Book Review: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Rating: 4.5/5★

This book made me appreciate Murakami's writing style much more than 'Norwegian Wood.' The writing and the character dynamics alone made it a far better book than the former. 

Despite its lengthy prose - 600+ pages - I felt enthralled at every twist and turn that it took me down. Multiple characters were all intertwined with nothing more than a wind-up bird, in a feat that seems impossible yet Murakami pulled it together almost seamlessly.

Murakami pulls together an endless circle of characters into this psychedelic, imaginative story. The most notable of these, for me, being May Kasahara and Lieutenant Mamiya. The use of history throughout easily set the scenes for all the stories told by all the different characters, many of whom had bloody pasts.

The book was wonderfully bizarre - and that seems to be the only way to describe it. Unlike other novels there is no real sense of time or space and instead of a linear story you follow Toru's almost mad ravings. Yet it works. Toru being such a genuinely boring and bland character to begin with and then Murakami forcing these strange and wonderful people in and out of his life created an almost transcendental experience.

The novel allows for poignant Japanese history to be laced alongside the characters and their experiences, particularly seen with Lieutenant Mamiya and Nutmeg. Not only were these subplots bloody and raw (literally) the use of historical events allowed for extremely visceral imagery to be displayed.

Pros:

• The character dynamics, particularly between Toru and May Kasahara.
• The fact the novel places itself firmly on the border between reality and a transcendental dream-like stage. 
• The minor characters, like the soldier who would face death by having his skull split open by a shovel, as emphasised multiple times.
• The letters that were included.
• The relationship between Cinnamon and Toru, even though Cinnamon does not talk.
• The correlation between symbolism and imagery in the dream sequences and the separate stories.
• The subplot of the stories from the zoo.
• The theme of opposites, with many of the characters being stark opposites to each other - such as Kumiko and the lady on the phone, and also Toru and Noburo Wataya.

Cons:

• My one biggest qualm with this book is the ending. After an investment of the majority of the book, 550+ pages, the last few scenes just seemed so rushed. The ending with Kumiko being the one to kill her brother? And Noburo Wataya's personal assistant just essentially disappearing with no explanation or mention? I'm assuming he was also killed, but after all the previous attention to detail and intricate stories about every minute incident, I expected more. Whilst the ending was not anti-climactic, it definitely was not what I expected, and seemed to be a quick way to end the novel whilst not typing up too many loose ends. However, the scene with May Kasahara was one which I did think was necessary, for their proper goodbyes.
• A smaller problem is the idea of Creta Kano's pregnancy, with the baby never really being elaborated on and how the father of the baby is half Toru and 'half Lieutenant Mamiya's,' as Creta Kano and Lieutenant Mamiya are not shown to have any form of interaction throughout the novel.

Notable quote:

'Is it possible, in the final analysis, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another?'