The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (1997)

Paperback (Vintage)

Language: English (Originally Japanese)

Author: Haruki Murakami

Translator: Jay Rubin

The Japanese book was released in three parts: Dorobō kasasagi hen (泥棒かささぎ編?), Yogen suru tori hen (予言する鳥編?), Torisashi otoko hen (鳥刺し男編?) in 1994-95. The English translation is one book of 600 odd pages (607).

The story is about the young Okada’s, the husband who has recently left his job with a law firm and his wife an editor of a health food magazine and their cat Noboru Wataya aka Mackerel. The cat disappears one day which triggers a series of surreal events including the end of the Okada’s relationship.

Murakami’s love for music comes to the fore, The Thieving Magpie (written by Gioachino Rossini) runs throughout the story among other jazz & classical pieces. The book covers a wide range of topics like relationships, psychics, the Russo-Japanese war (during WW II), surrealism, philosophy and even politics. Murakami’s story telling is mesmerising. He again provides us with a range of stuff from flashbacks to dreams to letters to conversations to two column newspaper reportage to internet chat transcripts. It is amazing how he straddles many themes and moves from different points-of-view.

There are some characters whom you would love for ever, some that make you wonder about and some whom one would loathe. Lieutenant Mamiya is one character who stays along with you for a while, so is the mother-son duo Nutmeg & Cinnamon. Characters like Boris the man skinner who is the epitome of cruelty and connivance and Noboru Wataya the politician are samples of the people of the other extreme. The internet chat transcripts (in a completely different font compared to the story text) and the two column newspaper reportage enliven the narrative.

Overall this is a bit heavy and a lengthy read. But for a couple of chapters which might be a bit boring, predictable and adding to the 607 pages, the rest make you sit-up and read. Reading this book alone (without external disturbances) enhances the surreal experience / feeling and makes it more enjoyable.

Very highly recommended.

PS: Haruki Murakami is in the running for the Nobel prize for literature this year. He is presumed to be the 3rd favorite for the prize with an 8/1 odd