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A review by charm_city_sinner
A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
A Wild Sheep Chase is my first Haruki Murakami book and it most assuredly will not be my last. I absolutely loved this book and can't wait to start working my way through his catalog.
It's incredibly hard for me to give this book a review that does it justice because it feels like over on one side of the room is this book, and the other side is literally every other book I've read. The style is so distinct that I felt completely immersed in a way that still surprises me a few days after finishing it.
While there is a mystery element in the plot in that the narrator is tasked with solving a mystery, to simply label this as a mystery novel is wildly insufficient. This is a philosophical, surrealist, dreamlike, incredibly forthright, and deeply funny book, where Murakami hints at other universes/realities/timelines that coexist seamlessly alongside what we view to be our own "reality."
I can understand that his style is not going to appeal to everyone. If I had picked this up a few years back when I was reading an embarrassing amount of Stephen King, there's absolutely no way I would have appreciated a book like this.
To be capable of such a masterpiece so early in his career boggles the mind. If you take away references to old technology (or the fact that smoking on an airplane is mentioned), this book feels timeless. And importantly, the translation from Japanese is a work of genius in and of itself given the themes of the book. You'd never guess the book was translated at all, and that's how you know it's a success.
I'm warning you now, that you'll be seeing a lot of Murakami on my page in 2025, and hopefully get to share that with folks here. In the meantime, I've made a little stack of other books that are calling out to me today. Who knows when I'll get to them though 😂
It's incredibly hard for me to give this book a review that does it justice because it feels like over on one side of the room is this book, and the other side is literally every other book I've read. The style is so distinct that I felt completely immersed in a way that still surprises me a few days after finishing it.
While there is a mystery element in the plot in that the narrator is tasked with solving a mystery, to simply label this as a mystery novel is wildly insufficient. This is a philosophical, surrealist, dreamlike, incredibly forthright, and deeply funny book, where Murakami hints at other universes/realities/timelines that coexist seamlessly alongside what we view to be our own "reality."
I can understand that his style is not going to appeal to everyone. If I had picked this up a few years back when I was reading an embarrassing amount of Stephen King, there's absolutely no way I would have appreciated a book like this.
To be capable of such a masterpiece so early in his career boggles the mind. If you take away references to old technology (or the fact that smoking on an airplane is mentioned), this book feels timeless. And importantly, the translation from Japanese is a work of genius in and of itself given the themes of the book. You'd never guess the book was translated at all, and that's how you know it's a success.
I'm warning you now, that you'll be seeing a lot of Murakami on my page in 2025, and hopefully get to share that with folks here. In the meantime, I've made a little stack of other books that are calling out to me today. Who knows when I'll get to them though 😂