The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

I put the book down and had no idea what had happened during the last 600+ pages. This is not to say that I didn't enjoy it a lot - I enjoyed it quite a bit - just don't ask me to describe or explain anything because it will sound exactly like when someone describes a dream (in other words, disjointed nonsense). Having said all that, I couldn't NOT finish the book. It was like the book was a force compelling me to keep reading it. And I'm glad I did keep reading because even though I don't understand what it was all about, it kept me entertained.

This was a like a long extended dream. The kind you have at 4am. The kind that wake you up and wonder - how could it be so vivid and SO absurd? You remember parts of it like it really happened and other parts you just cannot recollect no matter how hard you try.

Yep, this was just a dream. And I'm sure it'll be different when I read it again. And that I will.

I remember reading somewhere that Haruki Murakami's books are among the most-stolen from bookstores. I'm not sure why that is, but there's no denying that the Japanese author has very devoted fans. Reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle was my first experience with him, and left me both sort of getting it and sort of not. It's a hard story to describe: there's a guy, Toru Okada, who lives outside of Tokyo with his wife, Kumiko, and their cat (which they've named Noboru Wataya, after her disliked brother) has gone missing. Toru has recently left his longtime job in a lawyer's office, but is unemployed while he tries to figure out what's next. Kumiko wants him to find the cat, and his searches for it lead him to strike up an acquaintance with a strange teenage girl, May, who lives down the block. That's when the phone calls start.

First, there's a woman who says she knows who he is and starts talking dirty to him. But then there's a psychic, a woman named Malta Kano, who explains that Kumiko has reached out to her to help with locating the cat. Kumiko and her family believe in things like psychics, having previously arranged for Kumiko and Toru to spend time with an old man called Mr. Honda, allegedly for spiritual consultations...but all that actually happens is that he repeatedly tells them about his experiences as a soldier in Manchuria during World War II. Toru meets with Malta Kano, and her sister, Cresta, but before long Kumiko herself disappears. She sends Toru a letter explaining that she's left him for a coworker with whom she's been having an affair, but he doesn't believe this and decides to try to find her, which brings him into contact with even more strange people, including a mother and son who he calls Nutmeg and Cinnamon. And appearing throughout is the sound of a bird, that sounds like something mechanical being wound.

This is a weird book, and I'm not sure I entirely understand it. It's one of those that you finish and almost want to flip right back to the beginning and start again, to see if it makes any more sense the second time through. I think there will be a second time through, though certainly not now. And there will definitely be more Murakami. If I had to chose a single word to describe it, it would be “dream-like”. The way Murakami uses language and builds the world of the book create a feeling of constant loose connection, almost a structured free association, in which the concept that would tie everything together is just tantalizingly out of reach. It works well, and I found myself turning the pages and getting drawn further and further into it, though I suspected (correctly) that not everything was going to be tied up in a neat bow by the end.

Honestly, though, once I finished it, though I felt like I liked it, I have had a hard time articulating exactly why. It was obtuse, the female characters were largely underdeveloped (though I did love May), and it felt like some storylines were just dropped like hot potatoes. But despite its flaws, it's strangely compelling. There's something magical and mysterious about the world as Murakami creates it, and it did get me thinking about some of the deeper themes that were explored, like our obligations to each other as people and the nature of power in relationships. It's intellectually engaging despite the kind of haziness about it. If you're ready for something non-traditional, I would recommend this book.

I read like 9/10ths of this book before I left for the States and was LOVING it. And then I didn't want to bring such a big book with me on the plane when I had hardly any left to read, and then when I came back and finished it I was a little like, what? It was almost shocking to abruptly re-enter the vaguely magical world Murakami had painstakingly set up throughout the book. Still though, wonderful.

I read my first Murakami novel, Norwegian Wood, probably 15 years ago and I absolutely loved it. I think it just captured a sort of uncertain adolescent perspective that really resonated with me as a young college kid at the time. I've since read more from him trying to chase that feeling again, but so far nothing has come even close.

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle was one that I've heard mentioned a lot as being a favorite of many people, so I was excited to check it out. Sadly, this is yet another of his that just doesn't work for me.

There is still some great stuff here. There's some quality to Murakami's writing, and Jay Rubin's translation work, that is very pleasing to me. It's a bit dreamlike, a bit of a steam of conscience, and it just flows in a way that I feel along for the ride. There are a few sections of this book where a character tells stories of his time in the second World War that are gripping and harrowing. There are some scenes of genuine emotion and confusion from the narrator that I found to be very effective.

But generally I just found myself lost and disinterested. Much of the narrative seems to be just on the border of reality, it plays out as if in a dream. The way Murakami writes about sex is awkward and off-putting. Characters behave in difficult to understand ways and it's hard to put any stake into their actions. I'm just not sure what to takeaway from this book.

I think I'll take a bit of a break from Murakami for a bit. Maybe I'll try to read Norwegian Wood again to see if it is actually as good as my memory of it.

“The light shines into the act of life for only the briefest moment - perhaps only a matter of seconds. Once it is gone and one has failed to grasp its offered revelation, there is no second chance. One may have to live the rest of one's life in hopeless depths of loneliness and remorse. In that twilight world, one can no longer look forward to anything. All that such a person holds in his hands is the withered corpse of what should have been.”

Brief 2/26/23 update: I just finished re-reading this with a group of friends, and I think half my pleasure during this re-read was experiencing their reactions on reading this book. We're kind of a mix of people who have read Murakami and people who made this their first, and it was fun experiencing the same weird emotions I had the first time reading it through them.

My review below hasn't changed, this is still one of my favorite Murakami books so far, but I recognize this is a tough book for someone new to Murakami to get into. That said, there's a lot of great imagery and themes going on, and I loved re-reading this, knowing what I know now.

Original Review:
“A well without water. A bird that can't fly. An alley with no exit.”

There's a lot to unpack in this novel. At its core it seems (to me) about the main character's coping with a stagnant, meaningless life. His house is on an alley with no exits. Murakami takes great care in describing his perfectly mundane house and life, his aimless, jobless wandering, and his passionless, emotionless exchanges with his wife Kumiko. A phonecall intruded on all of that, starting Toru on his wild and unexpected journey, where the end result is time begins moving for him again.

There's a lot more to it than that, and the pleasure in reading Murakami is in those details. Sure, if this is your first Murakami book, things seem haphazard, random, and meaningless when thought of individually, but this is one of those books where you put the book down and suddenly find it makes a strange bit of sense. Even as I'm writing this, things that initially didn't seem to fit together at first suddenly make more sense when considered all together.

I guess the tl;dr of this review is, what a weird, wild trip that I'm glad I went on. Murakami is an author that either you click with, or you don't. And if he clicks for you, it really, really clicks.

“In a place far away from anyone or anywhere, I drifted off for a moment”. These were the last words in the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle which illustrate the magical realism that the entire story evokes.

For me, Murakami's legendary story symbolises one of the most important quests in real life - the confrontation and evolution of the self. The protagonist, Toru, is thrown into a series of events starting with a missing cat that devolves into an utterly surreal, bizarre, unpredictable set of experiences. From Toru's journey I believe that he comes to realise the sheer meaninglessness of life, embodying the fatalistic and post modernist ideas of Murakami's writing.

Toru starts to question everything he has ever believed in, the nature of life, whether humans can truly understand one another, the pointless pursuits and values that people often hold. While Murakami, as usual, leaves us with an endless number of unanswered questions, I find no lack of closure in the book's ending. My personal opinion is that Toru is truly able to confront himself and his enemies and from this gathers an unspoken epiphany - that the supposed meaninglessness of life and inevitability of pain and suffering provides us a profound purpose in itself. Accepting this meaninglessness gives us complete freedom from our obsessions of values and items in daily life that bring us no real joy or fulfillment.

To quote Toru himself: “The light shines into the act of life for only the briefest moment – perhaps only a matter of seconds. Once it is gone and one has failed to grasp its offered revelation, there is no second chance. One may have to live the rest of one's life in hopeless depths of loneliness and remorse. In that twilight world, one can no longer look forward to anything. All that such a person holds in his hands is the withered corpse of what should have been.”

Overall, the Wind-up bird chronicle has become one of my favourite books of all time. Murakami's writing was astoundingly expressive, being both intensely gruesome and beautiful at times. Each line seems like a carefully constructed metaphor that Murakami challenges you to decipher - this quality is what appeals to me on such a deep scale. Would definitely recommend to anyone interested in the genre of low fantasy and magical realism.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It follows the story of Mr Okada, a seemingly ordinary fellow at the outset but his life becomes weirder and weirder as the story progresses. My favourite chunks were the stories of Lt Mamiya. It's kind of built up of different people's stories, all of which affect the protagonist and leads to his becoming much more self aware.

It's a somewhat quirky tale that is quite unlike anything I've ever read before. It grabbed a hold of my attention like a thief in the park and kept a hold of it until the end of the story. I normally read fantasy or sci-fi so this is a bit of a step outside the box for me and one that I'm very glad I took. I'm recommending this to pretty much everyone I know and for good reason.

Thanks to Steve Betz for the recommendation!

It may have taken me a year exactly to finish this book, but not because the book itself didn't hold my attention...just blame it on a growing stack of must-reads from my public library addiction. Although bits here and there did seem a bit long winded, in hindsight I would not wish for any of them to have been edited out. I have to agree with everyone who calls Murakami a genius- this is unlike anything else I have ever read and I will most certainly be reading more of his.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami was originally published as Nejimakidori Kuronikuru in 3 volumes in 1994-1995. I've heard a lot about this author and I've been meaning to get around to his work for a while now. The thing that finally convinced me was when Murakami and this book in particular were both heavily referenced in the last novel I read, Number9dream by David Mitchell. Mitchell wrote his novel as a response to this one, and it was fascinating to see all of parallels in the stories, but It would have been nice if I had read these books in reverse order.

This book is really fascinating as it is about a man trying to hold his life and his marriage together, but he does so by stumbling through other people lives in a surreal dream-like way. The multiple stories all tie together quite nicely but they don't resolve each other as you might think. In a way, they seem to push each further along, providing more interpretations of the book. The author addresses a lot of themes such as dreams in relation to reality, the inhumanity of war, and emasculation in Japanese society. The novel itself is a bit jarring because I am used to more resolution in my plots, but this is definitely one of the most interesting books I've ever read. This is a book that I'm sure will be completely different to me if I were to return to it later in life.

I recommend this book to anyone who has any interest in the surreal or the meta-physical. If you like identifying themes and putting puzzle pieces together, then you will have a blast with this book.

I enjoyed bits of the story, but I don't feel like there's a narrative that drives me to keep reading. In particular, the part about the Lieutenant's war experience in Mongolia was harrowing, and there was a realistic and sensitive discussion on abortion with the wife.

I was also weirded out by some of the sexual stuff... the Creta Kano character is objectified, either as a rape victim or as the subject of wet dreams.

I rarely re-read books because there are so many, and so little time. I made an exception here because I read it it first in a delirious whirl of Murakami books. I was falling in love with a writer and was giddy with his peculiar mix of the banal and surreal.
For some reason I didn't see beyond the oeuvre to the exceptional nature of this work so I only gave 4 stars. I fixed that now with 5. I was so totally absorbed in each section that I didn't see how all the parts were played out as a whole.
I recently listened to Patti Smith's “M train” where she becomes enamoured with the book so I knew I had to go back and give it the time it deserved. I'm glad I did.

tfw you read one of those books that you probably need to reread again, but you don't want to reread it at all.

of course I loved the dream sequences (murakami is like if David Lynch and Wong Kar-wai collaborated on a movie) but I just don't get this book. and I don't really want to get it, either? 1Q84 made less sense but the images and the world and the madness charmed me. this one...I don't know...

Wow! Imagine Murakami reading this whole thing to a large audience in some sort of theater. Once he finishes, the entire audience would erupt in rapturous applause. That is how I feel after reading this book. I just want to give Murakami an aggressively loud applause. I mean, I read the last third of this book in 24 hours. It's terrific.

Be warned, though, it is WEIRD. It covers the whole emotional spectrum. Crude, crazy, contemplative, and all sorts of other adjectives starting with C. It is just so impressive to me how Murakami tells such a wild story in such a coherent way. Must read!

Entrancing allure, brought out by the erratic events.
The plot more of a stream of the subconscious as the reader becomes one with Toru Okada.
Artful taste with subtle details.

Set in a surreal world from an alternate yet parallel dimension.
Flows like river–an endless supply of twists and turns with the occasional waterfall.
A piquant read for the seasoned reader searching for a delightfully entrancing story.

the book is simple yet also complex

the way i read it, its almost feels like unfinished. just like real life. as if im reading a diary that someone wrote for himself.

i guess this book is about marriage or self exploration or hidden inner thoughts or maybe all of them and none of them. but i think the main point of the book is about making up stories ans reasons for things we dont understand to make us understand even tho its probably wrong. we assume somethings to other people and to ourselves. this show how we should fully understanding ourselves no matter how hard and fully understanding other people is impossible.

the way the stories written is almost not connected, it read like a bunch of short stories compiled to one huge stories

its so easy to read. even the surreal part felt real just because it explained so well.

but again, if im asked to recommend this book, i dont even know how to tell what the story was. but i can say that its just a really good weird and relateable story.