Review: Haruki Murakami - A Wild Sheep Chase
Book 01: Haruki Murakami - A Wild Sheep Chase
A Wild Sheep Chase is a rather extraordinary novel set in contemporary Japan and laced strongly with elements of fantasy and myths. The plot is as complicated as it is simple: a man is sent on a mission to find a sheep. Now, the mission is blackmail and the sheep a kind of old-world ghost hungry for power.
Reading Murakami is always rewarding and full of unexpected nuances and A Wild Sheep Chase is no exception. There is a freshness to him that never ceases to give me pause. You just can’t help it; usually in reading a book, very little about it is actually original. I’m not accusing anyone of plagiarism here, but scenarios and metaphors, reactions and ideas feel familiar. Whether from literature or from your own mind and your own life. Murakami regularly makes me want to rub my eyes in wonder because his concepts and his phrasing just feel like something I have never come across or could never come up with myself. This can probably in part be attributed to the different cultural background and I’d easily admit that am only familiar with the work of two other contemporary Japanese authors, but whatever it is, doesn’t lower the level of enjoyment I get from reading his books.
I can’t even really tell which of his books I enjoyed most or which I consider the best. I enjoyed this one immensely and I am sure I will feel the same about the next one. It had wonderfully quirky and interesting characters, wonderful writing and a really driven plot. Where some characters, like the girlfriend with the beautiful ears, J or even the boss’ assistant seem technically not exactly three-dimensional, this doesn’t feel like a flaw in the slightest. Everything about the book feels symbolic and so do the characters that populate it. Their relatively slim scope of personality traits/flaws just supports that feeling in a beautiful way. It is further emphasized by the fact that hardly anyone seems to have a real name and they are referred to by generalities and stereotypes - The ex-wife, the boss, the sheep professor, the rat, etc.
If you try to explain the book to someone, they seem to start wrinkling their forehead and shake their heads. This is too complicated, too weird for me, thanks. I might have reacted the same way, to be honest. But it is a really wonderful read and I highly recommend Murakami to anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure of reading his books yet.
Other books read by the same author:
After Dark
Sputnik Sweetheart
South of the Border, West of the Sun
The Elephant Vanishes
A Wild Sheep Chase is a rather extraordinary novel set in contemporary Japan and laced strongly with elements of fantasy and myths. The plot is as complicated as it is simple: a man is sent on a mission to find a sheep. Now, the mission is blackmail and the sheep a kind of old-world ghost hungry for power.
Reading Murakami is always rewarding and full of unexpected nuances and A Wild Sheep Chase is no exception. There is a freshness to him that never ceases to give me pause. You just can’t help it; usually in reading a book, very little about it is actually original. I’m not accusing anyone of plagiarism here, but scenarios and metaphors, reactions and ideas feel familiar. Whether from literature or from your own mind and your own life. Murakami regularly makes me want to rub my eyes in wonder because his concepts and his phrasing just feel like something I have never come across or could never come up with myself. This can probably in part be attributed to the different cultural background and I’d easily admit that am only familiar with the work of two other contemporary Japanese authors, but whatever it is, doesn’t lower the level of enjoyment I get from reading his books.
I can’t even really tell which of his books I enjoyed most or which I consider the best. I enjoyed this one immensely and I am sure I will feel the same about the next one. It had wonderfully quirky and interesting characters, wonderful writing and a really driven plot. Where some characters, like the girlfriend with the beautiful ears, J or even the boss’ assistant seem technically not exactly three-dimensional, this doesn’t feel like a flaw in the slightest. Everything about the book feels symbolic and so do the characters that populate it. Their relatively slim scope of personality traits/flaws just supports that feeling in a beautiful way. It is further emphasized by the fact that hardly anyone seems to have a real name and they are referred to by generalities and stereotypes - The ex-wife, the boss, the sheep professor, the rat, etc.
If you try to explain the book to someone, they seem to start wrinkling their forehead and shake their heads. This is too complicated, too weird for me, thanks. I might have reacted the same way, to be honest. But it is a really wonderful read and I highly recommend Murakami to anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure of reading his books yet.
Other books read by the same author:
After Dark
Sputnik Sweetheart
South of the Border, West of the Sun
The Elephant Vanishes