The Wind Up Bird Chronicle

[Pariah]

I'm almost done with this book. It's really a very interesting read, but there's so much weird crap that happens, I wish I had started this thread sooner to see if anyone out there was reading it or had read it so we could discuss it. I'm a little concerned that when it's through I'm not going to be able to conect all the dots.

I know JKF had read it (see below). Anyone else?

Started "the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami this evening....
... I finished Wind-Up Bird Chronicle a while back, also by him. It was kind of hard to follow along - it was a surreal novel with alot of weird characters. But I enjoyed it. He is a good story teller. The theme that he has so far is that people let things happen to them. I don't know if this is prevalent in Japanese culture, but it is kind of against what my beliefs are. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle really reminds alot of Albert Camus' L’étranger, The Stranger, in an ecclectic sense, and has a similar tale telling. Toru, the main character remids me of a Japanese version of Meursault.

 

[Pariah]

For a while I had a theory that Malta and Creta Kano and May Kasahara were all parts of Kumiko that "Mr. Wind Up Bird" was imagining. Especially after Creta's story about how when she was "defiled" by the brother that she was "split in two." My theory was that Naboru W. (sp?...I don't have the book in front of me) raped her and she developed multiple personalities from that experience that somehow Okasa sensed.

that theory had legs for a while, but now seems to be less likely....

 

[Pariah]

Finished it last night. Wow. Really, really good book. The climax was very tense.

...I still have a lot of questions though....

 

[jf-08]

I am still very confused about the whole book.

Murakami's surrealness must take into account that people have a clue about the inner waftness of existence. That consciously they are making unconscience decisions.

Does this make sense?

 

[Pariah]

I am still very confused about the whole book.

Murakami's surrealness must take into account that people have a clue about the inner waftness of existence. That consciously they are making unconscience decisions.

Does this make sense?

Yeah, I think I have my arms around the whole "why" of the book, I'm just not sure I understand what all the different parts/characters represent. If I find myself with some time over the next few days, I may look for an interpretation/"dissertation" on the 'net.