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Eh?Eh!'s Reviews > A Wild Sheep Chase
A Wild Sheep Chase (The Rat, #3)
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Thank you again, brian tanabe!
Books like these, I feel like a child who has finally graduated to the grown-up table only to find that the cultery is too big and sharp, the edge of the table is level with my eyes, and the conversation always above my head. But no! I refuse to be demoted back to the kids' table with all the babies! I wanna eat here and contribute to the discussions about whether a vacation home in Hawaii or the SE islands would be better (so boring...zzzz....) and did you catch when the bridesmaid tripped and fell on the groom hahahaha oops there's a kid here (*eyes snap open* what?) and the land war brewing in Asia and, and, whatever it is grown-ups talk about. Which is still mysterious to me.
I'm reminded of when I tried to read The Crying of Lot 49 with Elizabeth and Ceridwen (you're supposed to flip back and forth between their posted reviews to get the full conversation). It was such a treat to listen to them tear into the book! I didn't understand a word of it! Pass the peas, please.
The confusion Pynchon brought was similar to the confusion from Murakami for me, but I tried to watch for all those double-meaning grown-up things for this book. With the main character and mysterious Boss in a tightly controlled advertising industry, sheep everywhere, a girlfriend with special ears, and a quest to find the meaning of a certain photo, I think it may be something about control of information and loss of individual will that comes with lack of accurate facts? Well. Maybe. I wasn't sure about the significance of the disolving of the main character's patched-together life at the beginning. At the end, I wondered if the character had gone insane. The magic-y bits were unexpected.
I wonder if it would be better to ramp up to Murakami, since I've always had difficulty with English and Literature classes in school and then all my training and work is for such literal things, where metaphors are not used and a sheep is just an animal that requires passage from field to stream. After reading reviews of others who love Murakami (notably, BenH), I know I'm missing much beauty and meaning.
But then I read something like this, http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/39456993, and I feel better. In my larval stage of lit appreciation, it's too easy to attempt to take on other opinions instead of concentrating on my own. Another reason for loving gr, all the varying loves and hates for the same things.
Books like these, I feel like a child who has finally graduated to the grown-up table only to find that the cultery is too big and sharp, the edge of the table is level with my eyes, and the conversation always above my head. But no! I refuse to be demoted back to the kids' table with all the babies! I wanna eat here and contribute to the discussions about whether a vacation home in Hawaii or the SE islands would be better (so boring...zzzz....) and did you catch when the bridesmaid tripped and fell on the groom hahahaha oops there's a kid here (*eyes snap open* what?) and the land war brewing in Asia and, and, whatever it is grown-ups talk about. Which is still mysterious to me.
I'm reminded of when I tried to read The Crying of Lot 49 with Elizabeth and Ceridwen (you're supposed to flip back and forth between their posted reviews to get the full conversation). It was such a treat to listen to them tear into the book! I didn't understand a word of it! Pass the peas, please.
The confusion Pynchon brought was similar to the confusion from Murakami for me, but I tried to watch for all those double-meaning grown-up things for this book. With the main character and mysterious Boss in a tightly controlled advertising industry, sheep everywhere, a girlfriend with special ears, and a quest to find the meaning of a certain photo, I think it may be something about control of information and loss of individual will that comes with lack of accurate facts? Well. Maybe. I wasn't sure about the significance of the disolving of the main character's patched-together life at the beginning. At the end, I wondered if the character had gone insane. The magic-y bits were unexpected.
I wonder if it would be better to ramp up to Murakami, since I've always had difficulty with English and Literature classes in school and then all my training and work is for such literal things, where metaphors are not used and a sheep is just an animal that requires passage from field to stream. After reading reviews of others who love Murakami (notably, BenH), I know I'm missing much beauty and meaning.
But then I read something like this, http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/39456993, and I feel better. In my larval stage of lit appreciation, it's too easy to attempt to take on other opinions instead of concentrating on my own. Another reason for loving gr, all the varying loves and hates for the same things.
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Reading Progress
October 31, 2010
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Started Reading
October 31, 2010
– Shelved
December 4, 2010
–
Finished Reading
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Joel
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rated it 4 stars
Dec 05, 2010 05:38PM
a lot of murakami is about the odd beauty of his plots, which aren't meant to make sense exactly. it's about the way all the weirdness makes you feel... if that makes any sense.
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Hah, the weirdness made me feel confused. I kept trying to keep a mental timeline, match up brands of cigarettes to see if that reveal any identities, find logic and a neatly packaged ending. I guess I need to let that go, or at least loosen up.
yeah you really have to go with the flow. i think some of it might be cultural, different expectations for what a story is. but i have no real basis for that. maybe he just writes weird stories that don't quite make sense.if you liked his style but want something more traditional, try norwegian wood, which isn't magic-y at all. hardboiled wonderland and the end of the world is my favorite of his; it's weird but in a science-fiction way and it pretty much makes sense once you get to the end. the wind-up bird chronicle is his quote-unquote masterpiece, but it is definitely pushing the weird and slightly unsatisfying if you look at it strictly on a story level.
I loved this book very much and felt like I was getting somewhere... then I read the sequel and felt pretty much nothing.
I have The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but the person who gave it to me is a tool so I have no guilt about putting it aside for now. Bad as it is, I'm influenced by what I think of the people associated with the book, what I may be eating at the time, the temperature, etc. Or maybe that'll help with the flow-going?Mariel, your review of this book is wonderful! When I read things like that about a book, I wish I could capture the same daze.
I loved Wind-up Bird. It gave my brother nightmares. I'd recommend not reading it unless you were going to do something really, really fun soon to cure the hollow belly feeling. I felt like I lost that daze after I was done and wished I still had what it was that was in my head. Next time I get a book feeling like that I am writing it down. Like keeping a dream diary.
I don't think you should worry about digging for meaning. Sure, sometimes that provides another level of understanding and enjoyment. But what does a Dali mean? I think of Murakami as a Dali or a David Lynch but with words.
i've only read the wind up bird, but it seems to me, that one of the themes murakami is very interested in is the individual in society and so identity and how it can be or feel lost in relation to the rest of the world and the way that the world withholds and misrepresents information (and how this in turn creates a feeling of a loss of/ a disconnect with reality which affects our sense of identity), so i think it's likely you are understanding more than you think.i think david lynch films have quite a lot of meaning. i think that lynch gives us many layers, one is a pretty literal story that you can point to and say this is what's happening and this is what it's about. i think that's part of the fun with lynch, he makes you work for it a bit, but rewards for it with things connecting in a way that really works with the pieces fitting.
I can't believe I get to be the first person to recommend After Dark, which is my favorite Murakami work after his memoir about running. I had thought his most popular work was Kafka on the Shore, so I'm surprised no one has mentioned it.As for me, my favorite thing about Murakami's work is the voice. Sort of dry, hard boiled, and defiantly personal.
I haven't read Sheep Chase yet. Perhaps that is my next Murakami TBR.
I'll avoid TWUBC for now. Mariel, your reviews are very off-kilter-like, almost like a dream, but it comes together! I wonder what your actual dream diary would be like.I'm such a dunce with the arts, so I don't know that I approach Dali or Lynch with an open mind. I can only copy descriptive terms like "surreal" and "weird" because I can't find the meaning or pattern I automatically search for. Although, maybe it's there as Emilie states and I'm trying to grasp it too hard so it slips away (twss?).
Thanks for the recommendations, joel and Ryan!
norwegian wood
hardboiled wonderland
the end of the world
After Dark
Kafka on the Shore
Thanks, Reese! We can share those itty-bitty peas!
Eeeeek! How did I miss this? E & I were also drunk, so let's bear that in mind. I'm not sure our incoherence should be confused for insight. :)
I've never read any Murakami, and honestly, he makes me a little nervous.
I've never read any Murakami, and honestly, he makes me a little nervous.
Drunk but not hindered in pulsating brainpower!
But I've been told I get drunk-like after lunch, all heavy-eyed and swaying. And when I get started on a talking streak, I sometimes have the tact of a falling drunk.Hah! You and Ceridwen were super-entertaining, so I shouldn't compare you to them. Just the over-the-head feeling.
i just read this one and enjoyed it quite a bit, though it isn't my favorite murakami. did you try reading another one yet?
Nope, not yet. Murakami glitters but there's other gold in these here hills.
