The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: Book Review

Haruki Murakami's Eighth Novel is Possibly His Best

Jan 19, 2009 Todd Christopher Petty

Contemporary Japanese author Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle manages to shine even brighter than the rest of his dazzling novels.

Translated to English from Japanese in 1997 by Jay Rubin, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (0-679-77543-9) published by Vintage International, is a spellbinding tale of lost love, mystery, and dreams. Murakami masterfully incorporates seemingly mundane human behavior with fantastic elements.

Plot Synopsis

The protagonist Toru Okada is an ex-employee at a law firm. Toru is extremely passive and calm, almost to a degree of apathy toward many aspects of his life. The story begins after his departure from the company he works for. Toru lives with his wife of six-years, Kumiko. The couple lives a seemingly ordinary life in a modest house, but things get strange as early as page one when Toru receives a call from an enigmatic woman.

Following the strange phone call, Toru’s life only gets stranger. Through the novel he meets many strange women – some with extraordinary occult talents, and another obsessed with death and decay to a degree of concern. The novel also includes a narrative that explores post-war Japan. Murakami’s novel is complex - storylines run parallel: horizontally, vertically, and every which way. As the novel unfolds, readers will get the unmistakable feeling that there are many characters and ideas that are ambiguously connected in some way or another. His novel seems to weave fine threads of nostalgia throughout the novel.

Murakami’s Writing Style

Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle showcases his unique writing style. The story cements Murakami as an innovator of a unique style, and a master of a genre. His writing is remarkably lucid; he describes mundane human behavior with unrivaled inspiration and zest. Murakami is a master of metaphor and symbolism. His fusion of fantastic elements into his novels provides fantastic analogies to real-life experiences and abstract ideas.

Up Bird Chronicle Themes

Murakami’s work is metaphysical and mind-bending. His novel includes elements of Buddhist philosophy such as interconnectedness. Murakami’s novel relentlessly explores the relationship between human flesh and consciousness. There is also a metaphorical recurring theme of water. Murakami voraciously explores the relationship between reality and dreams. The novel includes multiple different types of dreams (lucid, out-of-body). The author intentionally blurs the lines between reality and dreams’ leaving the reader to wonder what is real and what is “imaginary.”

Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle demonstrates unrivaled technique, storytelling, and style. At 607 pages long, this post-modern novel is an undertaking that demands readers to become fully immersed in Murakami’s world. However, Murakami exhibition of mastery will satisfy even the most ravenous literary appetite.

The copyright of the article The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: Book Review in World Literatures is owned by Todd Christopher Petty. Permission to republish The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: Book Review in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Cover of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle