≫ Read Free The WindUp Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami Jay Rubin 9780965341981 Books

The WindUp Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami Jay Rubin 9780965341981 Books

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The WindUp Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami Jay Rubin 9780965341981 Books

This is my fifth book by Murakami. I am constantly amazed by his imagination and the situations he creates and of course, his creative genius. However, I did find this book difficult to become completely absorbed in. It seemed like every single character intentionally had something "odd or unusual" about them and it just became overwhelming and confusing and, at times, tedious for me to keep my interest up. The stories and dreams and flashbacks all presented in italics seemed to just go on and on for far too long. The book did have some of the fascinating "alternate realities that we have come to expect from Murakami. Overall, I think the book could have been shorter and more concise. But, that said, I am looking forward to my sixth book...


Tags : The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle [Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. 3 books in one volume: The Thieving Magpie, Bird as Prophet, The Birdcatcher. This translation by Jay Rubin is in collaboration with the author.,Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin,The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,KNOPF.,0965341984

The WindUp Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami Jay Rubin 9780965341981 Books Reviews

First, if you're not open to the supernatural/inexplicable, then this probably isn't the book for you. Murakami is a master at creating atmosphere. I found myself searching & listening to the songs mentioned throughout the story while reading those parts. I never thought the story was too slow. It actually just added to the feel and made me want to keep reading. Even when he brought in other characters' war stories, it wasn't an issue because they all tied in to the main story. The only thing that kept me from giving this 5 stars is reading about the liberties the translator took. I would love to read a proper, unaltered version.
It is very hard to rate this book and I see the reasons why everyone gave it 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 stars.

On many levels the book is brilliant. It is brilliant what Murakami can do with his prose, all the alleys of reality and supra-reality that he is taking or breaking.

Also, his style and his insights about life are brilliant. Where he fails short, here and in other works (1Q85) is tying together all the intriguing story threads that he is creating and then abandoning. I was also a little bored by the story within the story tactic. A few times maybe, if it adds to the plot and main theme, but most of these stories were simple detours, and I skipped pages.

This being said, I highly recommend this book. Even imperfect, or rather, like someone else said here, a cross between smoke and mirrors and staggering genius, he is one of the most interesting contemporary writers.

What he wants to say though seems unclear or maybe not as important to him as it is for his readers. With him, is more about taking an interesting journey, not about the destination. Grab this book asap, if you haven't read it!
A surrealistic novel of the indistinguishable mingling of the natural and the supernatural by Japan’s leading novelist. A well-written but weird story about an out-of-work anti-hero who, after his wife leaves him, spends a lot of time in a nearby dry well, having erotic hallucinatory dreams, having experiences that seem like hallucinatory dreams, and fixating on his brother-in–law (a magnetic but malevolent rising politician on whom he blames everything). The roster of bizarre characters encountered by the anti-hero includes a 16 year old girl who has dropped out of school, an aging veteran of the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, a psychic prostitute and her equally psychic sister whom he engaged to find his missing cat, a beautiful woman who gives him money for exorcising the spirits within wealthy female clients, etc. Some interesting vignettes on the Japanese military experience in Manchuria and the subsequent slave labor of the defeated Japanese in Siberian labor camps. It is testimony to the author’s literary skill that anyone would read the entire 600+ pages, which I did.
How does one review a Murakami book? First I will start by saying, this guy is way too smart for me to grasp all of what he writes. Having said that, I think there was a time in my life that I would have grasped a lot more, but perhaps that time for me has passed....I think to truly appreciate all he expresses in a book that one must read his work over and over. If there is ever a book that you wish to have a dog-eared copy of, with passages underlined 3 times in bold pen, Murakami's works would be it.

Part of my problem trying to absorb (and this is an author you *really* do absorb...He words sink into your bones, into your very tissue...one does not simply read Murakami, if you do, you are not doing it right....)Murakami is that I often get so enthralled with a single passage that my mind must stay and linger there for a great deal of time. Never mind that I have tried to continue on reading, my mind is still caressing a single passage over and over....so in effect, I often find myself having to go back and re read parts of the book....

Now this book. Many questions are asked here...and in true Murakami style, he leaves much to you, the reader, to decide the answers...I often get aggravated with authors that do this, but not with Murakami. He always ends the books in the only way possible to end them!

Yes, he has the moon and the stars in this book. He has good and evil. He has mysterious women....and he has a very simple, ordinary man, faced with what he knows in his heart to be true, even though everyone and everything is saying different. I think this book had a beautiful, fairy tale ending to it. It was so suspenseful in parts (I usually don't get my heart pounding so fast as this book did!)....How far would you go for love? How much faith could you put in what your heart knows to be true, even though you mind tells you it is not? Finally, the question is asked is all you gain in the end worth the price you pay to stay true to your own self?

Of course there are many other aspects to this book...Far too many for me to try to explain or even understand, but this is what will stick with me from this book for a long time.....

as is true with any Murakami novel, you should travel this journey yourself to experience all he has to offer....and remember, you *must* stop and enjoy the scenery...the desalination of his books are only that...the end....the true magic lies in just getting there.....
This is my fifth book by Murakami. I am constantly amazed by his imagination and the situations he creates and of course, his creative genius. However, I did find this book difficult to become completely absorbed in. It seemed like every single character intentionally had something "odd or unusual" about them and it just became overwhelming and confusing and, at times, tedious for me to keep my interest up. The stories and dreams and flashbacks all presented in italics seemed to just go on and on for far too long. The book did have some of the fascinating "alternate realities that we have come to expect from Murakami. Overall, I think the book could have been shorter and more concise. But, that said, I am looking forward to my sixth book...