The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: Haruki Murakami

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The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a very breezy read, surprisingly so since it was translated from Japanese. It tells the story of Toru Okada's disintegrating life, from his quitting his job at the law firm, to the family cat, Noboru Wataya, named after his wife's brother, going missing, to his wife Kumiko disappearing one morning. From there, things get stranger by the minute. Toru gets entangled with a sort of psychic therapist, Malta Kano, and her sister Creta, as well as striking up an unusual friendship with the unusual girl next door, May Kasahara. And that's before the really weird things start happening. Book 2 chapter 15 summary: In chapter 15 Toru awakens to Creta Kano who mysteriously appeared in his bed the night before. She tells him that she has lost her name and asks if he would like to flee Japan with her. To this request he agrees and leaves behind memorabilia of his old life with his wife. While Toru is in town gathering supplies for his flee he reads an article about Noboru Wataya, the article explains that Noboru is now trying to become a politician. [9]

Beyond the theme of cruelty, Murakami also blurs the line between physical and metaphysical realities. Toru can only truly grow by entering the metaphysical realm. Murakami makes very effective use of magical realism here, as he does in so many of his other excellent novels. Toru Okada, an average man living in Tokyo, quits his job and becomes a househusband while his wife, Kumiko, works to support them both. At first, Toru enjoys his newfound freedom and is not in any hurry to return to work. One day, Toru’s cat goes missing and he goes out looking for it while Kumiko is at work. While strolling through his neighborhood, he comes across the Miyawaki residence, an abandoned home with a dry well on the property. Across the road from the Miyawaki residence lives a teenager named May Kasahara, who is taking a break from school while she recovers from a motorcycle accident. Toru befriends May, who offers to help him find his missing cat. May is a rebellious and plain-spoken girl who is obsessed with death. Toru enjoys her company, though he does not know what to make of her. Ultimately, he and May fail to find the missing cat. One day, he finds himself contemplating the wind-up bird, a bird in his neighborhood with a mechanical sounding chirp. The bird interests Toru because he has never actually seen it, and Kumiko says it winds the spring of the world. As Toru contemplates the bird, he finds himself feeling as though he has actually become it, and he flies around his neighborhood. Toru also begins having strange dreams while in the well. In the dreams, he is in a hotel where the new is always discussing Noboru. He makes his way from the hotel lobby to Room 208, where a mysterious woman—the same woman from the phone calls—is waiting for him. However, he never manages to get a look at her face. Japan's most highly regarded novelist now vaults into the first ranks of international fiction writers with this heroically imaginative novel, which is at once a detective story, an account of a disintegrating marriage, and an excavation of the buried secrets of World War II.

What???? You wanted at least some normal, put-together sentences as the review? Fine, a few sentences: Più che aver letto un romanzo, mi sento come se avessi vissuto la vita di un altro, come quando ti svegli da un sogno nel quale hai vestito i panni di un impavido eroe, compiendo azioni che non ritenevi di poter compiere nemmeno di striscio. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Multimedia Theatre Production Stephen Earnhart's multimedia adaptation of Murakami's novel

These characters are Lt.Mamiya, The Manskinner, Cinammon, Nutmeg and most likely alot more that I have not figured out. Nearly 20 years after the first translation Ursula Gräfe translated the book from the Japanese original, including also the missing chapters. 'Die Chroniken des Aufziehvogels'.

As I sat here looking at you," I continued, " I suddenly remembered the story of this shitty island. What I'm trying to say is this. A certain kind of shittiness, a certain kind of stagnation, a certain kind of darkness, goes on propagating itself by its own power in its own self-contained cycle. And once it passed a certain point, no one can stop it -even if the person himself want to stop it.”