The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

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.