Sorry, you must be a member of the group to do that. Join this group.
Reading 1001 discussion
This topic is about
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
1001 book reviews
>
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle- Haruki Murakami
date
newest »
newest »
Mod
Anyway, ..."
This was the first Murakami I read and I loved it. My reading of his books has been spaced out by years so I thought 1Q84 was just as charming. I haven't read Kafka by the Shore yet but looking forward to it.
Kafka by the Shore is one of my favorite books I've read for the list so far: so if you've liked his other work I'm sure you're going to love it too Diane 😊
Mod
I loved this book. Murakami is one of my favorite authors-- reading his books is like getting completely wrapped up in a huge, soft, comfy old sweater. It was also interesting to read about WWII events from a Japanese PoV-- almost everything I had read about that war was very Eurocentric (Nazis) or set in Communist Russia/USSR.
Rating: 5 starsMy favorite Murakami so far, but I have yet to read Kafka on the Shore. It is hard to describe everything that takes place in this novel. Basically, a man with a rather mundane life slips into the surreal after his wife leaves him.
This book is heavy on magical realism and it is often difficult to determine what is real and what is part of a dream. Reality and dream seem to weave together in the end. I really enjoyed Mr. Honda's war stories, too.
Mod
****
Vintage Murakami novel, with lonesome characters to whom the world seems to fall apart, only to bring them into a parallel universe where everything is made right (to an almost complete extent). The usual elements are there, the musical references, the literary references, the influential role of sex as a device to instill rules linking reality and this parallel universe, characters out of this world and probably borrowed from David Lynch's worlds. A page-turner, where even the most mundane and boring aspects of life are made interesting and filled with some tension, where the fate and motives of many characters are left untold, unanswered, leaving the reader to himself/herself to figure out what the hell actually went on. One day, I hope, we will know more about undercover Ushikawa, before his demise in 1Q84...
Anyway, here's my thoughts on this book: 3 stars, but probably biased because I read both 1Q84 and Kafka by the Shore recently and felt like this one was just very similar to those 2, so maybe I'm getting exhausted a little bit by the repeating Murakami-isms (there's cats, alternate dimension shifting, a weird para sexual relationship with a teenager, wells, gang intrigue, a woman with a mysterious past and special powers).
I mean, it was good and I was entertained/intrigued. But, I do ultimately feel like I've read a better version of this book already (Kafka by the Shore remains my favorite).