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A Wild Sheep Chase (The Rat, #3)

Haruki Murakami,

Alfred Birnbaum (Translator)

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Dec 27, 2009 Jackie "the Librarian" rated it liked it

Shelves: magic, fantasy, adultfiction

This is, as many before me have observed, a very strange story, involving an extra-terrestrial sheep, a girl with ears with special powers, and a mysterious missing friend, called the Rat. It is fortunate that these details are so intriguing, as the protagonist is not. He is nameless, aimless, and apathetic, and it takes every amount of strangeness delivered up to him by the plot to knock him into taking an interest in life.

He is forced by a mysterious powerful organization to track down the afo ...more

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Jun 03, 2010 jess rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2010, audiobook-d, fiction

I have never read Haruki Murakami before this book. I know I have seen his books on many bedside tables the morning after, on dining room tables at dinner parties, tucked into book bags and clutched in the hands of friends. I thought he was one of those "Genius" "Modern" foreign fiction writers probably mired down in tired/tireless imagery and vague, inaccessible philosophical ramblings and metaphors. I associated a pretentiousness with his work that was, in retrospect, perhaps not entirely fair I have never read Haruki Murakami before this book. I know I have seen his books on many bedside tables the morning after, on dining room tables at dinner parties, tucked into book bags and clutched in the hands of friends. I thought he was one of those "Genius" "Modern" foreign fiction writers probably mired down in tired/tireless imagery and vague, inaccessible philosophical ramblings and metaphors. I associated a pretentiousness with his work that was, in retrospect, perhaps not entirely fair. Sometimes books and authors become popular because of a media blitz or phenomenal peer pressure, and sometimes books and authors become popular because they are good. This book is good, and I would wager that Haruki Murakami is probably also a good author, and I am willing to read more of his work and decide.

The first two thirds of this book are pedantic, wandering through the dissolution of an ordinary marriage, typical mid-life restlessness, career dissatisfaction and an awkward new romance with an ordinary girl who has extra beautiful ears. I was thinking, "Oh, this is totally a boring pedantic novel with metaphors about the extraordinary ordinariness of life" and then the plot just started happening. The story turns decidedly surreal, with unbelievable coincidences (I mean, literally unbelievable as in you could not for a second believe any of it would happen) in a forgivably messy stumbling odyssey up into a rural mountain village on the cusp of winter. There are moments of detective novel, mystery and thriller and fantasy almost at once, but it is entirely inaccurate to describe this story as any of those things. What is it about? I was hard pressed to explain this to anyone who asked what I was reading because, well, mostly it is about a guy looking for a sheep in a photograph.

I hope to remember forever: the narrator's girlfriend, her extraordinary, deliciously intoxicatingly beautiful ears, and her three jobs: commercial model specializing in ear shots, part time proofreader, and call girl. I wanted the story to be about her. ...more

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Dec 16, 2008 Raina rated it liked it · review of another edition

TBCD

In some ways, I wish I'd had the time to read this in print - I have a feeling that I would have appreciated the clever imagery and turns of phrase better if I had been able to dwell on them. But I did enjoy it. It's a clever mystery/magical realism/existential tale set in Japan. ...more

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