This was my third Haruki Murakami book in the past two years. He is a favorite of mine because he pairs ordinary characters with surreal and extraordinary worlds. And, as an added bonus, he loves philosophy and music and references both often.
This book, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, followed suit. There are ordinary characters and there are unique ones with strange and powerful intuitions. There are frequent jumps in place and time. There is mounting suspense that leads to absolute surreal madness, worlds colliding, before calming down to a mostly-resolved conclusion. I tend to love about 90% of each book and spend the last 10% confounded, trying to fathom what just happened, and then trying to decide if I liked it or not.
While my most recent read is one of his more popular books, I think that my favorite of the three I've read thus far is his most recent - 1Q84. SB recently finished Murakami's nonfiction book about running and writing called What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Inspired, having never read any of his fiction before, SB just started Murakami's coming-of-age novel Norwegian Wood. In short, we are soon to own the entire Haruki Murakami library! :)
I'm taking a break from the Murakami-marathon for a little light reading - A Cook's Tour by Anthony Bourdain. I read Kitchen Confidential several years ago and really enjoyed it. There is something about his slightly arrogant renegade foodie voice that I enjoy. VERY like Hunter Thompson, only about travel and food. After that, I'm thinking maybe some Sherman Alexie - perhaps Reservation Blues. More to come!
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