The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles - Haruki Murakami

Last month I was introduced to Haruki Murakami when I read the fantastic book, "Kafka on the Shore."  I was so hyped on that book, that immediately after finishing it I went to Barnes and Noble and picked up this novel, excitedly anticipating another mind-blowing adventure.  Unfortunately, after finishing "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles," I feel a lot less satisfied than when I first experienced Murakami's work.  If you ever saw "The Matrix: Reloaded," then you might know what I mean.  The original Matrix was amazing, and while the second had a lot of the same aspects that made the first great, the initial awe wasn't there.  In the same way, I felt that "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles," had a lot of the same great aspects as "Kafka," but when you feature them in a less inspired story, similar tricks just don't have the same impact.

The story takes place in Japan, and follows the life of a young man named Toru Okada.  Mr. Okada is currently unemployed, and lives with his wife Kumiko and their cat.  Toru has recently quit his office job, and is in the process of doing some soul searching to discover what his real calling in life is.  While he goes through this process, his wife continues to work and support their small family.  One day Toru and Kumiko discover that their cat has gone missing.  The cat has extreme sentimental value to Kumiko, and she asks Toru to find it by any means possible.  Thus starts the adventures of Toru Okada, as he sets out to solve the mystery of the missing cat.  He soons gets mixed up with several very interesting characters, including an old war veteran, a psychic prostitute, and a "spiritual healer" and her son.  What starts as a simple everyday task, soon turns into a crazy search that has much more to do with Toru, and less with his cat.

After reading this book, I really can't help but wish that I had read it before I read "Kafka on the Shore."  I think that if I had done that, I would have appreciated this book a lot more.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, and I left with the feeling that the sequel just didn't hold up to the original.  Of course, the two books are not linked in any way, but I think the analogy still works.

One thing I really enjoy about Murakami is he is really great at leaving a lot of his stories open to interpretation.  Right as you think he is going to explain everything, you turn the page and realize that the book is done.  It makes you develop your own ways to explain the unexplainable, imagining all sorts of possible tie-ups.  While I enjoyed that aspect of his writing in "Kafka," here I found it less appealing.  One reason for that is because in "Kafka" I think that the loose ends were much more open ended, freely giving way to the reader's imagination.  The places that my mind went were fun, and played easily off of the loose ends that Murakami left.  In "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles," the loose ends were less easy to tie imagination to.  They were simply beyond the scope of my imagination, and instead made little to no sense in many cases.  A few were well thought out, but others just left me with the feeling that Murakami was just being vague for no good reason. 

Looking back over these last few paragraphs, I really feel like I am bashing this book too much.  While I was reading it, I actually enjoyed the story, and didn't have to fight to get through it.  At the same time, I just didn't feel like it met my expectations.  If you are interested in reading Murakami, I would have to recommend "Kafka on the Shore" much more highly.  However, if you think you might read a couple of his books, you may want to start with this one.  It's a lot easier to appreciate a good novel when you haven't read an authors greater works right before.

Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami

I finished reading Kafka on the Shore over a week ago now, but I couldn't begin to write a review on it because I needed more time to think about it.  Now, after waiting more time I find myself in the same predicament.  I feel like I would have to read this book at least five more times before I could write a review that would do it justice.  This is by far one of my favorite books, and I guarantee I will be reading more Murakami in the future.  It is written in a style that exudes beauty, simplicity, purity, and innocence.  As I read Kafka on the Shore I often began to feel like the world was simpler, purer, and more welcoming.  I can only describe it as being able to once again look at the world like you did before your innocence was lost.  That's not to say that the entire book is lacking any darkness.  In fact, there is quite a bit of violence, sexuality, and other mature themes throughout the entire story, but I never once felt that they were vulgar or gratuitous.  They were simply there because evil is a part of life, and innocence and purity cannot avoid them forever.

Kafka on the Shore is a story about two characters.  The first is a young fifteen year old boy named Kafka Tamura, who has run away from his home in Tokyo.  He is on a journey to find his mother and older sister who left when he was just a small boy.  His journey brings him to a library in the town of Takamatsu where he becomes involved in the lives of the library's owner Ms. Saeki and worker Oshima.  The second character is an old man named Nakata, who has the ability to communicate with cats.  He becomes involved in a mystery to find a specific cat, and soon finds himself traveling across Japan as the mystery unfolds.  Kafka and Nakata's paths are deeply intertwined, but not necessarily in the physical realm.  The story frequently merges into the metaphysical, and often leaves questions unanswered, forcing the reader to draw their own conclusions.  For this reader at least, that was one of the more endearing factors of the book.

"Kafka on the Shore" is the type of book that you really have to read in order to understand the experience.  Just writing this review alone was a study in frustration, pushing my descriptive skills to the next level.  Trying to summarize it is like trying to explain a beautiful sunset, or an amazing experience in your life.  Sometimes you experience something that hits you right between the eyes, gripping you in a way that was completely new and unexpected.  You try to tell someone about the experience, but you just know that no words in the English language are going to get the message across exactly like you experienced it.  Maybe that's why this book was originally written in Japanese?  All joking aside, if you are willing to let your imagination soar, keep an open mind to deeper meanings, and be satisfied with not having all loose ends tied up, there is a fantastic journey waiting to be had in "Kafka on the Shore."  After all, isn't the journey of imagination what reading is really all about?