Thursday, October 18, 2018

Staff Picks: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (Adult Fiction)

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

After resigning his position at a law firm, Toru Okada fills his days with the mundane duties of managing a home he shares with his wife Kumiko in a Tokyo suburb. Toru's life takes a strange turn when he is tasked with locating the couple's lost cat.  Exploring his quiet neighborhood with watchful eyes Toru discovers a lonely teen, an abandoned house with a dark history and an inexplicably dry well that draws his fascination. Toru's quest for the cat also brings him into contact with a bizarre cast of characters who may hold insights into a mystery much closer to Toru's heart than the loss of a pet.  

It’s difficult to describe the plot of a Murakami novel because the elements seem so juxtaposed. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is an evocative story about modern life and loss, the mysteries of the psyche, the beginning and ending of relationships and quite a bit more.  

A mesmerizing backstory involving Japan’s conflicts with Soviet forces in World War II introduces readers to a minor but unforgettable character as nightmarish as his name suggests, Boris the Manskinner. While the novel veers well into magical realism territory and Murakami has a flair for creating vivid impossibilities, Boris' scenes take place in the all-too-real world of 20th Century wartime interrogation techniques.

Reading the novel is an immersive experience that raises many questions while directly answering few of them. It's a novel worthy of multiple reads. One comes away from the story with a sense of having spent time in modern Japan and having gained a bit of insight into the worldview of a uniquely artful writer.

Alicia Cavitt
Information Specialist