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A review by iswendle
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
4.0
Unwinding the story of the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is something I unfortunately failed in while reading, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it's vague and confusing story from start to end.
An ordinary man, Toru, lives his unemployed life with a sense of satisfaction in everything that's ordinary. He takes time to think about the music he hears, the chores he does and the people he meets. His life takes a turn for the worse (or the weird) soon into the book though when he meets all strangely intertwined characters. One thing's for sure, you'll never look at a well the same way again after reading the book.
Most people online put Wind-Up Bird Chronicle on the top of their "weirdest" Murakami books. Having only read A Wild Sheep Chase I agree that this book threw any notion of cohesion overboard. The story is easy to read, and to some extent follow, follow in the sense that you know which events occur when and how. Their relation, however, seems to never really resolve. One person I discussed the book with put it best when they said: "Murakami raises a lot of questions when you start reading, then resolves some od them, and ends with a couple unresolved ones extra."
All in all, Murakami's style is something I really enjoy. There really isn't one way to conclude your reading of the book: some parallels or metaphors in characters, stories, and their relations can surely be concluded by everybody. Yet there really isn't an ultimately satisfying conclusion to the story as it really leaves you hanging. That's the catch of his style, and while I cannot read 8 of his books in a row, they certainly have their unique charm.
An ordinary man, Toru, lives his unemployed life with a sense of satisfaction in everything that's ordinary. He takes time to think about the music he hears, the chores he does and the people he meets. His life takes a turn for the worse (or the weird) soon into the book though when he meets all strangely intertwined characters. One thing's for sure, you'll never look at a well the same way again after reading the book.
Most people online put Wind-Up Bird Chronicle on the top of their "weirdest" Murakami books. Having only read A Wild Sheep Chase I agree that this book threw any notion of cohesion overboard. The story is easy to read, and to some extent follow, follow in the sense that you know which events occur when and how. Their relation, however, seems to never really resolve. One person I discussed the book with put it best when they said: "Murakami raises a lot of questions when you start reading, then resolves some od them, and ends with a couple unresolved ones extra."
All in all, Murakami's style is something I really enjoy. There really isn't one way to conclude your reading of the book: some parallels or metaphors in characters, stories, and their relations can surely be concluded by everybody. Yet there really isn't an ultimately satisfying conclusion to the story as it really leaves you hanging. That's the catch of his style, and while I cannot read 8 of his books in a row, they certainly have their unique charm.