The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle in Around the Year in 52 Books

Oct 23, 2020 Blaine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite-reviews, 2020, e-book

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?
...
Everybody's born with some different thing at the core of their existence. And that thing, whatever it is, becomes like a heat source th

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?
...
Everybody's born with some different thing at the core of their existence. And that thing, whatever it is, becomes like a heat source that runs each person from the inside. I have one too, of course. Like everybody else. But sometimes it gets out of hand. It swells or shrinks inside me, and it shakes me up. What I'd really like to do is find a way to communicate that feeling to another person. But I can't seem to do it. They just don't get it. Of course, the problem could be that I'm not explaining it very well, but I think it's because they're not listening very well. They pretend to be listening, but they're not, really.
...
The point is, not to resist the flow. You go up when you're supposed to go up and down when you're supposed to go down. When you're supposed to go up, find the highest tower and climb to the top. When you're supposed to go down, find the deepest well and go down to the bottom. When there's no flow, stay still. If you resist the flow, everything dries up. If everything dries up, the world is darkness.

A surface-level summary of this novel: a young, unemployed Tokyo man named Toru Okada is asked by his wife Kumiko to search for their missing cat. His search brings him into the orbit of several new and unusual people: a mysterious woman who calls Toru from time to time insisting that he knows her and that she’ll only be free when he remembers her name; May Kasahara, a cheerful yet morbid teenager; Malta Kano, a psychic, and her younger sister, Creta Kano, who styles herself a “prostitute of the mind”; Lieutenant Mamiya, a veteran forever changed by his experiences during the Japanese WWII campaign in Manchuria; a mother and son who call themselves Nutmeg and Cinnamon Akasaka.

When Kumiko then disappears, Toru is forced to deal with her brother, Noboru Wataya, a dangerous, popular young politician. We are shown Toru and Kumiko’s courtship, their marriage, and how things fell apart. Symbols are everywhere: day, night, water, wells, labyrinths, music, marks on cheeks, the wind-up bird. And the novel is full of magical realism, employing so many dreams and flashbacks that the entire story has an air of unreality to it. We get the backstories of each of the characters above, and slowly links between them begin to emerge, all revolving around the central question of whether Toru can find Kumiko and repair their damaged relationship?

Ok, but what is this novel about? Well, that’s harder to explain. It’s about isolation and alienation. This book is about fate and destiny, people who feel controlled by outside forces and people who feel like empty shells or hollow men. It’s about the danger of desire. It grapples with the horrors of war, specifically Japan reckoning with its wartime actions in Asia. But even more broadly it examines the harm people—those so filled with hate that they defile those they come into contact with—can cause one another, and their polar opposites who actually use their power to help others.

That sounds pretty out there. Will I like this book? Obviously I can’t guarantee you will, but I don’t normally go for magical realism and I loved this book. The writing is great, and very easy to read, especially for a translated work of literary fiction. I found the characters and the story completely absorbing, even if I didn’t always feel like I understood the meaning of everything that was happening. People apparently compare Mr. Murakami to Thomas Pynchon, but I haven’t yet read any of his books. The storytelling style here reminded me of Stephen King’s doorstop novels like The Stand and It. There are tales within tales, each fascinating even if only tangentially related to the main story being told.

I had this book on my radar for years, but it’s size and scope were intimidating. I only finally gave it a go this year when two different book challenges I’m doing had a category for books set in Japan. Don’t wait like I did. Find a copy and dive in. You’ll likely be very glad you did. Highly recommended. ...more

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May 23, 2020 Hinda Rochel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Such a fantastic, strange journey, at the heart of which is a man's deep love for a woman. ...more

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Mar 04, 2015 Marie (UK) rated it did not like it

Shelves: 2015-reading-challenge

well i either read a different book to the one these other people think so fabulous or something is very wrong. I have no idea what of this book was actually happening and what was in the warped mind of Toru Okadu. Full of macabre dialler erotic dialogue which have little to do with anything Toru experiences or dreams a whole litany of rubbish, With characters named after countries (creta and Malta Karna( and spices (cinnamon and Nutmeg). This out of work and presumably not very wealthy man meet ...more

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