The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami

Advantages: Outstanding,powerful work
Disadvantages: Maybe length

...a story by Murakami called The Wind Up Bird and Tuesday's Women,which is an early version of the first couple of chapters of this book. That story was somewhat below par for Murakami, lost in translation. However, it has been expanded into what is undoubtedly Murakami's finest work. This novel moves with exceptional fluency, integrating numerous surrealist stories into a beautiful, coherent work giving the reader a valuable insight into contemporary ...
...The novel is based around Toru Okada losing his cat. From this seemingly innocuous event, he goes on to find his wife has left him without saying goodbye, staying with her psychotic genius brother who Toru hates. Toru has recently quit his job and so spends his days doing very little and occasionally looking for the cat. From his searches, he meets a plethora of ever more bizarre characters such as his teenage girl neighbour who doesn't go to school ... Read review

Advantages: An enriching book and a fulfilling read
Disadvantages: None - it's long, but make time.

...Murakami read and I'm hooked. The book is translated from the Japanese by Jay Rubin but given that Murakami has spent time in the States teaching at Princeton Univ. I suspect he speaks decent English anyway. The plot is described broadly enough in other reviews ( lost cat, missing wife, teenage neighbour and so on) so I won't re-iterate too much but as the cat goes missing so does Toru Okada's wife, Kumiko. Kumiko is the bread-winner and Toru spends ...
...who he comes across in the walled-off alleyway behind his house. When Toru enters the dry well in the alley to find space to think his meditations reveal more than he bargained for and May becomes his anchor to the real world. Toru is baffled by his wife's disappearance and why is her brother so interested in what he does next? Before long you really do care what happens. This is the skill of Murakami for me, he draws you in so that you are hooked ... Read review

Advantages: readable insightful amzing powerful
Disadvantages: long?

...has to be one of the greatest writers that i have ever read, I got into his work due to my strong interest in japan, and once i read one of his books i was hooked, I have his whole collection, and i must say this is his best work - along with 'norwegian wood' It's so easy to regurgitate the blurb or just give a pre-see of the whole story, but I'd like to give you my resons for reading thid FANTASTIC piece of literature Haruki can write so fantastically ...
...like everyday life, mixed with the slightly surreal, but as you read , you don't think of some of his plots and literal devices as unbeliviable, but they blend in smootly to the strong theme of the ordinary. You can also picture all the scenes so easily, he writes descriptively about the characters and scenes without it turning into purple prose, and as you read through you are really drawn to the characters, and you tend to forget that they aren't ... Read review

Advantages: All sorts of literature in one book
Disadvantages: No logic at all... but that is part of its charm

This was the first book by Murakami, I read, and I find it it his most complete work up to now. In this book you will find mystery, you will find surreal worlds, you will find a fine description of everyday life in Japan and you will also find an amazing historical novel. This is the reason why I love this book. The different stories are very skilfully interlinked, and I admire the chapters on the inner Mongolia war, which are a whole book on their ...
...to write about one of the most unknown chapters in the history of the Second World War for us Europeans. If you loathe lack of logic in stories and characters, don´t go for this book. There is fantasy everywhere, although it is very well mixed with reality. Time and space melt through the different plots and make your day. ... Read review

Advantages: The wide range of experiences and people
Disadvantages: Horribly violent in parts, will stay with you.

If you've read the other reviews, you will already know the 'plot' of this book - the bizaare experiences of a young husband who loses his cat, then his wife. What other reviews didn't tell me was how this book would suck me in to the young man's world, so that my real day to day life got a bit shadowy and I couldn't wait to get back to the novel. (Perhaps I should say that I was on holiday at the time!) I loved the length of the book. It lasted ...
...Or dread - the violent bits of the book are very graphic and I think about them a lot. But the book has enriched my life. P.S. I have been to Japan and it was good to read about areas and remember them, mixed with fantasy and surrealism. ... Read review