The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle in Terminalcoffee

Jun 19, 2008 Valerie rated it liked it · review of another edition

When I tried to write a review of this book, it came out sounding like this:

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a beautifully written, complexly woven book that takes us into the life of Toru Okada, who quit his ordinary job and seems to be waiting to see where his life will take him next. However, a series of events occurs that turns his life upside-down, and although he continues to let events unfold around him, what develops thereafter is anything but ordinary.

Beautifully written? Complexly woven? When I tried to write a review of this book, it came out sounding like this:

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a beautifully written, complexly woven book that takes us into the life of Toru Okada, who quit his ordinary job and seems to be waiting to see where his life will take him next. However, a series of events occurs that turns his life upside-down, and although he continues to let events unfold around him, what develops thereafter is anything but ordinary.

Beautifully written? Complexly woven? Give me a break. I don't know why it was coming out like that. I mean: turns his life upside-down? If I came across this review, I'd be rolling my eyes.

But for some reason, I found this review to be very difficult to write. First, I can't summarize the story. It is beautiful, and it is complex, but I'm going to leave the explanation of the plot to the little GoodReads button that you can click up next to the book. I just don't have the hours that it would take in this instance for me personally to recreate that. It's just so long and involved that it's hard to condense.

I felt that reading the chronicle puts the reader in Toru's shoes, as many of the more surreal events force you to suspend disbelief and simply get carried along by the story. You have to be able to go with the flow to enjoy this book. Many colorful and eccentric characters are introduced, advancing the narrative with their own tales and adding a lot of subplots. It seems like it could become too much to keep track of, but each one was so well-crafted that they drew me in and kept me interested. I found many of the subplots (and secondary characters) to be far more interesting than Toru's own story.

My only complaint with this book is that I felt like it left many of those stories hanging or forgotten. I partially attribute this to the surreal nature of the book - I didn't really expect everything to be revealed - but also to the fact that it was simply too much to wrap up. At a certain point toward the end of the book, I found myself doing a lot of: but hey, whatever happened to so-and-so? And what about this part of the book that was so important at the time, but then just stopped being discussed? And what about...? The sum of all the parts of the books didn't completely add up for me.

But this is the kind of book that when you finish, you want to discuss it with someone, compare notes, and ask questions. I like it because not only did I enjoy reading it, but it also made me want to pursue those questions further. It's not necessarily a hard book to read, but it's definitely a lot to wrap your head around.

I'd give it three-and-a-half stars if I could, but I can't, so I'm going with: three. ...more

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Mar 06, 2008 Sally rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: randomly-own, multiple-read, beautiful, rereading

I remember purchasing this book in about 2004. I didn't remember that I'd started reading it, but here it is, I had.
Passages are vaguely familiar, but in the nicest, misty dream sort of way possible.

Here is why I love Murakami: The passage on ironing shirts put me in the mood to iron some shirts.

Working my way through, about 200 pages in now. Feel like I fall asleep and have a really intense dream every time I sit down to read. Falling in love with this book. Miss it when I'm away.

What the F% ...more

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Oct 04, 2008 Julie rated it it was amazing

Uh, Wow.

This book is...
Well it is really hard to explain what this book is like.
I have compared it to a David Lynch movie, but it's not exactly like that really-- it's just that there is a sense of strangeness like you are being told a story out of order and you have to put the puzzle pieces together to understand it.
He is an incredible writer, and the imagery alone is just awesome.

This is certainly a book that grabs you and takes you along for the ride. It did take a little while to get totally ...more

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Dec 28, 2007 RandomAnthony rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: murakami, favorites

One of the greatest books I've ever read...truly an amazing, mind-bending exploration of loss, responsibility, and too many others to mention. Murakami is a genius. ...more

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Mar 29, 2008 Chloe rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-list, fiction, japan

A very scattered and odd book. I'm not sure what I think yet, I think I need to sleep on it before I can really evaluate it. As a child of the 21st Century, one scene in which the protagonist is trying to talk via chat with his wife seemed long, confusing and needlessly complex. Other than that I am rather torn on this book but know that, at the very least, I didn't hate it. ...more

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Mar 28, 2007 Lisa rated it it was amazing

This book is amazing. The story of a skeptical nonbeliever with a pleasant, ordinary life, who finds himself venturing into the mystical and otherworldly to get that life back. Firmly entrenched in the genre of magical realism, but so wedded to the quotidian 'realism' that it feels natural. It's a bit like Rushdie, but with a partial resolution at the end, and written with the natural reticence of the Japanese. ...more

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