A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel

Maagiline lammas, jumala telefoninumber ja vastupandamatult erootilised kõrvad
Pärast “Kafka mererannas” vapustavalt positiivset lugemiskogemust eelmisel aastal olen silmad Murakami muude asjade suhtes lahti hoidnud. Järgmisena sattus mulle ette “Wild Sheep Chase”. Ja tõesti – kui eesti keeles ilmunud “Norra metsa” ja “Kafka” puhul on pidevalt rõhutatud, kui erinevad need raamatud on, siis WSC läheb minu jaoks vähemalt “Kafkaga” samasse klassi – see müstiline, voolav, kummalisi tegelasi ja süžeepöördeid täis teos on jäägitult köitev. Erinevalt kahest eelmisest eesti keeles loetud teosest tajusin ma selles ka esmakordselt tempo erinevust – lugu voolab kohati väga aeglaselt, on paljude kurvide ja show more käändudega. Kuid see ei muuda lugemist sugugi igavaks, lausa vastupidi, sest sügavate tumedate võrendike pinna all varitsevad kummalised olendid/märgid, kellest päris mitme olulisust loo jaoks pole võimalik näha enne, kui oled lõppu jõudnud.
WSC lõpetab Murakami nn Roti-triloogia (esimene “Hear the Wind Sing”, teine “Pinball”, mõlemad 1973) ja seda peetakse tema nn läbimurdeteoseks. Pole ka raske mõista, miks. WSC-d võiks teatud mööndustega pidada korraga nii road-novel’iks, krimkaks, fantaasiateoseks kui filosoofiliseks mõtiskluseks pärastsõjaaegse Jaapani ühiskonna üle. Aga hoolimata sellest, et tegemist on väga mitmekihilise allegooriaga, on lugu tegelikult väga lihtne – see on lugu mehest, kes on üdini keskpärane ja kes triivib sihitult läbi elu. Kõik muutub, kui ta avaldab ühes reklaambrošüüris illustratsioonina Roti-nimelise sõbra poolt saadetud suvalise foto mäenõlval söövast lambakarjast. Järgnevas sunnitud retkes läbi Jaapani (kadunud sõbra ja üheainsa väga konkreetse müstilise lamba otsingul) põimib Murakami täiesti geniaalselt kokku kõige igavama igapäevase elu, Jaapani ajaloo, ülikummalised inimesed ja müstilised olendid ning juhtimised, mis ometi klapivad omavahel vähimagi ebakõlata – on võimatu mõelda, et lugu võiks toimida kuidagi teisti. Raamat moodustab võimatu terviku, mis on ometi ainuvõimalik. Ja nagu juba öeldud – viimased killud langevad paika alles päris viimastes peatükkides.
Kirsiks koogi peal on muidugi Murakami kirjutamisstiil ja suutlikkus anda edasi meeleolusid, kirjeldada paiku ja eelkõige nende õhkkonda, anda edasi seda tabamatut miskit, mis teeb paikadest selle, mis need on. Elavaks ja isikupäraseks on raamatus saanud isegi pimedus ja vaikus, tuulest ja maast rääkimata. show less

Hidden in the midst of The Wild Sheep Chase are mysteries. Early on, the nameless narrator receives a letter from someone he didn't want to think about. He throws the letter away without opening it. As the reader, are we supposed to remember this letter? Is it important later on? I'm thinking it must be or it wouldn't have been presented in such a way. Right? Wrong assumption. This nameless protagonist has been issued a threat - find a unique sheep with a star on its back or else. The blackmail is terrifying in an unspecific way. Get use to the vagueness of A Wild Sheep Chase. No one has a proper name. Not the narrator, ex-wife, girlfriend, business partner, or even the strange man dressed in a sheep suit.
The entire time I was reading A show more Wild Sheep Chase I thought it could be a video game...either that or a fever dream. You find yourself questioning chaos versus mediocrity. The negating of cognition. Part I begins in November of 1970. This date is important but you won't realize it until long after you've closed the book. Like I said, fever dream. show less

I kept thinking something was missing from the book a day after I had completed reading it…Granted, there were other distractions going on in this narrative to keep my figurative head on a swivel, but besides the engaging storyline, ambiguous animal referents, cool aphorisms etc…It occurred to me and I did a thumb-lift, fanning the pages and there it was: Murakami forgot to name the characters…I felt sheepish.

Murakami by my reckoning, along with Roth, McCarthy and Atwood, is one of the most widely read of the possible 2009 Nobel candidates. Go to any major chain bookseller and you will likely find at least five of his novels in translation. There are those literary brow elevation types that find popularity off-putting, I guess show more their equation goes: widely read = trite, petty, superficial. Dunno about math, but I think Umberto Ecco manages to carry some weight in both popular and literary camps.

Viscera

A Wild Sheep Chase was first published in Japan in 1982. It was a third novel in the so called Rat Trilogy and the first two have not been translated into English as Murakami felt they are weak efforts. After boiling and simmering it can be reduced to a linear plotted mystery slash adventure slash quest that takes place in Tokyo and the wilds of northern Japan in the 1970’s. The holy grail of the quest is a singular sheep of unknown breed bearing a star shaped mark on its back.

Bones

The first person narrator, the unnamed protagonist, has been recently divorced and suffers from mild boredom to full blown angst. His is a highly sensitized imagination and allows Murakami full freedom in his narrative to range from miniaturist attention in painting details, to opening up into (the too abused term) Magic Realism terrain. Disarming and droll, reading the dialogue parts out loud, the tone is something I could imagine hearing in personal casual conversation among friends. Its what we lit-crits like to call (to use a highly refined term) Laid Back Cool. Our erstwhile hero has the uncanny ability to frame things in glib generalities (this is even pointed out to him by other characters). As mentioned earlier, there are no proper named characters in the novel. Two peripheral character- friends are referred by a single letter ‘J’. Other than the narrator, the characters have titles: The Rat, The Boss, The Strange Man, The Chauffeur, my girlfriend, The Sheep Professor, The Dolphin Hotel owner and so on… Our disabused hero is in a state of spiritual resignation:

"We can if we choose, wonder aimlessly over the continent of the arbitrary. Rootless as some winged seed blown about on a serendipitous spring breeze. Nonetheless, we can at the same breath deny that there is such a thing as coincidence. What’s done is done, what’s yet to be, is clearly yet to be. And so on. In other words, sandwiched as we are between the ‘everything’ that is behind us, and the ‘zero’ beyond us, ours is the ephemeral existence in which there is neither coincidence or possibility. In actual practice, however, distinctions between the two interpretations amount to precious little."

　

Buried under the petty surfaces, the multitude of references to mass consumables (beer, wine, 2 packs of cigs a day), the icons of popular music, is a sense of a disconnection and isolation. Imagery of solipsism (fancy word meaning the theory that the self can only know its own reality) abounds, a severed whale’s penis in its own glass case, the aquarium images, all speak to each entitie’s having a self contained reality. Enter the mysterious star-backed sheep into this vacuum. It is only until The Strange Man (functioning as a Mephistopheles of sorts) drops a figurative bomb to our hero that the Sheep’s function on a Uber level is apparent. Its so tempting (at least with my lazy readers mind) to quickly file it under “sheep = allegory for_______” and stow for later ‘use’. Like Kafka (to whom Murakami has openly said is a starting point for his fiction) and like an earlier reviewed Tatyana Tolstaya novel, The Slynx, its incorrect to pin the ‘allegory’ badge to these works. These associations are ambiguous, and suggestive of multiple meanings. They are totally open to individual interpretations rather than a set of instructions. The associations are not meant to be ‘find the hidden idea/institution/concept puzzles’ put in by the authors. I disagree with one reviewer who has claimed The Sheep stands precisely for Right Wing Evangelical Christians. (I made that last part up- that’s actually what my knee-jerk find the meaning in the symbol reader-self did).

What I found most interesting is the book’s last section that takes part in the remote northern mountains. As our hero and his girlfriend with the portentous ears trek up to the last leg of the quest, their journey up the mountain to the high meadow is like a spiritual passage, they had to pass by the treacherous, windswept ‘dead man’s curve, where they topped out into the peaceful vast mountain meadow. There are several associations with Shinto in this section: the animism of ‘the sheepman’, time is in temporary suspension (the grandfather clock needs winding) and the suggestion of a portal (the bedroom mirror). I am not up on my knowledge of Buddhism, but I am guessing digging in that direction would be fruitful.

What I took away.

First a mention must be made about this translation by Alfred Birnbaum. It is excellent. I have gathered translators of some of his other Englished novels is a mixed bag, and there is a controversy about how much finally was edited out of the English version of his most acclaimed novel, The Wind Up Bird Chronicle… I have no problems with Murakami’s famous western pop culture references, indeed, without a few place names, the lion’s share of this story could have taken place in California. Murakami’s narrator’s voice and sensibilities hit close to home, particularly the tone and take of his humor, and his zany more than slightly askew entry points into observations about his culture’s traditions, yet at the same time showing a tenacity in the face of gloom. Gloom IS a direction on Murakami’s compass, but using its magnetic point as a reference we think there are ways around it…. just stay away from those ancient cave openings. show less

Nearly 20 years ago I started university and vowed to right a wrong: despite taking English Literature at school, I wasn’t a reader - computer games had ousted my early promise and passion born from eagerly making my way through the Mr Men books, Roald Dahl and The Chronicles of Narnia. For 8 years I had regrettably read very little and so, into Waterstones bookshop I strode, determined to buy a book that symbolised the studious art student I wanted to be now, ready to begin the next chapter of his life! And this was what I chose! (Make of that what you will).

I’ve come/read a long way since then and admittedly I think Murakami came a little bit too soon this first time round for my appreciation. Therefore it has been refreshing to show more listen to this book anew from a more informed and well read position.

Wild Sheep Chase pretty much does exactly what it says on the tin (like Ronseal). A stereotypical Murakami male lead (reserved, passive, reflective) is given the task/ultimatum by a stereotypical Murakami mysterious character (villain?) to find a sheep printed on an advert that his company once printed. Aided by a stereotypical Murakami female character with kooky characteristics (aphrodisiac ears) and after an adequate amount of deliberation, he sets out on his quest. In the process, he examines the very essence of himself, his life, his choices and what he has become.

I’ve read enough Murakami now for the magic to have worn off but have genuinely loved some of his books along the way (Norwegian Wood, Hard Boiled Wonderland, Kafka, Wind-Up Bird). The criticism of his work is hard to ignore (set character-types, poorly written/envisaged females) and although I still enjoy his work, my impression is undoubtedly tainted. Nevertheless, I think ‘A Wild Sheep Chase’ is a decent book and I got a lot more from it than 21 year old me ever did. Furthermore, it was definitely refreshing to revisit one of his older works, bringing sentimental and melancholic memories of reading him in his pomp.

For me, A Wild Sheep Chase was predominantly a book about change - how people react to change, the difficulties which come from trying to resist (for it is inevitable) and the new experiences it gives if accepted. The narrative is littered with those who accept and resist, even Japan itself embodies the theme in the form of a town languishing at the end of a rail route with very little to inspire visitors to come there. And from these examples, Murakami offers reflections on stagnation, holding on to the past, of not letting go, being too scared to try something different but likewise the invigorating experiences that come from being open to the unknown. It had a transformative feel despite it being quite dark in parts (namely conversations with the rat) and successfully entertained along the way. If we were to sort Murakami titles into two piles of good and bad, A Wild Sheep Chase would comfortably be in the good pile. show less

I am a fan of this author. I enjoy reading his novels while moving around: on the subway, in an airplane, amongst distractions. Murakami verges on being little more than an indie rock version of a standard thriller/suspense writer—producing the literary equivalent of films like “Donnie Darko.” Apparently, I even read and enjoyed the sequel to this book (“Dance Dance Dance”), without realizing that I had a sequel in my hands. This all leads up to me admitting that “The Wild Sheep Chase” was disappointing; it is Murakami’s first novel and I don’t believe he’d hit his stride or found his voice—though it is unmistakably forming.In typical Murakami fashion, the novel slowly reveals the latent potential in a respectful show more but withdrawn person on the far side of personal difficulties. This potential makes itself known in the process of an implausible quest that dispenses with the impossibility of moving easily between fields of existence or universes in such a natural and understated way that the characters remain largely unruffled. Murakami’s seamless, played-down narration of the uncanny is one of his strengths (think the conclusion of “Wind up Bird Chronicles” or most of “Hard Boiled Wonderland). In his freshman novel, however, he only dabbles with it in the could-this-be-a-hallucination/dream/ghost? sort of way—instead of making you eat the fact of parallel universes and impossible psychic abilities, like they are your daily vegetables.The protagonist has a standard Murakami sidekick in toe (a, strong, independent, but similarly disengaged female) who is a bit less interesting to read about than usual (all she does is have hunches); but the malignant force of the book is amusingly characterized. The motivation of the titular sheep is comic and its history, as narrated by the somewhat vexing sheep man, is an amusing read.Altogether, Murakami has written much better books; I would skip this one unless you are a real fan. show less

possibly Murakami's most playful book - he is so clearly having a good time writing it. a very quixotic and vivid narrator undertakes a sort of comic Quest; the seeming simplicity of the psychic mystery story as he tells it masks a very rich background, in which nothing is as it seems, time is all wonky, and the territory covered is both surreal and existential. highly recommended. Dance Dance Dance is a sequel, and his first writing, a pair of novellas published as Wind/Pinball, 1973, introduce the character called The Rat who recurs here.

Murakami manages to write a ersatz novel; in fact in places I wondered if he was writing a novel-parody. Not, really, for political or ideological reasons, but just because of an uncommon want to go against novel standards. Many critics/readers have compared his writing to other literary roadmarks, yet I have not seen a comparison to the one author that I think this book most feels like: Philip K. Dick. I can imagine most readers not being as accepting as I was of this dream-like novel, some might be angry at the lack of rigid novel features. Still, the experience is probably worth the fast-turning pages.