Read a Good Book: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami is published by Random House and is a complex story involving layers of characters. The main character, Toru Okada, is unemployed and trying to figure out what to do next. While searching for his missing cat his wife goes missing as well. As he tries to unravel these mysteries more fantastical and strange things begin to occur in his life.

Toru Okada encounters an aging war veteran who tells his tales of the horrors experienced during Japan’s campaign in Manchuria while he also receives visits from a psychic who helps him track down his missing wife. In addition to all of this, Toru Okada explores his neighborhood for his missing cat and encounters a teenage girl down the street who is simultaneously welcoming and vindictive. In the neighborhood he also discovers an abandoned well and begins to climb down inside for perspective which may seem odd but fantastical things happen as a result of visiting this well that fold into the layers of the story. The well belongs to a house that has a dark story behind it and all of the characters who seemed to be part of other circles in the beginning then blend in together as you move deeper into the mysteries surrounding Toru Okada.

Murakami paints a complex, eerie world filled with magical characters and surreal activities that envelop our main character slowly but surely until what we would call reality is no longer recognizable. It is an excellent book and while some mysteries are solved you are still left with a sense of wonder, a sense of longing for more explanations. This story will ink itself in your mind and perhaps invade your own dreams.

I highly recommend this book and you will most likely be able to find this in your local library and definitely in your local bookstore.


If you would like to purchase a copy for yourself on-line, visit:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_16?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+wind+up+bird+chronicle&sprefix=the+wind+up+bird


To learn more about the author, Haruki Murakami, you can visit his link below:

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/murakami/site.php?id=


Thanks always for reading, please stop in again next week…