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

[Ghoulish Delight]

I started out blazing fast, slowed down a little in the last week. I'm about 2/3 through, and loving it.

[katiesue]

I'm about halfway through and really enjoying it. It's definately a book I never would have picked up on my own.

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Originally Posted by katiesue

I'm about halfway through and really enjoying it. It's definately a book I never would have picked up on my own.

I agree. I wouldn't have known about it. It was rough for me in the beginning, but then it smoothed out. I'm not sure if the translation got better, or I became more accustomed to it. Lots of stories inside of stories.

[tracilicious]

I finished this yesterday. I need a few days to digest it, but mostly I'm left with questions and no answers. The story started to disintegrate a bit for me around page 400 because there were so many loose ends. They tied together so quickly that I need to sort it out a bit. Kudos to Murakami for writing an ending that I actually like. That's rare for me.

[€uroMeinke]

I'm about 200 pages in on the re-read and have been contemplating the following:

Spoiler:

Toru's persistent passivity - He want to see May, so he climbs into the ally and waits for her to see him, all the sex happens to him - he never initiates, even as he's confronted with Komikos infidelity, he is reluctant to accept it.

Miyamata's Fate - Knowing his destiny becomes a curse, he becomes living dead in all his future adventures

The Woman on the phone - was it Komiko? Toru insists he's good at recognizing voices, but in another scene I recall him having trouble identifying a voice.

Water and lack of water, dry wells, club soda, sacred springs, and samples from the tap.

No conclusons to discuss, but I'm wrapped in all these intertwinings

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Dread - go ahead and discuss, just use spoiler tags.

Finished! I really enjoyed this for multiple reasons.

1. Far different style from anything else I've read. I have no clue what is due to translation, what is Japanese style, and what is Murakami himself, but still, very intriguing from a style standpoint. This isn't to say I loved every moment of the style, but it definitely made me pay attention.

2. Characters. Solid, filled-in characters that react as they should (within such a crazy universe, but still). So many people and all of them real to me, no matter how wacky.

3. Settings. I can see the house with the dead end alley behind it, I can see Honda's hut, I can even see the wig factory. All places in an alien culture to me, but so skillfully drawn that I felt present.

Let's drop the number format.

Spoiler:

I thought the story was great, once it got going. It took a while to do so. I really didn't feel enthralled with it until Kumiko disappeared. As soon as that happened my reaction was "finally, something is happening!" Up until that point it was tedious, every day life, with Kumiko coming and going. Looking back I know it's a purposeful contrast but still, I think there was a bit too much set up.

Toru's go-with-the-flow personality that Euro mentions really intrigued me as a contrast to most everything else I've ever read. He wasn't "whipped" per se, he just dealt with things in a manner that I'm not used to. Instead of scrambling around in an embarrassed fashion desperately trying to figure out which way is up (as a British character might - Neverwhere, anyone?), or turning aggressive and hacking his way through (as an American character might), he centers himself and lets these things happen to him until it comes clear where and how he should act. I wish I were more like that.

I was a bit disappointed in not having a face-to-face with Noboru Wataya at the end. Giving him a stroke from afar was anti-climactic.

I loved all the history. If I had ever known about the Chinese/Japanese stuff in WWII, I had forgotten it. It was easy to get wrapped up in the portraits of the zoo, the Siberian mine, the Mongolian desert. Beautifully painted.

More to say later, gotta go.

[Alex]

It's turned into a bit of a slog for me. Of what I've read so far and I'm just now to the part where

Spoiler:

Toru tests that he can access Cinnamon's computer

I'm opposite CP. I thought Book 1 was the most interesting with only a slight drop off once Kumiko disappeared. However, since

Spoiler:

Nutmget showed up

I've only been able to read a few pages at a time and I seem to have lost most of my interest.

[DreadPirateRoberts]

I've only been able to read a few pages at a time and I seem to have lost most of my interest.

I found it helped to read more that a few pages at a time to get the momentum going.

Spoiler:

I was amazed that someone could go to a train station for 11 straight days and sit and look at faces. Imagine the patience. I can barely sit still for a few minutes. Although it is fun to go to DL, sit on a bench and watch people, but I can only do that for maybe 1/2 hour or so, certainly not a whole day, and certainly not days in a row. Could you?

[Stan4dSteph]

I just got it over the weekend. Is it too late to start?

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Originally Posted by Stan4dSteph

I just got it over the weekend. Is it too late to start?

It's never too late.