The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Reason Book was Chosen:
I read a Murakami non-fiction book about running as part of my 2018 reading list. I read my first novel by Murakami - Killing Commendatore - in 2019. I really enjoyed all of the musical references and how Murakami takes you into his world. I hear The Wind-up Bird Chronicle has a number of opera references and I'm looking forward to experiencing my second Murakami novel.My Thoughts
I finished this book without understanding what happened. It did not resolve and I was unable to connect all of the pieces. I think the pieces do connect, I just wasn’t able to connect them. I frantically scribbled out two pages of notes upon completing The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but I just couldn’t figure out how all of the characters, the occurrences, and the unresolved issues fit together.
I read Killing Commendatore last year and there were some parallels to this book. There was a cave that the protagonist entered. There was a faceless man in both books. There were a variety of dream sequences.
I’m hoping someone can help me fit the pieces of this book together. I enjoyed reading it. I like Murakami’s dancing along the border of dream and reality. It’s very similar to Gabriel Garcia Marquez in that magic realism.
I thought there would be more musical references in this book. I had read somewhere that this was a good one for opera references, but that turned out to not be the case.