After reading
Norwegian Wood and IQ84, you may feel that this book is one of the best works
of Murakami. If this is your third book, you must have at least understood what
to expect from him.
Murakami has
told that you may need to read this over and over again to understand the book!
In the days of Twitter and Instagram, we don't think many have time or patience
to read any book as bizarre as this even once.
As the story
goes: so you have a kid who is 15 with mental age of a big guy who runs away
and is still running away from home, reality and everything else! And (like
IQ84) this one also has a parallel track of another dude who is around 60 but
with the mental age of a kid who cannot read!
So while the
first one talks to his alter ego (of imagination or maybe a real crow! I or
Murakami doesn't really know or care!), which is a crow! And the other dude can
talk to cats! (At least in the beginning when nothing makes sense).
It starts with
a modern re-imagination or retelling of the Oedipus Rex story with bizarre
twists and if you had cringed with Oedipus complex, then here you will just
retch.
As usual, in
the Murakami style, you have talking cats, talking stones and even a dog which
can do telepathy. You have the regular worm hole like phenomenon where reality
and imagination overlap! It's your routine bizarre world where like the dream
theatre album, the dream and day unite!
You must be
amazed though at the frank sexual innuendos and fantasies! The description of
other books and musical stories are pretty vivid and well put. It definitely
shows that the author is well read if nothing else. Even the simple description
of rain or beach or even a poem is so abstract that you either love it or hate
it! I have learned to tolerate it!
According to
‘The Guardian’ there will be three types of people after reading this one!
First who will like the book and Murakami and rave about it and support it with
full intent! The second are the neutrals while the third are the ones who will
ask themselves why they had to torment themselves so much and hate both the
book and Murakami!
You may feel
all the above in different pages of this book! But you may never been able to
understand the hype (apparently neither can Murakami!)
In the end you
have more questions than answers! You have to use your own imagination to fill
in the gaps! If it's answers you are searching for then you will be sorely
disappointed! But then you don't read Murakami to get answers!
Basically, the
reader, the story and the writer are in their respective fantasy worlds! So
just read and don't try to make sense! This is not the Kiego Higashino world
where 1+1=2! Here everyone and everything is simply on the dream and fantasy
shore! Just like Kafka!
Some may find
it boring! Some may read it many times more! But one thing is sure that it will
shake you to the core!
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