The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Ratings433
Average rating4
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 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.
Tried listening to this. Four hours into it I spent a week subconsciously doing everything I could to avoid it. Part of it was the wandering going-nowhere-quick story and the other part was the narrator. I suspect I might have been more engaged with it in book form. So I walked away from it. Sigh.
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.
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...
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.
Otroligt fantasifull och en riktig fröjd att följa med på. Läste den under en kanske för lång period, men tycker också att den lämnade lite för mycket osagt. Kanske kan använda min egen fantasi. Kanske finns de olagda pusselbitarna mitt framför näsan på mig. Men vilka var männen i trädgården när cinnamon var liten? Hur hängde allt ihop med märket? Var passade han Motymaia in? Vad är det för fågel som vrider upp världen?
What a wild book. Seriously I found myself thinking this world makes no sense. It's just so mundane, or so you think, then you realize you can't stop reading it, that the world is mysterious and quirky in just the right way that you can't stop and you much know more and keep seeing what happens.
Murikami is weird in a way I like. Hope his other books are better though, because if there was a point to all of this, I missed it. I can't say I understood the book wholly, but reading it was a delight.
“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.”
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.
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!
Mai mult un 3.5/5
Prima jumatate, super, a doua... apar niste personaje de care nu mi-a pasat si au fost prea multe chestii aleatorii. Respect pentru oamenii care pot sa citeasca acelasi autor in continuu, dar daca asa as face eu cu Murakami... nu cred ca ar mai fi autorul meu preferat =))
“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.
That was complex! Lots of intertwined stories, a very bold and confident book. Only four stars because at some point it was a little bit to much and I got lost...
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.
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.
I've enjoyed some of Murakami's other books but this one just didn't grab me. The main character's friendship with the underaged girl kind of creeped me out too.