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Review by Charles Wyrick
It is difficult to think of anything more boring than the daily ruminations and soul-searching of a house husband, yet nothing I have read recently has been more engaging than the travails of Toru Okada. The unemployed protagonist of Haruki Murakami's new novel "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle" is not your assembly line home-on-the-Radar-Range hubby. Somehow between folding sheets and drying dishes Toru attracts beautiful unmarried women and meets war veterans full of gruesome tales. Such characters are far from normal to Toru, yet soon they become the only allies he can trust in this fascinating novel about love, self discovery and Japanese society.
"The Wind-up Bird Chronicle" tells many stories in recounting the strange circumstances that press themselves into Toru Okada's life. At the heart of all these tales is the mysterious dissolution of Toru's marriage to his wife Kumiko. Murakami draws a surreal and at times magical narrative out of the fragments of this couple's life.
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Somehow between folding sheets and drying dishes Toru attracts beautiful unmarried women and meets war veterans full of gruesome tales. |
A fairy tale quality informs much of "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle." In his search for Kumiko, Toru meets two beautiful sisters endowed with paranormal powers. These diviners help advise Toru as he begins investigating Kumiko's disappearance. Also he is aided by an elderly soldier who tells him haunting yet inspiring war stories about courage and fortitude. These people have an otherworldly benevolence that aids and inspires Toru in his search.
Yet for all the wonderful characters in "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle," the novel is bracketed by a stringent realism. Murakami draws the malevolence that befalls his protagonist from a thoroughly modern portrait of society. Toru's journeys and struggles are firmly anchored in an all-too-recognizable world. Though he may be aided at times by divination, his battles occur in an overtly corrupt, greedy, soulless culture. Without giving too much away let it suffice to say that there is a strong element of political satire running throughout Murakami's novel.
"The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" breaks its own mold. Murakami has created a novel to both ponder and to enjoy. It is a remarkable work about the search for answers in illogical and frighteningly devious times. As the story of the Okadas unravels a powerful story about human relationships gets told.
Charles Wyrick lives in Nashville and plays in the band Stella.
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