THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE

Toru Okada is a friendly, easy-going fellow, but his life is foundering. After quitting his job, he loses his cat, then his wife. Strange people pop inexplicably into his life, complicating his story with their own. Is it possible these mean something? Narrator Rupert Degas juggles this rich layering of stories into a kind of clarity, if not exactly meaning--though meaning is really what Toru and the reader are both after. With its continuously nonplussed tone, Degas's relaxed acceptance of the story's ambiguity plays right into Murakami's hand. Writer and narrator conspire thus to betray the reader's fondest hopes: easy answers! There are none, after all, but nothing is spoiled by this discovery. Instead, we have Murakami's most mature exploration of Japan's war-ravaged past meeting the present. P.E.F. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/ JUL 07]