The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel by Haruki Murakami Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel
Book Review: The Best Book of the Last decade?
Summary: 5 Stars
It is impossible to find one adjective to describe Murakami's three volume masterpiece that is 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle' Simultaneously it is absurd yet real, dangerously erotic and disturbing but beautiful, scrappy yet brilliant.. I could go on for ever. This novel has pretty much everything in it; war, peace, love, sex, comedy, tragedy, satire etc. I am still recovering from its aftershock; it throws a fishing hook into your head and catches your thoughts for days after -it is addictive, a hallucination all of its own, a marvellous feat of storytelling by a modern genius.Murakami has reinvented the 'reading experience' Reading for pleasure is just one side of the coin; 'The Wind-Up Bird' is both pleasurable and unconsciously instructive; Toru Okada's struggle becomes the readers (a throughly modern struggle at that)and you cannot rest into the conclusion is reached.
The only possible disappointment is this conclusion. the loose ends are numerous, almost unbearable. But not for a moment would you suppose that the author is not in control - he carries the story in a way that no one else could, leading you through every surprise as casually as can be.
This book demands attention and must be given it. Start reading now.
Book Review: Insanely entertaining and thought provoking.
Summary: 5 Stars
I grabbed this book off a shelf, never having heard of Murakami before, a few years ago before taking a plane to Greece with some friends. We were celebrating finishing our exams, staying at a tacky resort and basically drinking and sunbathing, but after a couple of days I found myself ducking out of bar crawls to head back to my room to read The Wind Up Bird Chronicle!The Wind Up Bird Chronicle is a bloody difficult book to explain. There are so many different, and seemingly bizarrely unrelated, strands to the story. The only real constant is Toru, the main character, and as with many other works by Murakami he is a somewhat passive presence, trying to get his head round the flurry of unusual events, emotions and observations on life. His life is turned completely upside down, but rather than over-focusing on the strange goings on, we also have beautifully written pieces about such banal events as making pasta. On one level the Wind Up Bird Chronicle is almost fantastical in nature, so bizarre are the events, but Toru acts as a grounding force. His doubts, worries, and an imagination that all too often causes him pain, are very normal aspects of any person. It is his very mundanity and passive nature that allows the events to occur - many of the characters he meets simply because he doesn't have anything else that he could rather be doing, and therefore expands his mind and perspective.
Toru as a character provokes sympathy, but it is the events around him that provoke our interest. As a character he is purer, for want of a better word, than the central character of other Murakami books. In some ways he is simply a convenient centre on which to secure the rest of the story, which at times threatens to scatter out of control. Yet I became so convinced by the view of the story through his eyes that I felt quite close to him as a character, and felt that my own reaction to such events would be similarly bemused, or self doubting.
The Wind Up Birds Chronicle IS a confusing book. There were many times when I had to go back two or three pages to reread, largely in a case of 'double-take' - I wasn't sure, or couldn't believe, that something was happening in the way it was described. But considering the various strands, it's an impressive achievement to draw them together as effectively as Murakami does. This book is, in my opinion, a true classic.
Book Review: Awe-inspiring!
Summary: 5 Stars
Here we find a smooth translation of a monumental work of fiction that really works.One of the most dazzlingly unpredictable novels I have ever read. Both existential page-turner and supremely intelligent thriller.
Lost your faith in fiction? Then you've got to read this!
Book Review: One hell of a roller coaster ride
Summary: 5 Stars
I can't remember the last time I went on such a journey of discovery with an author. It started out as a bus journey read but soon developed into a serious addiction. Clashing surreal happenings with interesting witty characters- Toru (protagonist) starts the book having lost his cat but ends up in a totally different place by the end. I've already had a conversation with a woman on the bus who had read it. Not something that happens on the 134 I assure you. Sometimes brutal but always thrilling I cannot commend this book enough and if I was a better reviewer I would do it higher justice-but I'm not! So in five words-Beautiful, Stunning, Haunting, Surreal and Memorable.Book Review: read so long ago
Summary: 4 Stars
Literature is my career--it's teaching and when I'm lucky its writing--but even I forget some books, or they fade into the darker recesses of my memory. But after more than a year, WBC frequently resurfaces to resonate with something I'm thinking about--it's eerie narrative, its powerful urban recontextualizing of fable and naturalist imagery, its characters who become all the more compelling bcs it's so hard to understand their motivations--their motivations are often shrouded in incompletion, obsession, and repression.I want to read it again, to sink into its mystery and its triviality. I don't know whether this helps you, but if you would like to read a pulp Borges, a pop Calvino, a cosmopolitan Tutuola, Wind up this bird.