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Loading... The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel (original 1995; edition 1998)by Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin (Translator)
Work InformationThe Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (1995)
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This was my first Murakami novel. I liked some parts of it a lot. Especially the first half of the story - a fascinating blend of reality and fantasy. What is real, and what is a dream? But I don't think the different elements of the novel came together and formed a coherent story. All the WWII stuff with harrowing stories, the young girl's ramblings, hiding in the well, etc. What's the connection? I liked Creta Kano and her back story, but she suddenly disappeared from the story without explanation. Well, overall, I liked the feeling it created of loneliness and the inability to know what reality is. ( ) It was a refreshing getaway from the real world, but I didn't have that edge-of-your-seat-must-read-on feeling that most people describe about it. It was more like a not-really-sure-whats-going-on-so-read-till-its-over kind of feeling. It did get me thinking about who my alternate reality arch-nemesis might be, havn't come up with anything yet. I was reminded of this book today because I was discussing the movie Burning which is based on one of Murakami's short stories with my coworker, and he asked if there have been any other adaptations of Murakami's works. I googled it an saw that there was a stage adaptation of this one, and promptly stated I would probably throw up if forced to watch it (and not in a good way). So, simply put, this one is not for the faint of heart.It had everything I expect in a Murakami book: a missing woman, a cat, weird sex dreams, the consumption of simple meals and a few strange side characters. I was especially excited to see
By the book's midway point, the novelist-juggler has tossed so many balls into the air that he inevitably misses a few on the way down. Visionary artists aren't always neat: who reads Kafka for his tight construction? In ''The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle'' Murakami has written a bold and generous book, and one that would have lost a great deal by being tidied up. Mr. Murakami seems to have tried to write a book with the esthetic heft and vision of, say, Don DeLillo's ''Underworld'' or Salman Rushdie's ''The Moor's Last Sigh,'' he is only intermittently successful. ''Wind-Up Bird'' has some powerful scenes of antic comedy and some shattering scenes of historical power, but such moments do not add up to a satisfying, fully fashioned novel. In trying to depict a fragmented, chaotic and ultimately unknowable world, Mr. Murakami has written a fragmentary and chaotic book. Is contained inContainsHas the adaptationHas as a reference guide/companionAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
Fantasy.
Fiction.
Literature.
HTML:A "dreamlike and compellingâ? tour de force (Chicago Tribune)â??an astonishingly imaginative detective story, an account of a disintegrating marriage, and an excavation of the buried secrets from Japanâ??s forgotten campaign in Manchuria during World War II. In a Tokyo suburb, a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wifeâ??s missing catâ??and then for his wife as wellâ??in a netherworld beneath the cityâ??s placid surface. As these searches intersect, he encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists. Gripping, prophetic, and suffused with comedy and menace, this is one of Haruki Murakamiâ??s most accla No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)895.635Literature Literature of other languages Asian (east and south east) languages Japanese Japanese fiction 1945–2000LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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