{"id":5880,"date":"2009-12-10T07:26:05","date_gmt":"2009-12-10T11:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/?p=5880"},"modified":"2009-12-10T07:26:05","modified_gmt":"2009-12-10T11:26:05","slug":"the-wind-up-bird-chronicle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2009\/12\/10\/the-wind-up-bird-chronicle\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5881\" src=\"http:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/12\/wind-up.jpg\" alt=\"wind-up\" width=\"307\" height=\"475\" srcset=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/12\/wind-up.jpg 307w, https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/12\/wind-up-193x300.jpg 193w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 307px) 100vw, 307px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I have just finished reading <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Haruki_Murakami\">Haruki Murakami<\/a>\u2019s <em>The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle<\/em>.\u00a0 I thought I should begin to address my ignorance of Japanese literature, and I began with Murakami because I was familiar with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/What-Talk-About-When-Running\/dp\/0385666276\/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1260375263&amp;sr=1-6\">his book on marathon running<\/a>.\u00a0 I chose <em>The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle<\/em> because I was intrigued with the description on the cover: \u201cIn a Tokyo suburb a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife\u2019s missing cat.\u00a0 Soon he finds himself looking for his wife as well in a netherworld that lies beneath the placid surface of Tokyo.\u201d\u00a0 Murakami\u2019s novel provides many illustrations of the stages of ascent and descent outlined in <a href=\"http:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/2009\/12\/01\/the-stages-of-descent-and-ascent-contest\/\" target=\"_blank\">Joe\u2019s contest<\/a>, notably falling asleep and entry into dream worlds; signs, portents, and oracular dreams; descent into the unconscious, into the horror of past war crimes, and literal descent into a well: \u201cThe best way to think about reality, I had decided,\u201d Toru Okada says, \u201cwas to get as far away from it as possible \u2013 a place like the bottom of a well, for example.\u00a0 \u2018When you\u2019re supposed to go down, find the deepest well and go down to the bottom,\u2019 Mr. Honda had said.\u201d\u00a0 Among the many recurring motifs in the novel is the use of birds, including the mysterious \u201cwind-up bird\u201d that features both in the main plot and in the interpolated stories known as \u201cThe Wind-Up Bird Chronicles.\u201d\u00a0 I won\u2019t try to summarize this complex novel, nor to catalogue the elaborate variety of ways in which it employs the various stages of ascent and descent.\u00a0 It is a multi-layered, sometimes fantastic, always readable work, by a Japanese author who is steeped in western influences, and it was one of my more memorable recent reading experiences.\u00a0 Though be warned that the descent into the wartime past is not for the squeamish: it\u2019s absolutely an experience of horror.\u00a0 Other moments have a rare lightness of touch and charm.\u00a0 Put <em>The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle<\/em> on your shopping list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have just finished reading Haruki Murakami\u2019s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.\u00a0 I thought I should begin to address my ignorance of Japanese literature, and I began with Murakami because I was familiar with his book on marathon running.\u00a0 I chose The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle because I was intrigued with the description on the cover: \u201cIn [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literary-criticism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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