Kelly's Reviews > The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
by
by

I absolutely adored the book upon starting out. It is exquisitely crafted, with each seemingly casual word chosen to illustrate the world into which we have entered. It is a lonely world full of half finished stories, abrupt departures, missed connections and deep silences. "Poor Mr. Wind-Up Bird," lives on an alley with no exits, in a borrowed life that he could never afford to live without the kindness of his uncle. He's just quit his job, as he has no idea of where to go with his life, but is dissatisfied with its current course. He lives with a wife that he never seems to really speak to, in a routine existence in which she is often late or absent, or spends her time repressing everything she chooses to say to him. Murakami meticulously illustrates this quietly painful existence in all of Mr. Wind-Up Bird's movements, whether it is missed phone calls, a wasted dinner, or a frozen statue of a bird never able to take flight. This sort of language kept me going throughout the book even when I lost my patience with other things.
Mr. Wind-Up Bird's relationship with May Kashara was my favorite part of the book. She is something of a wise child character, able to distill what Murakami is only hinting at into a more obvious, if odd and seemingly quaint statement. She is a wonderful character who brings light and movement to the pages, and pushes the plot along, if only in Mr. Wind-Up Bird's head. I kept looking ahead, if only to find out how long it was until she appeared again.
What I did not like? The endless repetition of the spiritual mumbo-jumbo, of the prophets who "just know," when something is going to happen, of the endless discussion of the "flow," and various other points of odd zen claptrap that really pushed me out of the story, and the reader entirely out of the reality. I think a part of the book's charm is that it hovers so close around the edges of reality, and gradually, this book just seemed to leave that behind. I appreciated the message of a bundle of stories all being woven together, stories that stop and start as people pass through them, are read and discarded as they are of use. But this went far beyond the borders of surreality into quite a confusing fog. Perhaps I missed something, but it became very difficult to push myself through this seemingly unrelated part. That entire middle section with the extended stories of Cinammon and Nutmeg, and the increasing weirdness of Creta Kano, the side stories of Lieutenant Mamiya, etc... I lost patience with the book and almost gave up several times, because that's how I thought the rest of the book would be. The introduction of random characters and tales that are really not material to the plot or necessary to the points that Murakami is making.
Thankfully, the tale wound back down into a more manageable area towards the end. I'm glad I finished it, if only to see the end of May Kashara.
I wish I had loved this more consistently that it turned out that I did. I wish I could give it 3.5 stars. I'm sticking with the definition of the stars in terms of "liked it," or "loved it." I was somewhere changeably in between between depending on the section of the book. (review originally written in 2008, edited since).
Mr. Wind-Up Bird's relationship with May Kashara was my favorite part of the book. She is something of a wise child character, able to distill what Murakami is only hinting at into a more obvious, if odd and seemingly quaint statement. She is a wonderful character who brings light and movement to the pages, and pushes the plot along, if only in Mr. Wind-Up Bird's head. I kept looking ahead, if only to find out how long it was until she appeared again.
What I did not like? The endless repetition of the spiritual mumbo-jumbo, of the prophets who "just know," when something is going to happen, of the endless discussion of the "flow," and various other points of odd zen claptrap that really pushed me out of the story, and the reader entirely out of the reality. I think a part of the book's charm is that it hovers so close around the edges of reality, and gradually, this book just seemed to leave that behind. I appreciated the message of a bundle of stories all being woven together, stories that stop and start as people pass through them, are read and discarded as they are of use. But this went far beyond the borders of surreality into quite a confusing fog. Perhaps I missed something, but it became very difficult to push myself through this seemingly unrelated part. That entire middle section with the extended stories of Cinammon and Nutmeg, and the increasing weirdness of Creta Kano, the side stories of Lieutenant Mamiya, etc... I lost patience with the book and almost gave up several times, because that's how I thought the rest of the book would be. The introduction of random characters and tales that are really not material to the plot or necessary to the points that Murakami is making.
Thankfully, the tale wound back down into a more manageable area towards the end. I'm glad I finished it, if only to see the end of May Kashara.
I wish I had loved this more consistently that it turned out that I did. I wish I could give it 3.5 stars. I'm sticking with the definition of the stars in terms of "liked it," or "loved it." I was somewhere changeably in between between depending on the section of the book. (review originally written in 2008, edited since).
Sign into 欧宝娱乐 to see if any of your friends have read
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
Sign In 禄
Reading Progress
Finished Reading
February 22, 2008
– Shelved
July 14, 2008
– Shelved as:
fiction
September 11, 2009
– Shelved as:
owned
March 26, 2010
– Shelved as:
20th-century-postwar-to-late
Comments Showing 1-50 of 61 (61 new)
message 1:
by
brian
(new)
-
rated it 4 stars
Feb 22, 2008 08:24AM

reply
|
flag




And yes, his short stories are fabulous, as well.






Thanks for sharing that experience. :)


Out of curiosity, what were the romantic short stories you were referring to? I think I should read those, too...

Oh, and sorry I didn't respond to your question about the short stories, Martine. I don't remember the name of one of them, but the other is something like "the 100% perfect girl for me" - it's in "The Elephant Vanishes." I believe the other one was in "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman."


Kelly, I'm sorry to hear you didn't enjoy The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle as much as you were hoping. I haven't read the book myself, so I can't judge. I really hope you will try Norwegian Wood, though -- it's the same style but largely without the spiritual stuff (lots of psychobabble instead). As I said, I loved it, though I know quite a few people who think it's among Murakami's weakest efforts.





I like his writing style and I enjoy the surrealism, but the long detours into secondary characters' backstories (i.e. a big chunk of the middle) almost made me abandon it. I was glad I pushed through, though, and have every intention of reading more of his work.

This is a great review, though - much more merciful than mine to be sure.. ;) hah

I haven't tried any other books of his yet. I probably owe him another try!

I haven't tried any other books of his ..."
I really enjoyed Norwegian Wood which was the first book I read by him. It made me want to try this one in fact. And I think I will definitely look for more books by him in future too... Maybe not any more of his chunksters, though... haha










