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Title: A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami, Alfred Birnbaum ISBN: 037571894X Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 09 April, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.42
Rating: 4
Summary: Woody Allen and Savador Dali meet Samuel Beckett, maybe.
Comment: I like this book very much because I couldn't help identifying with the central character who reminds me in some ways of Woody Allen's screen persona - a nerdish type loser of no particular physical attraction who has a way with words and who usually gets a very attractive woman to sleep with, though he spends most of his time rueing what he HASN'T got and is continually in search of that SOMETHING. This novel is about a quest. About dreams. And finally, about the realisation that life is about bugger all, so you'd better enjoy that friendship, that meal, that lovemaking, that scene, that memory, and relax a bit and have a laugh. There are laughs aplenty in this sly book, many of the laughs are in the details such as the scene where a very damaged black moggy cat sitting on the front seat of a distinguished limousine causes the Chauffer to lower the windows from time to time on account of the deletirious odour the cat emits from time to time in the form of brief but audible farts.
And I suppose, in our life we don't wander around the shopping mall thinking "themes" or "great and noble thoughts" but more like " Why does that woman get into the 8 item express lane when she clearly has 11 items?" Incidentally, the novel is also a very likeable and satisfying read.
Rating: 2
Summary: Don't get the fuss
Comment: I love "strange" books. I'm also a specialist in Chinese literature by education and lived in Asia for quite some time. I totally didn't get this book. It seems to me too "middle way" - it doesn't reach the depth of issues that it tries to discuss, it also does not fully entertain. There is no catch, descritrions are not enjoyable and do not create the atmosphere that Asian literature is so masterful in. I read it to the end but started to miss all the leangthy passages about coffees, cigarettes, sofas after the first 50 pages.
Rating: 3
Summary: Murakami excellence doesn't hold this weird story together
Comment: 'A Wild Sheep Chase', written with Murakami's deft touch, is a strange story about ... a wild sheep chase. The actual plot is a bit hard to summarize but it involves our leading man, a disillusioned Japanese 'salaryman', being hired by a mysterious power broker to find a mystical sheep in the wilds of Hokkaido. Of course the story is wacky, but it moves along nicely and it is very entertaining overall. But in the end the story goes from strange to exceptionally surreal, even by Murakami's standards, and doesn't quite come together in the end. I finished the book thinking "what the heck was that all about ?!?!?".
But this book still has its plusses. The translation by Alfred Birnbaum is excellent, and Murakami captures the essence of disillusioned Japanese youth *so well*. Japanophiles will find much to enjoy (and learn) from this book. But 'A Wild Sheep Chase' doesn't come close to Murakami's better efforts.
Bottom line: mondo weird. Yokunai kedo aru teido omoshiroi. (Not very good but fairly interesting)
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Title: Dance, Dance, Dance: A Novel by Haruki Murakami, Alfred Birnbaum ISBN: 0679753796 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: February, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel (Vintage International) by Haruki Murakami, Alfred Birnbaum ISBN: 0679743464 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: March, 1993 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin ISBN: 0679775439 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Norwegian Wood (Vintage International Original) by Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin ISBN: 0375704027 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 12 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami ISBN: 0679767398 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 14 March, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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