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The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

(ねじまき鳥クロニクル #1-3)

Haruki Murakami,

Jay Rubin (Translator)

4.17 · Rating details · 189,412 ratings · 12,501 reviews

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 h ...more

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Paperback, 607 pages

Published 1997 by Knopf (first published April 12th 1994)

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4.17 ·

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Sep 20, 2010 Paul Bryant rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

I had been wondering where my cat was when the phone rang. It was a woman offering to have no strings sex with me. I made some non-committal remarks to her and put the receiver down. I hate those cold callers. I had nothing to do that day, or any other day, so I walked down the back alley and fell into a desultory conversation with a random 16 year old girl who had a wooden leg and a parrot on her shoulder. She suggested I help her make some easy money by counting bald people. That sounded about I had been wondering where my cat was when the phone rang. It was a woman offering to have no strings sex with me. I made some non-committal remarks to her and put the receiver down. I hate those cold callers. I had nothing to do that day, or any other day, so I walked down the back alley and fell into a desultory conversation with a random 16 year old girl who had a wooden leg and a parrot on her shoulder. She suggested I help her make some easy money by counting bald people. That sounded about as good as anything else to me, after all, as I have already explained, i had nothing to do. At all. And I was doing it. It was kind of a cool period in my life when i wasn't really doing anything. I didn't have a job, I had become estranged from my family and for some reason I could not quite put my finger on, i had no friends. So we counted the bald people for a while and then we stopped. We went back home, or should i say, she went back to her home, and I, of course, went back to mine, where I prepared a simple evening meal consisting of grated cucumber, a little olive oil, half a smoked mackerel and a pot of basil. I didn't put the tv on because I didn't have a tv because if i had had a tv i might have switched it on and seen something on it that was actually interesting. Then the cold calling sex woman rang again and this time she said that she couldn't quite tell me how she knew this but she knew something was going to happen to me but she did not say when it would. I decided to rehang the curtains in the front room. But not right away. Maybe later. I picked up the novel I was reading. It was a long one by a very modish Japanese writer called Haruki Murakami. It was about this English guy called Paul Bryant. He was kind of dull but all these weird unexplained things kept happening like he was a magnet for all the weirdness around. I don't know how to explain it. Neither did he. Neither did Haruki Marukami. I read for an hour and found I was on page 303, which in my paperback edition, was the exact centre point of the novel. I put it down. I had a feeling that in this novel things would continue to happen but the things would all be made of blancmange, a tasteless gooey substance which looks a little like wallpaper paste but isn't. And the people in the novel would all be not really real but also not really not real, if you know what I mean. My arm felt slightly tired holding the book. I shifted to a different reading posture on my couch but it did not help. The strength went out of my arm. I do not know why. As you may have noticed, I do not know anything at all. I struggle to recall my name on most days. The novel fell from my hand. I had the feeling I would never pick it up again. I did not know why I had that feeling, but I was pretty sure that I had it at the time I was having it. Although later, I was almost sure I had no memory of it. When I looked up a completely naked woman was sitting at the table eating a slice of thinly buttered toast. I asked her who she was and she said she was not at that point in a position to be able to divulge that information. She asked if she could borrow my car. I explained it had been taken by my wife who had left me two weeks ago. This did not seem to phase her. I noticed that her body was almost the same as that of my wife. She had two breasts, two nipples, and although the table was obscuring the lower parts of her anatomy I was sure that the rest of her was also not dissimilar. She consumed three pieces of toast and told me in a cool voice that I would never see my cat again except possibly in a place that began with the letter H or has a H in the name somewhere. She borrowed my wife's smart summer coat and a pair of her stilettos and left after about 15 minutes. It began to rain but I did not notice. I thought about paying my electricity bill.

...more

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Jan 17, 2009 Megha rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: reviews, kickass

A part of me wishes that I hadn't read it yet so I could still read it for the first time and be mesmerized.

It is quiet difficult for me to describe what this book was like. It is surreal and psychedelic. It is mysterious, something out of this world. You just need to stop questioning things and let yourself get carried away. It begins with a seemingly ordinary day in the life of a very ordinary man. But things only gets strange and stranger from there - dreams spill into reality, lines between ...more

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Mar 25, 2009 Ben rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone open to the odd. Those that can handle mixed, random plots

Shelves: romantic-love-and-hate, read-in-2009, good-fiction, war, favorites, like-magic, transformative-experience

WATER IS GOOD!

You, the politician with the psychopath eyes on the T.V.! I hate you!

Russian scheming

Where the fuck is my cat?!!! And why did I name him after you Mr. Psychopath EYES!

War
Blood
Death

Zoo animals?

My dreams are wack, yo – but WAIT! Are they really dreams?! No way man, I totally did it with her for real.

Skinning people alive

Wacky woman with the Huge red hat, tell me! Are you a psychic OR ARE YOU NOT?!

What a cool walkway between the HOUSES!

telephonetelephoneRing, Ring, Ring: Hellloooo - ...more

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Dec 06, 2008 Imogen rated it did not like it

Y'know what? I give up. I'm never going to finish this. I don't think Murakami's a hack, and I know that everybody except me thinks he's a genius, and I also understand- or, more specifically, have had it angrily explained to me- that my dislike for Murakami has to do with me being an American asshole who can't see through her own cultural imperialism enough to appreciate the way Japanese people like Murakami write novels. I acknowledge all these things.

But at the same time, nothing about this w ...more

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Jan 03, 2011 Fabian rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Only like 10 books or so in this world could be made of actual MAGIC. They are entities so far out of this world they indeed resemble pariahs, belonging to their own orbit & following their own sets of rules that it is your utmost privilege to read them, to find out for yourself why it is that they stick to the collective psyche of an entire literati!

This profound take on life & reality is so complex, so incredibly well-orchestrated, thought-out... a new one for the list of Tops. The mai ...more

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Mar 14, 2016 Luca Ambrosino rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

English (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle) / Italiano

A great experience.

More than reading a novel, I feel like I've lived the life of another, like when you wake up from a dream in which you played the part of a fearless hero, doing actions you never could have done.

English (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle) / Italiano

A great experience.

More than reading a novel, I feel like I've lived the life of another, like when you wake up from a dream in which you played the part of a fearless hero, doing actions you never could have done.

Toru Okada is thirty years old and leads an ordinary life with his wife Kumiko. However, a strange phone call marks the beginning of a series of unusual events that entirely change the existence of the young protagonist. Everyday life and the ordinary meet with the inexplicable. The plot loses importance, fogged by dense clouds of mystery, from which only the bizarre characters of Haruki Murakami emerge. We are in a dream, we perceive it as readers and the protagonist of the novel perceives it too:

«I listened to the evening news on the radio for the first time in ages, but nothing special had been happening in the world. Some teenagers had been killed in an accident on the expressway when the driver of their car had failed in his attempt to pass another car and crashed into a wall. The branch manager and staff of a major bank were under police investigation in connection with an illegal loan they had made. A thirty-six-year-old housewife from Machida had been beaten to death with a hammer by a young man on the street. But these were all events from some other, distant world. The only thing happening in my world was the rain falling in the yard.»

The dream state of Toru Okada will remind many readers the surrealism of David Lynch, the American director who loves to communicate through his films with scenes that disturb for their visual impact, rather than for the linearity of well understandable plots.

Side note: with this novel Murakami won the "Yomiuri", a Japanese literary prize, conferred to him by the Nobel Prize Kenzaburō Ōe, previously one of his most ardent critics. What satisfaction!

Vote: 9

Una gran bella esperienza.

Più che aver letto un romanzo, mi sento come se avessi vissuto la vita di un altro, come quando ti svegli da un sogno nel quale hai vestito i panni di un impavido eroe, compiendo azioni che non ritenevi di poter compiere nemmeno di striscio.

Toru Okada ha trent'anni e conduce una vita ordinaria con la moglie Kumiko. Tuttavia una strana telefonata segna l'inizio di una serie di eventi fuori dal comune che cambiano di sana pianta l'esistenza del giovane protagonista. La vita di tutti giorni e l'ordinario si mescolano con l'inspiegabile. La trama in sè perde importanza, annebbiata da dense nuvole di mistero, dalle quali emergono distinti solamente i bizzarri personaggi di Haruki Murakami. Siamo in un sogno, lo percepiamo noi lettori e lo percepisce lo stesso protagonista del romanzo:

«Per la prima volta dopo tanto tempo ascoltai il giornale radio della sera. Nel mondo non era successo nulla di insolito. Su un'autostrada, in un sorpasso una macchina era andata a sbattere contro un muro, e i passeggeri, dei ragazzi, erano morti tutti. Il direttore e alcuni impiegati di una succursale di una grande banca erano stati messi sotto inchiesta dalla polizia per una faccenda di prestiti illegali. A Machida una casalinga di trentasei anni era stata ammazzata a martellate da un giovane che passava di lì. Ma tutto questo succedeva in un mondo diverso. Nel mondo in cui vivevo io c'era solo la pioggia che cadeva nel giardino.»

Lo stato onirico di Toru Okada ricorderà a molti lettori il surrealismo spinto di David Lynch, il regista americano che ama comunicare attraverso le sue pellicole con immagini che inquietano per il loro impatto visivo, piuttosto che con la linearità di trame ben comprensibili.

Piccola nota a margine: con questo romanzo Murakami ha vinto il premio letterario giapponese Yomiuri, conferitogli dal premio nobel Kenzaburō Ōe, uno dei suoi più accaniti critici precedenti. Sò soddisfazioni.

Voto: 9

...more

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Feb 01, 2012 Zach rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: hated, fiction

This book has received praise from many circles, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. Wind-Up Bird was also considered a New York Times Notable Book the year it was published, and it earned Murakami, the author, a serious literary award presented by the Japanese Nobel Prize winning author Kenzaburo Oe. To top it off, most of the reviews on Goodreads are filled to bursting with lavish praise for both Murakami and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. But, less than This book has received praise from many circles, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. Wind-Up Bird was also considered a New York Times Notable Book the year it was published, and it earned Murakami, the author, a serious literary award presented by the Japanese Nobel Prize winning author Kenzaburo Oe. To top it off, most of the reviews on Goodreads are filled to bursting with lavish praise for both Murakami and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. But, less than a third of the way through, I couldn't shake the feeling that this book was just a waste of time. I kept reminding myself that I can be a harsh critic and I have been known to initially dismiss a truly great book simply because the author's style or the novel's theme was initially frustrating (this has happened numerous times with novels like The Crying of Lot 49, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, The Stranger and Absalom, Absalom!). Now that I have finished the last page of Wind-Up Bird, I believe calling this novel a waste of time would be a compliment.

I forced myself to continue reading Wind-Up Bird by telling myself that a highly respected author like Murakami would eventually tie-up all the loose ends. When it became obvious that these ends would remain loose, I told myself he was creating a commentary on the nature of story telling, something like how all narrators are unreliable, or maybe purposefully writing a dense, impenetrable tome to reflect the popular postmodern world-view. I eventually started blaming the translator, because I couldn't imagine an author with as much recognition as Murakami writing such boring passages with such awkward prose. But I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. At one point I put down the book, shook my head, got a glass of water, did some research on both the novel and the author, took a nap, woke up, shook my head again, forced myself to pick up the book, read three more chapters and suddenly realized that Wind-Up Bird was just a poorly written novel and I was making excuses because I was dazzled by all the praise on the cover.

There is a certain amount of wiggle room when it comes to writing a novel, but there are a few rules that should always be observed:
1) show, don't tell,
2) don't write down to your audience,
3) avoid clichés,
and mostly importantly,
4) establish a theme or message the novel must convey.

In Wind-Up Bird, Murakami shamelessly broke each of these rules. He simultaneously broke the first two rules by constantly adding explanations and observations that ruined any amount of mystery or subtlety that might have existed in this pseudo-detective story, effectively communicating to the audience "I don't trust you to read this novel correctly, so I'm going to fully explain each situation and character in detail so you can't possibly misunderstand me."

While Wind-Up Bird didn't employ traditional clichés, the constant introduction of psychic characters who simply "know" things because they were "supposed to know" became trite and suggested laziness of the author. Also, while half the characters were functionally omniscient, the other half did things without knowing why, claiming they were compelled by some uncontrollable, unknowable urge or force that often leaves them empty or numb of all feeling (literally, this happens with half of the characters in the novel).

But Murakami's most heinous crime is writing a 600 page novel that is functionally meaningless. An author can get away with a lot if ultimately the theme or message of the novel is intact. Try as I might, I can't find a message Murakami was trying to express through The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Murakami did include a character that thoughtfully reflects on war crimes in World War II, but even this subplot was unfocused, and by the end of the novel this story within the story fizzles and suddenly ends without reaching a climax. I toyed around with the possibility that Murakami was writing a novel with a message about how novels don't need a theme or a message, but even if it that was Murakami's intention, it wouldn't justify (nor could it be justified by) such a clunky, awkward, ugly novel.

Also, this is a REALLY weird book. I have read Gravity's Rainbow, Ulysses, Slaughterhouse Five, The Bald Soprano, Naked Lunch and The Third Policeman, but somehow The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is the most bizarre, inexplicable piece of literature I have ever come across. At one point I considered giving up on decyphering the plot and just enjoy watching the strange parade of freaks and monsters in the novel. But, instead of making Wind-Up Bird fascinating, the weird characters and situations come across as ham-fisted, almost desperate additons to the book, as the weirdness is employed primarily as deus ex machina. Whenever the protagonist didn't know what to do next (which happened constantly) a psychic would suddenly and inexplicably appear to tell him the next step, and whenever the action began to slow down, the author would include a surreal dream or grotesque murder. This isn't a weird book that has fun upsetting conventions and flirting with the bizarre; this is a book that employs weirdness to compensate for the author's inability to keep control of his own novel.

Despite my best efforts to find something worthwhile between its covers, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle offers practically nothing to back up the incredible amount of praise it has received. Easily one of the worst things I have ever read.
...more

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Feb 22, 2008 Kelly rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, owned, 20th-century-postwar-to-late

I absolutely adored the book upon starting out. It is exquisitely crafted, with each seemingly casual word chosen to illustrate the world into which we have entered. It is a lonely world full of half finished stories, abrupt departures, missed connections and deep silences. "Poor Mr. Wind-Up Bird," lives on an alley with no exits, in a borrowed life that he could never afford to live without the kindness of his uncle. He's just quit his job, as he has no idea of where to go with his life, but is I absolutely adored the book upon starting out. It is exquisitely crafted, with each seemingly casual word chosen to illustrate the world into which we have entered. It is a lonely world full of half finished stories, abrupt departures, missed connections and deep silences. "Poor Mr. Wind-Up Bird," lives on an alley with no exits, in a borrowed life that he could never afford to live without the kindness of his uncle. He's just quit his job, as he has no idea of where to go with his life, but is dissatisfied with its current course. He lives with a wife that he never seems to really speak to, in a routine existence in which she is often late or absent, or spends her time repressing everything she chooses to say to him. Murakami meticulously illustrates this quietly painful existence in all of Mr. Wind-Up Bird's movements, whether it is missed phone calls, a wasted dinner, or a frozen statue of a bird never able to take flight. This sort of language kept me going throughout the book even when I lost my patience with other things.

Mr. Wind-Up Bird's relationship with May Kashara was my favorite part of the book. She is something of a wise child character, able to distill what Murakami is only hinting at into a more obvious, if odd and seemingly quaint statement. She is a wonderful character who brings light and movement to the pages, and pushes the plot along, if only in Mr. Wind-Up Bird's head. I kept looking ahead, if only to find out how long it was until she appeared again.

What I did not like? The endless repetition of the spiritual mumbo-jumbo, of the prophets who "just know," when something is going to happen, of the endless discussion of the "flow," and various other points of odd zen claptrap that really pushed me out of the story, and the reader entirely out of the reality. I think a part of the book's charm is that it hovers so close around the edges of reality, and gradually, this book just seemed to leave that behind. I appreciated the message of a bundle of stories all being woven together, stories that stop and start as people pass through them, are read and discarded as they are of use. But this went far beyond the borders of surreality into quite a confusing fog. Perhaps I missed something, but it became very difficult to push myself through this seemingly unrelated part. That entire middle section with the extended stories of Cinammon and Nutmeg, and the increasing weirdness of Creta Kano, the side stories of Lieutenant Mamiya, etc... I lost patience with the book and almost gave up several times, because that's how I thought the rest of the book would be. The introduction of random characters and tales that are really not material to the plot or necessary to the points that Murakami is making.

Thankfully, the tale wound back down into a more manageable area towards the end. I'm glad I finished it, if only to see the end of May Kashara.

I wish I had loved this more consistently that it turned out that I did. I wish I could give it 3.5 stars. I'm sticking with the definition of the stars in terms of "liked it," or "loved it." I was somewhere changeably in between between depending on the section of the book. (review originally written in 2008, edited since). ...more

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Jun 22, 2017 Pouting Always rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Toru Okada recently quit his job at the law office and has been spending his time alone in the house all day while his wife, Kumiko, goes to work. One day while cooking he receives a strange phone call from a women claiming to know him. He can't recognize her voice though and becomes confused by this turn of events. Kumiko is worried because recently their cat disappeared. Usually their cat comes home after a while even though he wanders off and so Toru goes off in search of the cat. On his sear Toru Okada recently quit his job at the law office and has been spending his time alone in the house all day while his wife, Kumiko, goes to work. One day while cooking he receives a strange phone call from a women claiming to know him. He can't recognize her voice though and becomes confused by this turn of events. Kumiko is worried because recently their cat disappeared. Usually their cat comes home after a while even though he wanders off and so Toru goes off in search of the cat. On his search he meets and befriend the neighbor girl May Kasahara, who is staying home from school after getting into an accident. May and Toru spend time together, watching and waiting to see if the cat will come home. Things take an even weirder turn when Kumiko tells her husband to consult with Malta Kano, who helps people and Kumiko knows through her brother Noboru Wataya. Toru hates Noboru Wataya and is confused by this turn in events, even more so when Kumiko doesn't seem to come home one night, leading him to set out to search for her and get caught in a complex web all pertaining to Noboru Wataya.

This was my first Haruki Murakami book and I really enjoyed it, it's definitely a new favorite. I tend to enjoy magical realism a lot and I loved the writing and the characters and the themes that were explored in the book. I really enjoyed May and her obsession with death and her struggling to understand it and I enjoyed so much of the ideas that came up about relationships. I also just love mysticism and books that are more on the ideological side. I think it was incorporated really well with the plot, and the way things came up through out the book felt so natural which is hard to do in my opinion. The writing was also really great, and I loved the repetition and the way so many things in the book would occur again and again. I can't explain why it appealed to me so much but it just did. I also loved the way things tied up together, I love when story lines work together interlocking webs of events and ideas.

The only thing I may be some what iffy on is the ending, only because it felt abrupt in comparison to the rest of the book. Also things weren't really clear and I don't think we receive a good explanation for what was actually happening. Which may have been the point but I'm not smart enough to figure out why he may have done that if anyone has any ideas? ...more

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Sep 14, 2017 Justin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Good Lord, it's been over a month since I've finished s book. What have I been doing with my life?

And why haven't I read this book until now?

First off, let me put my four-star rating of this book into context. It's only four stars because I feel like I need to read it again, and maybe again and again, to truly appreciate all that is contained within these 600 beautiful pages. I get the story. There's a plot and all that, but there is also so much more going on, there are so many layers, such co Good Lord, it's been over a month since I've finished s book. What have I been doing with my life?

And why haven't I read this book until now?

First off, let me put my four-star rating of this book into context. It's only four stars because I feel like I need to read it again, and maybe again and again, to truly appreciate all that is contained within these 600 beautiful pages. I get the story. There's a plot and all that, but there is also so much more going on, there are so many layers, such complexity woven into the fabric of the story that I don't think I can truly appreciate it just reading it one time through.

The beginning of the story is very straightforward and instantly creates this weird vibe. This dude, Toru, loses his cat so he goes out to look for it. He likes spaghetti and lemon drops. He gets these strange calls at home. He finds an old abandoned house with a well. His wife is kind of like whatever. He doesn't have a job. So, you know, I'm putting all that together in my mind as I'm reading it, right? Pretty simple. This is a book about an unemployed guy searching for his cat while getting weird phone calls, making spaghetti, and getting advice from his wife on how to find the cat. Sounds like an awesome way to spend the next two weeks of my life.

But, I'll be damned if the missing cat isn't even the issue. From there things spiral outta control and all of a sudden I'm bouncing around from these old war stories to the bottom of a well to working with a girl and counting the number of bald men on the street to a bunch of other stuff that I don't want to spoil for you. About halfway through I'm thinking to myself, "Self, this plot doesn't matter. These characters are more metaphorical or something. This book is smarter than you. Here's another war story followed by a letter to read. You don't really understand this book at all, do you?"

At times I got frustrated because I was focused on moving along the plot and Murakami would ping pong around to other topics for a while. Some of the stories went on for a while, some of them were just a few quick pages, but I found myself reading it trying to find a big plot twist or something when that was never the intent. The story and the characters are there to tell a bigger story that transcends the pages of the book.

Once I figured that out, I feel like I still missed a lot. I gotta read this again, man. I feel like if I could read the beginning again now that I know everything, it would make the experience so much richer, so much sweeter. Murakami writes in a way that makes you feel like you're dreaming, moving along different scenes and stories effortlessly, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. It was a surreal experience to take all of this in. It's unlike any book I've read before, and it made me think deeper about life and pain and loss and love and all those hard realities we get to confront on this journey. It was definitely a thrilling and rewarding experience.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again... Y'all need to get some more Murakami in your life. This guy is the real deal. ...more

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Dec 12, 2016 J.L. Sutton rated it it was amazing

I’m a big fan of Haruki Murakami. When you pick up one of his novels, you’re never completely sure where you’ll end up. This is definitely true of the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle! It starts as sort of a detective story in which Toru Okada searches for his wife’s missing cat in their Tokyo suburb. After that, it’s really difficult to say what the book is about. Did the search for the cat trigger all the craziness that swirls around Toru or had everything already been set in motion? And if Toru’s desce ...more

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Dec 31, 2014 Madeline rated it it was ok

Shelves: the-list

I wanted to like this book more than I actually did.

The storytelling is great, and even if I had issues with some of the characters (okay, all of the female characters), they all managed to be consistently compelling. But I just couldn't get into this one. The story, while interesting, sort of meandered around and by the end, it seems to have forgotten where it was trying to go in the first place. Murakami starts plot points, presents us with new mysteries and characters, and then he gets distr ...more

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Feb 22, 2011 Ian "Marvin" Graye rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: exert-yourself, mura-karmic-wonder-land, aa-to-read-soon, nippon, reviews, aa-to-read-2019, aaa-to-re-read-soon

Original Review: February 22, 2011

Songs of Fascination

Murakami sings to me of fascination. I still haven't worked out why.

I could analyse the sensation until it died on the operating table.

Or I could focus on just keeping the sensation alive.

Or, somewhere in between, I could speculate that it's because Murakami sits over the top of modern culture like a thin gossamer web, intersecting with and touching everything ever so lightly, subtly expropriating what he needs, bringing it back to his writer ...more

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Jul 16, 2016 Michael Finocchiaro rated it it was amazing

Shelves: japanese-20th-c, novels, read-in-french, fiction, japanese-lit

This was my first adventure into the magical universe of Haruki Murakami. I am one of the many people that feel that his Nobel Prize for Literature is long overdue - and a lot of that rests on his core work in the 90s including this masterpiece. This is a beautiful multi-level story in typical Murakami fashion with plenty of imagery and fascinating characters. I loved the story, the writing style, and just about everything that was in these 600+ pages. I won't reveal any plot spoilers - I'll jus ...more

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Mar 24, 2011 William2 rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20-ce, japan, translation

I adore this book and wish I could carry my enthusiasm for it to Murakami's other works. But in contrast to Wind-Up Bird Chroncle, those I've read disappoint. (Kafka On the Shore devolved into some wretchedly bad writing after the first half. Or was it wretchedly bad translation? I wish I knew.) Anyway, I have read Wind-Up Bird twice and will read it again. My favorite part is the sequence set during World War II near the Khalkha River in Outer Mongolia. This is Lieutenant Mamiya's tale of a dar ...more

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May 02, 2011 Dan Schwent rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011

Jobless, Toru Okada spends most of his days searching for his missing cat. Until his wife goes missing as well. Why did she leave? Did she ever love him? And can Toru navigate an ocean of strangeness to get her back?

Back when I first joined Goodreads, one of the first things I noticed was how a novel I'd never heard of, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, got so much praise from Goodreaders. Was it hype? Or worse, was it just hipster bullshit? You know what I'm talking about. "I only read novels that ha Jobless, Toru Okada spends most of his days searching for his missing cat. Until his wife goes missing as well. Why did she leave? Did she ever love him? And can Toru navigate an ocean of strangeness to get her back?

Back when I first joined Goodreads, one of the first things I noticed was how a novel I'd never heard of, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, got so much praise from Goodreaders. Was it hype? Or worse, was it just hipster bullshit? You know what I'm talking about. "I only read novels that have been translated from foreign languages. Now let's go watch a foreign film and pretend to understand it."

At the insistence of a Goodreads compadre who seems to have deleted his account since I bought this, I decided to plunk down my money and give it a shot. What did I think? I dug it but don't start fitting me for skinny jeans and a distressed faux-vintage t-shirt quite yet.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a very breezy read, surprisingly so since it was translated from Japanese. It tells the story of Toru Okada's disintegrating life, from his quitting his job at the law firm, to the family cat, Noboru Wataya, named after his wife's brother, going missing, to his wife Kumiko disappearing one morning. From there, things get stranger by the minute. Toru gets entangled with a sort of psychic therapist, Malta Kano, and her sister Creta, as well as striking up an unusual friendship with the unusual girl next door, May Kasahara. And that's before the really weird things start happening.

Weird books are my bread and butter so the weirdness didn't impede my enjoyment one iota. A lot of crazy things happened and the book held my interest the entire time. The writing is wonderful. I felt Toru's emotions as he felt them and I found his reactions to be really believable. When I read Kumiko's letter about why she left, I felt as betrayed as Toru must have felt.

Like I said, I dug it but I didn't love it. There were a lot of weird things happening and a lot of it was never resolved. While I enjoyed the WWII digressions, they felt unnecessary to me. I guess my main beef was that I didn't understand what all the hype was about. Sure, it's very well written but it doesn't have a lot of substance to it, not for being 600 pages long. It reminds me of Douglas Coupland and/or Neal Stephenson once they had achieved the editorial freedom to write whatever they wanted to. Not once did I contemplate taking days off work just to read it, nor did I feel like it was a life changing event.

That's about all I can articulate about The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle at this time. Good, not great. Not as pants-shittingly awesome as I've been lead to believe. Definitely still worth a read, though. ...more

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Sep 30, 2012 Samadrita rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: YOU

Shelves: bygones-are-never-bygones, re-readable, philosophy-philosophical, magical-realism-surrealism, disturbia, modern-classics, world-war-ii, gory-book-is-gory, 1001-and-more, cherished

If I were to use only one word to describe this book, I would type the word 'brilliant' a million times with each letter in CAPITALS and fill up the entire word length of this particular space.

In all its sensitivity, emotional depth and keen understanding of the complications of the human mind The Wind Up Bird Chronicle is a stellar work of literature and a tour de force. I cannot go ahead and say it is Murakami's magnum opus (it is not his longest novel), since I haven't finished with all his t ...more

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Jul 14, 2013 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, literature, mystery, japan, asia, magical-realism

Nejimaki-dori kuronikuru = The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Nejimakitori Kuronikuru) is a novel published in 1994–1995 by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. The first part, "The Thieving Magpie", begins with the narrator, Toru Okada, a low-key unemployed lawyer's assistant, who is tasked by his wife, Kumiko, to find their missing cat. Kumiko suggests looking in the alley, a closed-off strip of land existing behind their house. After Toru has hung out there for ...more

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Apr 10, 2008 Seth T. rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: anyone smarter than a bag of hammers

Shelves: bookclub

Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is actually probably the best novel I've read in a long time. Granted, many of the novels I've read over the last two years have not been spectacular. There was The Lovely Bones. And then The Ass and the Angel. And then His Dark Materials. And others, none of which I would recommend spending any time with.

Wind-Up Bird on the other hand was worth every moment spent burning through its 610 pages. It was mysterious, absorbing, and informative. Murakami writes i ...more

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Sep 15, 2013 Andrew Smith rated it it was amazing

I’ve read quite a few of Murakami’s books in the past few years and it’s caused me to reflect on my feelings about this one, which I worked my way through in late summer 2013.

Beware; it is a weighty and sometimes complex piece. The story follows Toru Okada, a young man whose life is in the doldrums: he has no job, very little ambition, his wife has left him and now his cat has gone missing. In searching for his cat he wonders up and down a closed lane bordering his house and at one point finds I’ve read quite a few of Murakami’s books in the past few years and it’s caused me to reflect on my feelings about this one, which I worked my way through in late summer 2013.

Beware; it is a weighty and sometimes complex piece. The story follows Toru Okada, a young man whose life is in the doldrums: he has no job, very little ambition, his wife has left him and now his cat has gone missing. In searching for his cat he wonders up and down a closed lane bordering his house and at one point finds himself climbing into a dry well, set within the garden of a neighbouring property. He begins to visit this well regularly and whilst sitting in darkness at the bottom he is apt to enter a meditative-like state in which he has experiences that may or may not be dreamt. Yes, it’s quite a surreal tale.

I won’t go into too much more detail about what happens but I will say that some of the characters I met along the way are memorable and some of the sub-stories that develop are really intense and powerful. My personal favourite (and it would make a five star novella on its own) concerns the plight of an old Japanese soldier and his experiences in Manchuria during the Sino-Japanese War.

There is certainly a strong undercurrent of feeling here concerning Japan’s violent aggression during World War II. But that aside, the whole piece is an affecting and thought provoking narrative. I may not have fully comprehended the totality of the tale but it entertained me, touched me and it has stood the test of time - i.e. when asked to list my top three books it often makes the cut.

Murakami is certainly a gifted writer with a wild and brilliant imagination. The settings of his books always take me to unfamiliar places that are culturally different from anything I’ve yet to experience. It’s probably why I go back to his works, even if I fail to enjoy some of them – they are often challenging but always unconventional and off-centre. They tend to stay with me. A handful of his books are amongst a very small percentage of all the books I’ve read that I’m likely to re-visit one day. ...more

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Apr 07, 2011 Darwin8u rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014

“Spend your money on the things money can buy. Spend your time on the things money can’t buy.”
― Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

description

A weird metaphysical (I KNOW it is a bit redundant to start off ANY review of Murakami by dressing it up in adjectives like weird & metaphysical) novel. I remember wanting to buy this book back in 2007, but I was poor and just about to get married and it seemed like my limited money would be better spent on bread and cheese. Now I own three, but I still ...more

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Sep 24, 2011 s.penkevich rated it it was amazing

This is LOST done by the Japanese. This book will blow your face off, or skin it off if you are as unlucky as certain characters, and you will love it for it. Murakami delivers a page turner of a novel that starts innocently with a man looking for his cat after getting sex-ed up on the phone while boiling some spaghetti and quickly drops you down a crazy well of crazed politicians, dream women, dream worlds, WWII horror stories and rich secret corporations. I can't believe this isn't an anime by ...more

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Mar 08, 2019 Prashasti rated it liked it · review of another edition

Murakami inevitably is one of the best pulp fiction writers with a refined & sophisticated taste in music!

As an ardent fan of Murakami, and after reading some of his substantial works, I've come to this conclusion that the experience of reading his books in itself is somewhat analogous to traveling, what really matters is the journey than the destination & in his books, it's more about the substance rather than conclusions.

Apart from the usual magical surrealism & strong hidden metap Murakami inevitably is one of the best pulp fiction writers with a refined & sophisticated taste in music!

As an ardent fan of Murakami, and after reading some of his substantial works, I've come to this conclusion that the experience of reading his books in itself is somewhat analogous to traveling, what really matters is the journey than the destination & in his books, it's more about the substance rather than conclusions.

Apart from the usual magical surrealism & strong hidden metaphors, all hanging in an air of mysticism; this book combines
recollections of the war with metaphysics, dreams, and hallucinations into a powerful and impressionistic work.

Murakami’s literature makes the concept of Existentialism accessible to a modern literary and worldwide audience. I loved the character of May Kasahara the most!

“I laughed. “You’re too young to be so … pessimistic,” I said, using the English word.
“Pessi-what?”
“Pessimistic. It means looking only at the dark side of things.”
“Pessimistic … pessimistic …” She repeated the English to herself over and over,
and then she looked up at me with a fierce glare.
“I’m only sixteen,” she said,
“and I don’t know much about the world, but I do know one thing for sure. If I’m pessimistic, then the adults in this world who are not pessimistic are a bunch of idiots.”

The first 300 pages were really like a roller-coaster, everything seemed well-put, I was just about to find my other Murakami favorite until I reached
the dreadful third part of this novel, the lengthiest 300 pages, it turned noway to the end I had no idea what any of it really meant or where the plot was leading to. The addition of new characters in the third part, i.e. Nutmeg and Cinnamon, I seriously couldn't stand these two,
it was unnecessary to introduce their storylines, just felt too extra, couldn't relate to them and literally killed 80% interest of mine. The Manchuria subplot which was interesting at first but later felt dragging.
To finish reading 300 pages was more like a chore to me, I had to at any cost get rid of this nightmarish frame of mind in order to start afresh to read another book.

No, I don't hate Murakami for this, I still love him, he's still my favorite and I'm still going to read his other works...I'm just extremely disappointed by this read.
Sadly, 3 stars are all I can giveaway to this book.

PS: Don't pick this as your first Murakami book! ...more

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Sep 16, 2007 Dave rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

So before long, you find yourself 340 pages into this book, and you have no idea what's happening.. Rather, you understand all you have read to this point, but still can't determine the direction Murakami is taking you in.

Still, the book is compelling. You can't seem to put it down. Meanwhile it begins to invade your dreams.. in much the same manner that Toru's (the main character) dreams are invaded. You start having dreams about strange women and empty wells.

So cracking into "Book Three", I' ...more

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Jan 29, 2013 Steve rated it really liked it

I think the phrase is “drunk reviewing.” Goodreaders I’ve seen tipple and type often have great success connecting to an audience. I can’t seem to scare up relevant examples, but I figure some of my friends more up on quaff-and-comment mode can help me with that. Imbibing reviewers are liable to say anything. It’s less formulaic. Plus, some previously guarded opinion may slip out. In vino veritas, right? The relevance of this to me is to ask a related question: Can it be said, in the same vein, I think the phrase is “drunk reviewing.” Goodreaders I’ve seen tipple and type often have great success connecting to an audience. I can’t seem to scare up relevant examples, but I figure some of my friends more up on quaff-and-comment mode can help me with that. Imbibing reviewers are liable to say anything. It’s less formulaic. Plus, some previously guarded opinion may slip out. In vino veritas, right? The relevance of this to me is to ask a related question: Can it be said, in the same vein, “In Nyquil, naked truth?” Or if not naked truth, inanity? Or could it be neuroticism? The following is more or less verbatim from last night’s stream-of-semi-consciousness. It may not be the best idea to analgize and analyze or medicate and encapsulate, but sadly enough, it’s all I’ve got.

[Me, in bed; tossing, turning, stealing covers, kicking covers off, with inner voice blathering.]

“This is a dream, right? Well, yeah, but it seems real enough. Besides, if I was really deep in REM sleep, would I be capable of asking the question? Along similar lines, would I know to ask whether surreality is a word? What about metadream? Oh hell, let’s just go with it.

I wonder who I’m meant to be in this quasimetasurreality? All I’m getting is darkness, a vague discomfort, and a closed-in feeling like I’m at the bottom of a well gone dry. Ahh, OK, now I get it. I’m a Murakami character. Does that mean Jay Rubin had a hand in making me? Jeez!

[Flailing back and forth fitfully.]

Oh well, it’s not like I have a choice at this point. They might as well shove me into the friggin’ labyrinth, or waterless well, or wherever it is these internal struggles are meant to play out. Do I at least have a proximate cause for my concerns? A missing cat? A missing wife? Whatever it is, I seem less panicked than I might. I guess I’m not much of a man of action.

[A slight adjustment of the pillow does little to suggest otherwise.]

I’m nondescript (that’s a shoe that fits), kind of an every man, and will need to go deep down within myself to figure out anything interesting. Now I get why I’m in a well. Even a double-shot of Nyquil wouldn’t obscure a symbol that obvious. So now that I’m the protagonist, Mr. Wind-Up Bird, I should be visited by those two psychic sisters. One was like a succubus, but this being a dream of a dream would, I imagine, make her pretty severely pixelated. And what about that wise-beyond-her-years, morbid-beyond-her-aspect teenage girl? She’s supposed to help clarify my odd behavior for me if I’m not mistaken. For that matter, the old soldier who told such a gruesome war story and seems to have so little to live for is also meant to sort me out. Then there are those mother and son mind healers who recognize my latent powers to do the same. Why not. . . it’s a dream, remember? Supernatural or not, it’s all good. And it’s all confusing. But let’s think. I’m down here in my well with plenty of time to mull things over. It’s catharsis time, right? It’s about me, it’s about collective Japanese memories, it’s about humankind, it’s. . . bzzzZZZZZZ. . . 5:45.

Quick, copy and paste to the temporal lobes. I really think this time I’m on the verge of something profound. Now let’s see what, if any of this, holds up past the shower.”

As usual, none of it did pass the shower test. However, the long, half-awake dream did remind me of the feeling I got as the reader, and the connection I felt for the character. He and I may not have crossed the threshold into greater insight or consciousness, but we did catch a glimpse of the gateway. Credit to Murakami for that.
...more

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May 23, 2012 Garima rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: miles-to-go-before-i, prude-me-not, sui-generis, favorites, my-2-cents, time-for-cats

"Know what's weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change. But pretty soon, everything's different.”

Few pages into The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, and this is the very first thought that struck me. If you haven’t read Murakami before, then this book presents itself as a perfect example of what constitutes this great story-teller style. His world would be completely different from that of yours or what you can imagine. It doesn’t know any boundaries between real and surreal, and it might propel you to ...more

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Oct 14, 2014 Luís C. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: on-my-own, favourites, 600-700, japan, casa-das-letras, reading-the-world, 1001-done

Haruki Murakami writes novels whose length can put off at first glance. With nearly seven hundred pages, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is no exception to the rule. Yet, one understands from the first lines that one will have no difficulty in swallowing it, as one is aspired by the semi-existential and half-existentialist atmosphere that surrounds it.

Once again it is a question of following a narrator whose banal life slowly but surely slips into the Symbolist surreal. At first it's only a matter of ...more

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Dec 30, 2013 Erwin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to Erwin by: Garima

Shelves: japanese-literature, magical-realism, japan, favourites

What can I say? This was one weird, yet incredible ride! This was my first introduction to Magical Realism and to Murakami. And one that I can and will recommend to anyone who asks and to those who don't. I won't give a summary here, because I cannot. All I can say is this..... This won't be the last time I will read this novel and I am sure more work by Murakami will follow (already ordered 1Q84). This novel really had, to use a phrase by some TV personality, the WOW-factor for me!

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Oct 05, 2014 Jr Bacdayan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

There was a lunar eclipse tonight. As the moon was consumed by the earth’s shadow, I was consumed by this feeling of pain. Not the physical type of pain, but for lack of a better word a ‘spiritual’ pain that brought suffering to both the mental and the emotional. I was at the local starbucks reading amidst a sea of strangers. I didn’t know what to do. I felt this surging stab that I was losing something so important, that I was losing grip of a part of myself. In reality all that was happening w There was a lunar eclipse tonight. As the moon was consumed by the earth’s shadow, I was consumed by this feeling of pain. Not the physical type of pain, but for lack of a better word a ‘spiritual’ pain that brought suffering to both the mental and the emotional. I was at the local starbucks reading amidst a sea of strangers. I didn’t know what to do. I felt this surging stab that I was losing something so important, that I was losing grip of a part of myself. In reality all that was happening was that I was coming to the end of my reading of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

If nothing, it felt like a dream. I had reality, but every time I was looking forward to dreaming. Dreams have no rules, no logic, but they always made sense and they taught me things about myself. This novel had the very same function. I wanted to go on dreaming forever.

“It aroused a deep sadness in his heart, and at the same time it brought his heart peace and comfort.”

Remember that Kelly Clarkson song ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’? After I got over my pain, I felt the usual relief. I was filled with a great number of emotions as I ended, but after being devastated and broken I felt empty. I closed my copy, closed my eyes and thought of nothing. Nothing entered my mind, blank. It was filled with darkness. I didn’t feel stronger, I felt weaker more than anything. The pain took away a part of my being, but I was still me no matter how reduced I felt.

“Living like an empty shell is not really living, no matter how many years it may go on,” words spoken by Lt. Mamiya. But he will later learn that he was mistaken. There are no such things as empty shells in life. There are only reduced shells, damaged shells.

I guess this is how I see this novel more than anything. Things break, but broken things can be restored. Of course, they are not as good as new. And like anything, people are like that too. We break, we try to restore, but we are never the same. Like Lt. Mamiya, like Mr. Honda, like war veterans who survived in spite of all the gruesome things they’ve encountered, they’re considered as shells of their former selves. But somehow they still put together a life of some sort. They will never return to their pre-war versions, but Lt. Mamiya eventually finds Creta Kano and her baby, and Mr. Honda starts a family. One becomes a high school teacher, the other a sage. Like Kumiko, like Creta Kano, broken, prostituted, but eventually recovered. Both women will bear scars, but they still have their partners who will ignore their marks. Like a house, abandoned, demolished, then built again. Of course the house is different, the structure, the design, but the plot remains the same. Like a well that dries up, stenches, is filled up, is re-dug, and then produces water again. It is now an old structure that no one wants, but it finally served its purpose nonetheless. Like a cat lost, given up for dead, then suddenly found. Discovered quite emaciated, but strange that even its tail seemed to have changed. Like a happy marriage that was broken, then somehow restored. The couple will never be as happy as before, the sense of fragility will always linger. But who’s to say they will never be happy again?

As I said, things broken can always be fixed, though the damage done will never be fully undone. But life is like that, an accumulation of damages and fixtures. It’s learning to live with damages, and learning to fix and re-fix that one should learn to appreciate.

Look, I recovered from my qualms about parting with this novel. I felt broken. I lost a part of myself, sure, a good part I’d say. But I’m still me. I’m sure even you’ve lost or been broken by something, but look at you all patched up and functioning. We tread on.

This novel about one man’s life breaking to psychedelic and chaotic pieces and him putting them together again is a demonstration of man’s persistence and his evolution over time. We repair the broken and we end up transformed. Life will never be the same. I look forward to it.
...more

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Nov 28, 2007 Mariel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: I forgot

Recommended to Mariel by: the unbearable restlessness of being

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle gave my brother nightmares. I think it gave me everlasting daymares, and an incurable restless feeling. Something I love about Murakami is the you-can-tell-them-anything voice of the narrator. I wish I had that. Well, my twin and brother are both Murakami fans and my friends too. It's not like I'll get the total blank lamp post look if I ever find the right words to say (hopefully...). Um, maybe I mean it's that something missing in me I miss. I feel restless 'cause I The Wind-up Bird Chronicle gave my brother nightmares. I think it gave me everlasting daymares, and an incurable restless feeling. Something I love about Murakami is the you-can-tell-them-anything voice of the narrator. I wish I had that. Well, my twin and brother are both Murakami fans and my friends too. It's not like I'll get the total blank lamp post look if I ever find the right words to say (hopefully...). Um, maybe I mean it's that something missing in me I miss. I feel restless 'cause I can't ever get it. It's a struggle to keep my face pointed inward sometimes, and be open and honest and all that jive. I love these kinds of stories 'cause that's what the characters are doing. I hold my breath and try not to lose that thread. I swear, these are the only times I even come close.

This book haunts me. The prostitutes who do nothing but sleep next to their clients. Wow, that's pretty lonely. I'm transgressing now and am going to bring up other stories. Digressing, definitely. (Regressing?) I like the Regina Spektor song about rubbing up against strangers in crowds to feel some contact. Or the Judi Dench character in Notes on a Scandal who is so starved for another human's touch that accidentally brushing her hands with the vet's is orgasmic (don't like that movie, though. Too possessive and that's foriegn I-don't-wanna-visit-territory). I'm not a physically affectionate person (it took long conditioning to get over being just the opposite) and I'd see/read these stories and feel fascinated like a stranger in a strange land (seriously, mouth hung open so the flies could come flying in). The sleeping next to someone I get. What if you die in your sleep and die alone? Getting into the same breathing patterns is very intimate. Yeah, I can get into a lot of stuff in that vein...

Toru's wife and her terrifying brother. Yeah, there's nightmare material ripe for the sandman plucking in here...

Their marriage falling apart tore me apart. Really, it's not like I'm a little kid and they are my parents. No, but you were supposed to be together and with me FOREVER! The knowing what you know and then finding out that was not the same thing other people knew at all, what you were supposed to have known together (ugh relationships). It's comforting and horrifying at the same time, the no-man's island of self.

I loved not being alone while asking these kinds of questions with the answers you know are in there somewhere if you could only be quiet long enough to hear them. Yeah, the story isn't linear. But who thinks and feels and asks anything in a straight answer?

P.s. Radiohead were influenced by this novel for their music. I read once that Murakami got into Radiohead and was influenced by them (Kafka on the Shore? Maybe?).

P.s.s. Murakami was influenced by Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's. Sharing stuff like that makes me feel happy. Like a shared experience. (Since I wasn't around for Woodstock or the Crucifixion. The cat was probably there for both parties, rubbing against everyone's legs for some animal contact.) ...more

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Reading 1001: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle- Haruki Murakami	4	12	Apr 27, 2019 05:35PM
Goodreads Librari...: Add ISBN-19, correction	3	16	Apr 25, 2019 03:05AM
The little boy in the window	17	473	Jul 08, 2018 07:38PM
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Some Thoughts and Questions..	5	234	Jul 08, 2018 03:18AM
Play Book Tag: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami 3.5/5	10	36	Feb 21, 2018 04:19PM
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About Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami

69,131 followers

Murakami Haruki (Japanese: 村上春樹) is a popular contemporary Japanese writer and translator. His work has been described as 'easily accessible, yet profoundly complex'. He can be located on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/harukimuraka...

Since childhood, Murakami has been heavily influenced by Western culture, particularly Western music and literature. He grew up reading a range of works by Am ...more

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Quotes from The Wind-Up Bird ...

“But even so, every now and then I would feel a violent stab of loneliness. The very water I drink, the very air I breathe, would feel like long, sharp needles. The pages of a book in my hands would take on the threatening metallic gleam of razor blades. I could hear the roots of loneliness creeping through me when the world was hushed at four o'clock in the morning.” — 1873 likes

“Is it possible, in the final analysis, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another?
We can invest enormous time and energy in serious efforts to know another person, but in the end, how close can we come to that person's essence? We convince ourselves that we know the other person well, but do we really know anything important about anyone?” — 1862 likes

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