The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: A little overwrought...
Review: This is not Murakami's best work. I felt like it was a little too overworked. The ending seems too improbable (relatively) - it just didn't seem consistent with the rest of the story - too unexplained. The plot is too conveluted. (sp?)Still, definitely worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Beneath the surface
Review: A door to other dimensions is opened, disturbing contented lives and bringing the ghosts of the past back to haunt them. This familiar theme is played skillfully by Haruki Murakami to reveal the soul of modern Japan and the demons that lurk below its surface. Unlike other fantastic novels, this story is grounded in mundane details: a missing cat, the time it takes to cook a pot of pasta, a ringing telephone, a sunbathing teenager. Other reviewers have criticized the ending; maybe all the ends aren't quite wrapped up tightly, but there is nevertheless a sense of closure. The collaboration between the translator and the author makes for a good translation, which reads much more smoothly than other Japanese novels in English.

Rating:
Summary: .
Review: Engrossing, complex, and thoroughly rewarding book which I finished, as it happens, about an hour ago. Things don't interweave together as clearly, smoothly, or admirably as they do in Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (the only other Murakami novel I've read at this point), and this was something of a disappointment to me, but it makes up for it in the sheer massiveness of its narrative, juxtapositions, mind-boggling parallels, etc. It's like a giant, fascinating, literary puzzle, and although the picture the puzzle ultimately forms isn't especially clear, that doesn't mean it wasn't a lot of fun to spend time with. Thought-provoking, epic, and though certainly not flawless, very much worthwhile.

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't spell everything out
Review: I just want to point out that the July 28 review from Washington DC completely misses the point of the book. This is not meant to be a conventional supernatural suspense story in any way, shape or form. That person has read a different book than I did. Many people won't get this book because nothing is spelled out for you. The skill of the storytelling comes from using lots of juxtaposition. Mysterious events are played alongside very tangible items and so on. I think the Washington DC reviewer read the book very literally and missed the point. The story isn't told though a conventional Hollywood plot. You'll need to think "sideways" (and sometimes backwards) to understand this very rewarding book.

Rating:
Summary: Unique.
Review: Kafka wrote about his "dream-like inner life". In many ways Murakami and Kafka are very much alike. The strange happenings, dreamlike but also so vivid, the search for meaning, the mundane mixing with the strange. An athmosphere that you don't find anywhere else. It took a while to "get into" this long book but it was definitely worth it. I think it is Murakamis best book since "Hard Boiled Wonderland...".

Rating:
Summary: Haunted houses, pre-teen prophets and psychic prostitutes..
Review: Let's try real hard to be weird and mysterious as possible. Apparently Mr. Murakami didn't try hard enough. An abandoned house(possibly haunted), a wise-old teenager, a malevolent brother in-law, dreams crossing into reality, things disappearing into thin air? it's all been used, re-used, recycled and borrowed. No wonder the book is so long. Mr. Murakami attempted to string together every para-normal theme and ended up with more of a scary campfire story than a chronicle. I was unable to finish this book. The pain Creta Kano whined about to Toru Okada for what felt like three days was similar to the pain I felt reading 75% of this book. Did the Boogeyman appear in the ensuing chapters? The story sure felt like was heading in that direction. If you're looking for "flakes" try the psychic hotline instead. It's less time consuming and more entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: Exploring the darker side of Mankind.
Review: An excellent read. As the Bird unwinds, the seemingly mundane, becomes unusual and provocative when the ever evolving events in the life of a 'normal' man searching for a new self lead him head-on into a confrontation with the parallel world of an evil that feeds the atrocities of mankind. For those who question Man's continued course of conflict and abuse, the book forces us not only to examine these questions but what each of our roles may be in this process either as protagonist or victim. Many of the modern Japanese authors of this century are in constant exploration of the search for self, and Murakami Haruki dares to take this search into a world beyond consciousness.

Rating:
Summary: where reality begins and ends
Review: This book had entered my psyche before I was even aware of it. It altered my dreams, my perception of life, my identity. It does what David Lynch films do to a certain extent yet is much more affecting. You start to see people in the subway differently. I voluntarily isolated myself and revelled in my distance from the world because of this book. I felt as if I know something no one else knows. It is that powerful.

Rating:
Summary: STRANGE FRUIT-KEEP TASTING.
Review: Like trying a new food for the first time, I kept tasting this book and finding different flavors and textures-things would seem to get familiar, and some other taste would emerge and transmute the known into mystery. Loved the book-won't reveal the plot. The guy can WRITE and the translator did a wonderful job, too. All of this man's books are the equivalent of tasty challenges for the eyes and brain.

Rating:
Summary: Regardless of flaws, thousand times better then most tripe..
Review: Although the conclusion is far from satisfactory, even frustrating, the experience of reading this book is worth it. Murakami, regardless of his minor flaws so far in these books (he sometimes bites off too much or forgets he bit) today in literature, not just japanese lit but all lit you'd be hardpressed to find a better writer. For that matter there are so many horrible writers being published these days that it's refreshing to see one so talented fearlessly attempt many things with his works. Murakami has an incredible sense of humor also-a remarkably dry wit that lets the reader breathe as uncanny things unfold. I don't care if the skinner passage overall relates or meshes poorly with the story because it was perhaps the first time something truly scared me. Who cares if this is similar in plot to dance dance dance or for that matter wild sheep chase? It's a GREAT plot, and written differently each time. Keep it up, haruki...