It had the same desk, the same bureau, the same closet, the same floor lamp. The story of Cinnamon and Nutmeg is the most intriguing as Murakami paints a “Kafkaesque” shade when he writes of the boy waking up one day to find that he is no longer himself. There is a veteran who talks of the horrors of war that befell the Japanese during war. The villain Noru seemed to be a complex person. There are many stories inside the novel, which was delightful. Peppered with several sub persona, each with strong character build up the story proceeds through different voices, often interconnected with one another and sometimes strangely isolated. Toru descends to the bottom of a dry well seeking solitude, and while he’s down there, he has a bizarre experience that helps him transcend dreams (or perhaps not). It is from May Kasahara that Toru learns of the Miyawaki house, the curse upon it, and the dried-up well that becomes central to the novel’s story. He finds a friend in an adolescent girl named May Kasahara, a high-school dropout obsessed with death, who works for a wig factory. He consults a pair of psychic sisters named Malta and Creta Kano, who visit him in his dreams as often as in reality, sometimes in a sexual way. His cat has disappeared and after a few days, so does his wife without giving him any hint of her intention. Our hero has left his well paying job for no relevant reason, is happy being jobless and is a cog in a failing marriage.
The story of ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle revolves around the protagonist-narrator, Toru Okada. And off we go on a strange journey with this 30- something man in this giant book split into three parts. The book opens with the protagonist cooking spaghetti for brunch, finding contentment in the repetitive tasks that go into making a meal when an unknown woman with lewd intentions calls him on the phone, disrupting his routine.
If lazy mornings, slow pleasures of cooking and savouring your meal in a warm kitchen are your thing, then pick up this book.
Yes, I prefer the surrealist in Murakami, not the realist in him. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is my second Murakami and I am swept off my feet by the read.
Though considered a big favourite of many readers, I wasn’t impressed. My first Murakami was Norwegian Wood ( read review). In The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Murakami we follow a man’s ordinary life - spent cooking, reading, listening to jazz and drinking beer at the kitchen table - which turns unapologetically interesting as he embarks on a bizarre journey, guided by various characters, each with a peculiar story. Phone calls from an unknown woman, visits from psychic ladies in dreams, a screeching bird aptly named The Wind-Up Bird and a dry well.
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