Book Review: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

"Anything I tried to focus on would lose its shape and burrow its way soundlessly into the surrounding obscurity. Perhaps this could be called "pale darkness," but pale as it might be, it had its own particular kind of density, which in some cases contained a more deeply meaningful darkness than perfect pitch darkness. In it, you see something, and at the same time, you could see nothing at all."-Murakami (1997), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Plot
In a Tokyo suburb a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife's missing cat. Soon he finds himself looking for his wife as well in a netherworld that lies beneath the placid surface of Tokyo. As these searches intersect, Okada encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists: a psychic prostitute; a malevolent yet mediagenic politician; a cheerfully morbid sixteen-year-old-girl; and an aging war veteran who has been permanently changed by the hideous things he witnessed during Japan's forgotten campaign in Manchuria.

Settings
The story is primarily set in Tokyo, June 1984 to December 1985.  With some flashbacks, the story also brought me back to World War II, somewhere in Manchuria, Russia, and Japan.

Characters
The story followed Toru Okada, an unemployed married Japanese man living in Tokyo. He is living with his wife, Kumiko Okada.

Along his journey in finding his and his wife's missing cat, Noburu Wataya (named after his wife's brother, and later on renamed, Mackerel), he met May Kasahara, the cheerfully morbid sixteen-year-old girl, Malta and Creta Kano, the psychic sisters who helped him in finding his and his wife's cat, and Lieutenant Mamiya, the aging war veteran.

Also in the story are Noburu Wataya, the brother of Kumiko, whom Toru explicitly hated; and Nutmeg and Cinnamon, who worked with and took care of Toru.

Experience

The book is divided into three (3) sub-books, in progressive timeline.  In every book, it is subdivided to chapters. The book is written with a magical realism.

Magical realism is a style of fiction that paints a realistic view of the modern world while also adding magical elements. To name some magical elements in the book, there are the wind-up bird, the missing cat, the blue mark in the face, the psychic prostitute, the well, the bat, the dreams that seemed reality or otherwise, the war stories, the letters, the unexplained something, and the metaphors. Despite the magical elements included in the story, Murakami still, at some point, made the story realistic and, hence, relatable.

In my experience, I actually didn't have any idea where the plot was going. Despite that, it gave me a sense of excitement to what will happen next because everything seemed to be going nowhere. This journey of finding the missing cat, in the first part of the book, was all mixed up. It followed by the missing wife. Then the story entailed to characters who influenced Toru and who Toru have become. It ended to answering who I am, why I am here, and why I am doing this. The experience was like competing in a race with puzzle pieces being distributed in every station. I feel like my purpose of reading this book was only to collect each puzzle piece. I accepted whatever storylines are given to me; I was trying to digest every bit of it, as much as possible. Still, everything was yet a puzzle.

However, along the story, I somehow managed to put together the puzzle pieces Murakami gave to me. My interpretation to this book is that this was about soul-searching. The journey was to search Toru himself with and through the people around him. Toru was lost in confusion and trapped in the labyrinth of unanswered questions. Dreams seemed reality and unexplained events were keep coming. He had to solve the riddle before its late. Characters, as metaphors, around Toru helped him to find who he was. The book, however, implies that Toru was searching for another thing—something, someone. With that something or someone ties the relationship with Toru's self. Toru had lost himself and found his other self as he found that something or someone.

I personally enjoyed the story of Lieutenant Mamiya. Not that his experiences are amazing in any way, but it had also somewhat inspired (or influenced) Toru for going down in the well. Everything started to make sense in the well and, at the same time, it became vaguer. Lt. Mamiya's stories are compelling. His life had encountered life-and-death situations, realizations, fulfillment and regrets, and emptiness.

If you think this is a mystery book, it's not. It is a mysterious book. The book has darkest moments, vague events, and explicit contents. The trick of solving the riddle in this book is that the problem is not what is presented, but what would rather be presented.

Recommendation

⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆ 5 out of 5 stars

The story had me thinking all the way through. It occupied me even when not reading it. The narration felt like someone was telling a story. At that time, I didn't know if it was a sad or happy story. I made my opinions along the storyline but I just kept listening until it's over.

I would recommend this to everyone who is open-minded, as the book involved sex and violence. This book is graphic. Your curiosity will take you to places; just keep reading.