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Haruki Murakami is a master of subtly disturbing prose. Mundane events throb with menace, while the bizarre is accepted without comment. Meaning always seems to be just out of reach, for the reader as well as for the characters, yet one is drawn inexorably into a mystery that may have no solution. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is an extended meditation on themes that appear throughout Murakami's earlier work. The tropes of popular culture, movies, music, detective stories, combine to create a work that explores both the surface and the hidden depths of Japanese society at the end of the 20th century.
If it were possible to isolate one theme in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle that theme would be responsibility. The atrocities committed by the Japanese army in China keep rising to the surface like a repressed memory, and Toru Okada himself is compelled by events to take responsibility for his actions and struggle with his essentially passive nature. If Toru is supposed to be a Japanese Everyman, steeped as he is in Western popular culture and ignorant of the secret history of his own nation, this novel paints a bleak picture. Like the winding up of the titular bird, Murakami slowly twists the gossamer threads of his story into something of considerable weight. --Simon Leake, Amazon.com
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Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9780099540953
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. ONE OF FIVE NEW VINTAGE FUTURE CLASSIC READING GUIDE EDITIONSINCLUDES A READING GUIDEToru Okada's cat has disappeared and this has unsettled his wife, who is herself growing more distant every day. Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has started receiving. As this compelling story unfolds, the tidy suburban realities of Okada's vague and blameless life, spent cooking, reading, listening to jazz and opera and drinking beer at the kitchen table, are turned inside out, and he embarks on a bizarre journey, guided (however obscurely) by a succession of characters, each with a tale to tell. As this compelling story unfolds, the tidy suburban realities of Okada's vague and blameless life, spent cooking, reading, listening to jazz and opera and drinking beer at the kitchen table, are turned inside out, and he embarks on a bizarre journey, guided (however obscurely) by a succession of characters, each with a tale to tell. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780099540953
Book Description Condition: New. pp. 640. Seller Inventory # 5551103
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780099540953
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. BRAND NEW ** SUPER FAST SHIPPING FROM UK WAREHOUSE ** 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. Seller Inventory # 9780099540953-GDR
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 640 pages. 7.80x5.08x1.34 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __0099540959
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Book Description Condition: New. 2010. Paperback. Toru Okada's cat has disappeared and this has unsettled his wife, who is herself growing more distant every day. Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has started receiving. Translator(s): Rubin, Jay. Num Pages: 640 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 197 x 129 x 32. Weight in Grams: 462. . . . . . Seller Inventory # V9780099540953
Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. INCLUDES A READING GUIDEToru Okada's cat has disappeared and this has unsettled his wife, who is herself growing more distant every day. Seller Inventory # B9780099540953
Book Description Condition: New. 2010. Paperback. Toru Okada's cat has disappeared and this has unsettled his wife, who is herself growing more distant every day. Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has started receiving. Translator(s): Rubin, Jay. Num Pages: 640 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 197 x 129 x 32. Weight in Grams: 462. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # V9780099540953