 "ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I EVER READ!" | 2009-09-10 |
| - Reviewed By User: AZ1O9IWH0S6KW |
| IT was a little expensive for what it was worth for, but boy oh' boy was it a great book to read |
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 "The Wind-Up Bird" | 2009-09-04 |
| - Reviewed By User: APXFFFW06LMF3 |
| Wow! This took quite a while to get through, and in small doses. I read it because my book club picked it. I really didn't get into it until the last half, and I kept reading because I thought sooner or later it would make sense. I think the book was probably fine - I'm just not crazy about this sytle, topic, or writer. |
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| "A tapestry, a puzzle, an imaginitive work of art" | 2009-07-16 |
| - Reviewed By invaderzim |
Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a wonderfully written, complex and confusing tapestry of bizarre characters and cryptic metaphors. Perhaps I'm not quite smart enough to piece together everything Murakami is trying to say in this epic volume (it would take hours of outlining and highlighting for me to decrypt this book fully), but that's okay because I'm not writing this to spoil the book anyways. And while I can't claim to know everything the author was trying to say, there is plenty in the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle that everyone should be able to take something from it.
Despite the fact that as the book starts it gives no hint as to where it's going, I was immediately engrossed by Murakami's characters and writing style. I had no idea what direction the book was taking and none of the events seemed to be leading toward anything substantial, but I didn't care and read on anyways. The author's style is simple but elegant, the dialogue very straightforward and strange, and each character unique and... well also strange. I'm sure some of the strangeness comes from the fact that Japanese can't possibly be translated into English precisely, but it's also apparent that Haruki Murakami has his own unique and rather odd writing voice.
At face value, the premise of this book is really simple: the main character, Toru Okada, is searching for the cat that belongs to him and his wife Kumiko. As he searches for it, he meets strange characters that help him on the way. Soon, his wife disappears as well and he ends up on a search for her instead. So if you take it all literally, the book is about Toru meeting a variety of characters as he's looking for his cat and his wife. Wind-up Bird isn't a book to be taken at face value, however, which is why the book is 600 pages and not much shorter. As I read on, I realized that it was hard to determine how much of this book is meant to be taken literally and how much was figurative for something else Murakami was trying to say entirely. Upon finishing it, a lot of these puzzle pieces seemed to fit together, and yet a lot more seemed to have no place at all. I suppose I'll have to lend this book to some people who are smarter than myself who can help me analyze it more thoroughly.
One thing that was consistent throughout the book was the plethora of enjoyable allies (and in one or two cases, enemies) that Toru Okada meets. These characters, to name a few, comprise of a psychic prostitute and her psychic sister, a marriage councilor/war veteran who may also be psychic, another war veteran friend of his who's lived an entirely lonely and empty life since returning from war, a fashion designer/healer and her mute son, a neighboring teenager who seems to understand the human condition, an evil brother in law, and many more... The only characters who seem to be "normal" in this whole mess are Kumiko and Toru himself.
This however is where I think the book is most deceiving. As he meets these seemingly random characters, it seems that each one represents a different aspect of his wife, himself and their marriage. The psychic prostitute Creta Kano seems to represent his wife physically and sexually, Lt Mayima who lives an empty life since coming back from war in Mongolia seems to represent what Toru is afraid of becoming should he lose his wife, Noboru Wataya (both Kumiko's brother and the cat they named after him) seem to represent the rift in their marriage; their cat left just before Kumiko did and Kumiko's brother was always opposed to their marriage... Most characters seemed to be a facet of Toru's life. One character I can't quite find a place for in this scheme is May Kasahara, Toru's eccentric teenage neighbor. May is easily my favorite character and her dialogues with Toru were the book's most entertaining passages to me. If anything, she seemed to ask all the questions and bring up all the topics that Toru normally wouldn't have thought of or brought up himself, so perhaps she represents some suppressed portion of his psyche and imagination. I had my pencil handy when I read those sections so I could underline some of the hilarious and genius things that May's character said.
Throughout Wind-Up bird there are certain themes that Murakami keeps coming back to. Loneliness might be the most prevalent theme throughout the book. Toru is afraid of being without his wife and the character Lt. Mayima's life of loneliness seems to be a foreshadowing to Toru if his life doesn't change. Understanding is another theme here. Murakami references on numerous occasions how no matter how well you think you know someone, they will always truly be a stranger, and yet he also conveys that you hardly need to know someone for anytime at all to know everything important about them. Fate and destiny plays a role here as well, which isn't surprising considering the number of psychic characters there are giving premonitions. Dreams are also a major piece of the puzzle that is this book, in how they are interpreted and differentiating between them and reality. And of one aspect of the book that continued to surface was the wind-up bird itself, which shows up at random intervals, revealing it's strange creaking call to various characters and yet is never truly seen.
There are still many questions I have after finishing it, such as: what purpose did the wind-up bird serve and why did it appear when it did? What exactly happened to Toru in the well? What was behind the story of the boy and the tree? Rather than frustrate me, these questions just keep me fascinated, thinking about the book more and more, even as I write this review.
This is the first of Murakami's work that I've read and I definitely will be reading more. Perhaps it would have been better to read another book or two of his first so I could get an idea of his style before tackling Wind-Up Bird, but I have no regrets. The book is insightful, humorous, imaginative and just all around enjoyable. Do I recommend this book? Yes, but only to those who would have the patience for it. It's long, cryptic and doesn't tie up in a nice package at the end (my only personal gripe came in discovering that there are two chapters from the original Japanese version that didn't make it here). But for readers of Tom Robbins, Kurt Vonnegut and other eccentric authors, Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle might be right up your alley. |
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| "A tapestry, a puzzle, an bizzare work of art" | 2009-07-16 |
| - Reviewed By invaderzim |
Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a wonderfully written, complex and confusing tapestry of bizarre characters and cryptic metaphors. Perhaps I'm not quite smart enough to piece together everything Murakami is trying to say in this epic volume (it would take hours of outlining and highlighting for me to decrypt this book fully), but that's okay because I'm not writing this to spoil the book anyways. And while I can't claim to know everything the author was trying to say, there is plenty in the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle that everyone should be able to take something from it.
Despite the fact that as the book starts it gives no hint as to where it's going, I was immediately engrossed by Murakami's characters and writing style. I had no idea what direction the book was taking and none of the events seemed to be leading toward anything substantial, but I didn't care and read on anyways. The author's style is simple but elegant, the dialogue very straightforward and strange, and each character unique and... well also strange. I'm sure some of the strangeness comes from the fact that Japanese can't possibly be translated into English precisely, but it's also apparent that Haruki Murakami has his own unique and rather odd writing voice.
At face value, the premise of this book is really simple: the main character, Toru Okada, is searching for the cat that belongs to him and his wife Kumiko. As he searches for it, he meets strange characters that help him on the way. Soon, his wife disappears as well and he ends up on a search for her instead. So if you take it all literally, the book is about Toru meeting a variety of characters as he's looking for his cat and his wife. Wind-up Bird isn't a book to be taken at face value, however, which is why the book is 600 pages and not much shorter. As I read on, I realized that it was hard to determine how much of this book is meant to be taken literally and how much was figurative for something else Murakami was trying to say entirely. Upon finishing it, a lot of these puzzle pieces seemed to fit together, and yet a lot more seemed to have no place at all. I suppose I'll have to lend this book to some people who are smarter than myself who can help me analyze it more thoroughly.
One thing that was consistent throughout the book was the plethora of enjoyable allies (and in one or two cases, enemies) that Toru Okada meets. These characters, to name a few, comprise of a psychic prostitute and her psychic sister, a marriage councilor/war veteran who may also be psychic, another war veteran friend of his who's lived an entirely lonely and empty life since returning from war, a fashion designer/healer and her mute son, a neighboring teenager who seems to understand the human condition, an evil brother in law, and many more... The only characters who seem to be "normal" in this whole mess are Kumiko and Toru himself.
This however is where I think the book is most deceiving. As he meets these seemingly random characters, it seems that each one represents a different aspect of his wife, himself and their marriage. The psychic prostitute Creta Kano seems to represent his wife physically and sexually, Lt Mayima who lives an empty life since coming back from war in Mongolia seems to represent what Toru is afraid of becoming should he lose his wife, Noboru Wataya (both Kumiko's brother and the cat they named after him) seem to represent the rift in their marriage; their cat left just before Kumiko did and Kumiko's brother was always opposed to their marriage... Most characters seemed to be a facet of Toru's life. One character I can't quite find a place for in this scheme is May Kasahara, Toru's eccentric teenage neighbor. May is easily my favorite character and her dialogues with Toru were the book's most entertaining passages to me. If anything, she seemed to ask all the questions and bring up all the topics that Toru normally wouldn't have thought of or brought up himself, so perhaps she represents some suppressed portion of his psyche and imagination. I had my pencil handy when I read those sections so I could underline some of the hilarious and genius things that May's character said.
Throughout Wind-Up bird there are certain themes that Murakami keeps coming back to. Loneliness might be the most prevalent theme throughout the book. Toru is afraid of being without his wife and the character Lt. Mayima's life of loneliness seems to be a foreshadowing to Toru if his life doesn't change. Understanding is another theme here. Murakami references on numerous occasions how no matter how well you think you know someone, they will always truly be a stranger, and yet he also conveys that you hardly need to know someone for anytime at all to know everything important about them. Fate and destiny plays a role here as well, which isn't surprising considering the number of psychic characters there are giving premonitions. Dreams are also a major piece of the puzzle that is this book, in how they are interpreted and differentiating between them and reality. And of one aspect of the book that continued to surface was the wind-up bird itself, which shows up at random intervals, revealing it's strange creaking call to various characters and yet is never truly seen.
There are still many questions I have after finishing it, such as: what purpose did the wind-up bird serve and why did it appear when it did? What exactly happened to Toru in the well? What was behind the story of the boy and the tree? Rather than frustrate me, these questions just keep me fascinated, thinking about the book more and more, even as I write this review.
This is the first of Murakami's work that I've read and I definitely will be reading more. Perhaps it would have been better to read another book or two of his first so I could get an idea of his style before tackling Wind-Up Bird, but I have no regrets. The book is insightful, humorous, imaginative and just all around enjoyable. Do I recommend this book? Yes, but only to those who would have the patience for it. It's long, cryptic and doesn't tie up in a nice package at the end (my only personal gripe came in discovering that there are two chapters from the original Japanese version that didn't make it here). But for readers of Tom Robbins, Kurt Vonnegut and other eccentric authors, Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle might be right up your alley. |
| |
| "A tapestry, a puzzle, a bizzare work of art" | 2009-07-16 |
| - Reviewed By invaderzim |
Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a wonderfully written, complex and confusing tapestry of bizarre characters and cryptic metaphors. Perhaps I'm not quite smart enough to piece together everything Murakami is trying to say in this epic volume (it would take hours of outlining and highlighting for me to decrypt this book fully), but that's okay because I'm not writing this to spoil the book anyways. And while I can't claim to know everything the author was trying to say, there is plenty in the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle that everyone should be able to take something from it.
Despite the fact that as the book starts it gives no hint as to where it's going, I was immediately engrossed by Murakami's characters and writing style. I had no idea what direction the book was taking and none of the events seemed to be leading toward anything substantial, but I didn't care and read on anyways. The author's style is simple but elegant, the dialogue very straightforward and strange, and each character unique and... well also strange. I'm sure some of the strangeness comes from the fact that Japanese can't possibly be translated into English precisely, but it's also apparent that Haruki Murakami has his own unique and rather odd writing voice.
At face value, the premise of this book is really simple: the main character, Toru Okada, is searching for the cat that belongs to him and his wife Kumiko. As he searches for it, he meets strange characters that help him on the way. Soon, his wife disappears as well and he ends up on a search for her instead. So if you take it all literally, the book is about Toru meeting a variety of characters as he's looking for his cat and his wife. Wind-up Bird isn't a book to be taken at face value, however, which is why the book is 600 pages and not much shorter. As I read on, I realized that it was hard to determine how much of this book is meant to be taken literally and how much was figurative for something else Murakami was trying to say entirely. Upon finishing it, a lot of these puzzle pieces seemed to fit together, and yet a lot more seemed to have no place at all. I suppose I'll have to lend this book to some people who are smarter than myself who can help me analyze it more thoroughly.
One thing that was consistent throughout the book was the plethora of enjoyable allies (and in one or two cases, enemies) that Toru Okada meets. These characters, to name a few, comprise of a psychic prostitute and her psychic sister, a marriage councilor/war veteran who may also be psychic, another war veteran friend of his who's lived an entirely lonely and empty life since returning from war, a fashion designer/healer and her mute son, a neighboring teenager who seems to understand the human condition, an evil brother in law, and many more... The only characters who seem to be "normal" in this whole mess are Kumiko and Toru himself.
This however is where I think the book is most deceiving. As he meets these seemingly random characters, it seems that each one represents a different aspect of his wife, himself and their marriage. The psychic prostitute Creta Kano seems to represent his wife physically and sexually, Lt Mayima who lives an empty life since coming back from war in Mongolia seems to represent what Toru is afraid of becoming should he lose his wife, Noboru Wataya (both Kumiko's brother and the cat they named after him) seem to represent the rift in their marriage; their cat left just before Kumiko did and Kumiko's brother was always opposed to their marriage... Most characters seemed to be a facet of Toru's life. One character I can't quite find a place for in this scheme is May Kasahara, Toru's eccentric teenage neighbor. May is easily my favorite character and her dialogues with Toru were the book's most entertaining passages to me. If anything, she seemed to ask all the questions and bring up all the topics that Toru normally wouldn't have thought of or brought up himself, so perhaps she represents some suppressed portion of his psyche and imagination. I had my pencil handy when I read those sections so I could underline some of the hilarious and genius things that May's character said.
Throughout Wind-Up bird there are certain themes that Murakami keeps coming back to. Loneliness might be the most prevalent theme throughout the book. Toru is afraid of being without his wife and the character Lt. Mayima's life of loneliness seems to be a foreshadowing to Toru if his life doesn't change. Understanding is another theme here. Murakami references on numerous occasions how no matter how well you think you know someone, they will always truly be a stranger, and yet he also conveys that you hardly need to know someone for anytime at all to know everything important about them. Fate and destiny plays a role here as well, which isn't surprising considering the number of psychic characters there are giving premonitions. Dreams are also a major piece of the puzzle that is this book, in how they are interpreted and differentiating between them and reality. And of one aspect of the book that continued to surface was the wind-up bird itself, which shows up at random intervals, revealing it's strange creaking call to various characters and yet is never truly seen.
There are still many questions I have after finishing it, such as: what purpose did the wind-up bird serve and why did it appear when it did? What exactly happened to Toru in the well? What was behind the story of the boy and the tree? Rather than frustrate me, these questions just keep me fascinated, thinking about the book more and more, even as I write this review.
This is the first of Murakami's work that I've read and I definitely will be reading more. Perhaps it would have been better to read another book or two of his first so I could get an idea of his style before tackling Wind-Up Bird, but I have no regrets. The book is insightful, humorous, imaginative and just all around enjoyable. Do I recommend this book? Yes, but only to those who would have the patience for it. It's long, cryptic and doesn't tie up in a nice package at the end (my only personal gripe came in discovering that there are two chapters from the original Japanese version that didn't make it here). But for readers of Tom Robbins, Kurt Vonnegut and other eccentric authors, Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle might be right up your alley. |
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 "Well of Ideas" | 2009-06-18 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1YTX3DE91QF1K |
| In WUBC, the mark the past leaves on our psyches is as clear as the ghost prints in BELOVED. Our attention to details (of our appearance, families, sex lives, homes, pets) seems a mere escape from the huge problems of the present which hit us with their baseball bats. Like Eliot's "The Hollow Men," we dive into a wonderland of fantasy in our incapacity to act. Not only post WW2 Japanese float through life; Murakami suggests there is hope in silence and in the bird song of those who fight to wind the world, witness the Twitter revolution in Iran today. Even the well sees the light occasionally. |
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