I have read my share of Murakami--"Kafka On The Shore,' "After Dark," and the brilliance that was "1Q84," which my beloved had to tear away from me at night in order to get to bed. I was so enthralled by its 900-plus pages that I think I finished the whole thing in a week.
For so many years, various people have been recommending I read "The Wind Up Bird Chronicle." I kept seeing it on shelves, staring at me, and I had every intention in the world of reading it. But after Patti Smith's New York Times Review of Murakiami's latest, "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki And His Years Of Pilgrimage"--what a title!!!!!!!!!--I decided I had to. And so I did!!!!!!!!!
Darlings, I was blown away like I had not been, since "1Q84."
This novel's scope is so vast, and its structure so intricate, that Murakami manages to cram into 600 plus pages what would take most writers twice that to convey what needs to be said. At once a domestic treatise, a supernatural thriller, a meditation on self, "The Wind Up Bird Chronicle" has some of the most intriguing characters in fiction, especially women. But, are they all individual women, or variations of the same persona?????????
That is one of the many mind games this novel plays on the reader, with decisions left to such, wisely. A less intriguing title for this book might have been "Mind Games," but Murakami is more interested in blending all elements--even the minute backyard sculpture of a wind up bird--into one whole mixture that is so tightly held together it cannot be pulled apart.
It is the most pleasurable Murakami I have read in awhile, one of the best reads I have had this year, and reminds me of one of those wooden Japanese puzzles. You are never quite sure if you have got it right.
I say, go ahead and read this one, right away, girls. Because, while I am sure the new Murakami will be interesting, I am sure it cannot begin to touch this, one of his signature works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't let this bird fly away, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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