LoT Book CLub - Book 2 - Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

[Not Afraid]

I'm right behind Chris in my re-read but I am noticing a lot of connections that I did not notice the first time. Although, I am afraid of trying to make things a lot more concrete than they are meant to be (interesting reaction from me since I am one that enjoys ambiguity).

There are many many references to the "other" world that have happened throughout the book so far.

Spoiler:

page 187, Wind-up bird is missing, Komiko has left and he waunders over to May's house in a daze. May hands him some lemon water to clear his head:

Ice clinked when I took it. The sound seemed to reach me froma distant wold. There were several gates conneting that world with the place where I was, and I could hear the sound because they all just happened to be opened at the moment. But this was strictky temporary. If even one of them closed the sound would no longer reach my ears.

Lt. Mamaya also think of his experience in Mongolia as reality that stops when he was thrust into the well. He dreams of slowly rotting at the bottom of the well and it seems that "sometimes it seemed to me that that was what had really happened and my life here was a dream." (pg 171)

But, to me the entire Mamiya story is so prophetic to Toru's own story and had such a profound effect on what he end up doing I find it hard to separate the two at times.

Of course, this all happens before the blur of what happens in the well.

The first reference to a well happend much earlier on in the book than I recall and I only would have noticed this on a second read.

Spoiler:

pg 28. Toru and Kumiko are arguing while seh is PMSing and she can't understand why he never takes out his bad moods on others. She says "maybe you've got this deep well inside of you and you shout into it, 'The king;s got donkey's ears!' and then everything's OK."

The man with no face?

Spoiler:

Is this his own pasivity that he doesn't listen to at certain times?