The story begins with protagonist Toru Okada searching down a blocked off alley for his and his wife's missing cat. As with much of the novel, the introduction of anything new will eventually reveal its prominence in the story. It isnt long before the alley becomes a central part to the storyline, as well as a dried up well in an abandoned, haunted house that lies in the alley. Within the first chapter, the book already has the potential to fully immerse you into the mind of in the protagonist, Toru Okada, yet as the novel goes on, you realise you really dont know him at all. Reading this book will leave you with an unrelenting bewilderment due to his reactions and behavior.
The novel centres around the effects of defilement, mainly by Toru's brohter in law, whose role in the story increases in prominence as the book progresses.Throughout the whole novel, Toru is fighting for his marriage, as his wife, Kumiko, leaves him only a few chapters in. The characters Toru meets on his quest to get back to his wife also suffer from defilement, and through the development of each relationship, Toru acts as an accidental saviour by sponging up the effects of defilement on the people surrounding him. He absorbs all that happens around him unquestonably, no matter how strange his world gets, as if he silently submitting to the hope that it could get him closer to his beloved wife.The book is intertwined with several detailed, separate stories of different characters that make you lose sleep wondering how their can all possibly fit together. Toru meets 15 year old girl, May Kashara, who works for a wig company instead of going to school. He also meets psychic sisters Malta and Creta Kano, the odd but impeccably dressed Nutmeg Alaska and her mute son Cinnmon. The story is also enhanced by the addition of an old soldier named Lieutenant Mamiya.
You find yourself anticipating the ending from about half way through the book. Dealing with isolation, imagination, first love and the mundane potential of human life, there are also some heart (and stomach) wrenching accounts of the Second World War, and the devastatingly honest account of the breakdown of a marriage. Yet, all of this is intertwined with surreal characters and subplots that just refuse to completely fall into place.
With such odd characters and events surrounding him, Toru's actions and thoughts remains placid throughout, aside from one or two moments. He comes across as piteous and likable, and would do so even if it weren't for the relentless bad luck that he encounters. Throughout the book, Toru is unemployed after leaving his job at a law firm, but even this he is calm and accepting of.
“Is it possible, in the final analysis, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another?
We can invest enormous time and energy in serious efforts to know another person, but in the end, how close can we come to that person's essence? We convince ourselves that we know the other person well, but do we really know anything important about anyone?”
Despite such a complex and longwinded story-line, the beauty lies within Marakami's writing. He manages to subtly climb deeply into detailing some rather disturbing events, and lightly narrates the dark, twisted world that Toru finds himself in. The reader gets sucked into a rather malevolent universe, without fully realising it, courtesy o Murakami's subtle, gentle abilty to weave a story around your counsciousness.
The ambiguous ending, which is frustratingly inconclusive, lets the reader decide how to interpret how much of the book's events were real and which had deeper meanings, acting as a metaphor.
You may find it diffcult to establish what is real and what is not, but this book is written by such an inspiring author, and needs to be read. The inventivness of this novel makes me supremely jealous, it's the work of an absolute genius.
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” ― Haruki Murakami
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