The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
I'm surprised that, now I think to check, nobody's put any of Haruki Murakami's novels in the taglist or memorable entries. I've found his meandering, often trippy narratives very entertaining and at times disturbing.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles being the most recent I have read, I'd like to take the opportunity to reccomend it to everyone here. It's been translated into English for quite some time, and can probably be found in any Borders or Dymocks. Based on a short story initially published in one of his anthologies (Murakami writes a novel one year, and a short story collection the next), it follows a middle-aged Japanese man on a Tuesday.
Having left his job, he completes housework while his wife continues in the workforce. On Tuesday he needs to make dinner, and go looking for their lost cat, who is named after a distasteful relative.
The plot is slow, but ever-present. It involves, as many Murakami novels do, a surreal interaction between this world and some other, supernatural, plane of being. What begins as a normal story following a very normal man is slowly revealed to be a very strange and twisted story following someone who was, debateably, never quite normal.
Although not as disturbing as, say, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, another Murakami novel, I truly enjoyed The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, and was at loose ends for two days while I made my way through it. I was caught up, and unable to stop worrying about the characters.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles being the most recent I have read, I'd like to take the opportunity to reccomend it to everyone here. It's been translated into English for quite some time, and can probably be found in any Borders or Dymocks. Based on a short story initially published in one of his anthologies (Murakami writes a novel one year, and a short story collection the next), it follows a middle-aged Japanese man on a Tuesday.
Having left his job, he completes housework while his wife continues in the workforce. On Tuesday he needs to make dinner, and go looking for their lost cat, who is named after a distasteful relative.
The plot is slow, but ever-present. It involves, as many Murakami novels do, a surreal interaction between this world and some other, supernatural, plane of being. What begins as a normal story following a very normal man is slowly revealed to be a very strange and twisted story following someone who was, debateably, never quite normal.
Although not as disturbing as, say, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, another Murakami novel, I truly enjoyed The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, and was at loose ends for two days while I made my way through it. I was caught up, and unable to stop worrying about the characters.