's worse than Stevie Wonder?"
 She laughed again. Nice to know I could still make someone laugh.
 "No, I really like his voice," she said. "It's like a kid standing at the window watching the rain."
 After all the volumes that have been written about Dylan, I had yet to come across such a perfect description.
 
 Oh, ps - I don't know much about graphic novels and I don't know much about Anime, but this book would do good as either one. Very visual. Lots of action.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/159749?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Elise's review
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status: Read in July, 2007

I can't say much about Hard-Boiled Wonderland without reiterating what's already on the back of the book jacket. Yes, this book is a "hyperkinetic" and "relentlessly inventive" "narrative particle-accelerator." And yes, I highly recommend it.

I enjoy this read and I enjoy it more than A Wild Sheep Chase, although, same idea: a nameless protagonist leading an otherwise average life is swept into a fantastic, jarring and curious adventure (apparently recurrent in Murakami's novels, but I'd have to read more before saying so for sure). This book is set in alternate-reality Tokyo, in the midst of the information wars between the System and the Factory. The protagonist is sent on a journey that leads him, among other places, to the office of an oddball scientist and his chubby granddaughter (decked in pink), to an aqueous subterranean world of wretched INKling-monsters, to the library, to a mythical pastoral world of horned beasts and dreamread...more

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