Surely, the confusion and incomplete feeling that surrounds this story can be at least partly attributed to the dreaded “excerpt of a novel” effect.Īs always, there is plenty to consider and admire with Murakami. It should be noted that this is a variation on the first chapter of his novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which I have not read. Some of that creates a really cool consistency. And it doesn’t feel like authorial commentary either but rather just the story’s corrupt soul.īut this isn’t the first Murakami story I’ve read, so I can tell you it draws liberally from his other work – the corridor motif, the ringing phone, the spaghetti. There is a casual sexual menace about the protagonist here that is unsettling. It’s kind of a mess, and the self-loathing isolation that Murakami spins so well into depressing hypnosis in other stories here simply feels boring and a little bit gross. It’s not bad it’s just not that good either. It’s not that “The Wind-Up Bird” is such a bad story. This is the great Murakami I’ve heard so much about? This?!? If this was the first Murakami story I’d ever read – and there’s a fairly decent chance of that being the case for many people, given its leadoff spot in the order atop The Elephant Vanishes – I would be underwhelmed to the point of bafflement. The Wind-Up Bird And Tuesday’s Women by Haruki Murakami, 1986Įncouraging the reader to consider welcoming first page
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