I think I may have found my new addiction. And it’s called Haruki Murakami. Now, I would love that to say that it is an exclusive brand of sake to satisfy my exotic alter-ego and perhaps make this a much more interesting article, but alas, it is much simpler than that. Murakami happens to be my latest favourite author. OK so it doesn’t sound incredibly exciting however that is not an easy feat considering I have been reading books since I was big enough to hold one in my hands and I have almost spent more hours reading than sleeping in my life time!  That much reading means you have to have an extensive selection of books to choose from and my interest in authors usually come and go as quickly as young wannabe starlets come and go from Hollywood! So you can imagine the thrill for me when I finally found a writer that could hold my interest and have me longing to read his work over and over again.

Born in Kyoto, Japan and raised in Kobe, Haruki Murakami has been writing novels since 1979 with his first novel “Kaze no uta o kike” (Hear the Bird Sing) winning him the Gunzou Literature Prize for budding writers. This would be the first of many for the much loved and popular Japanese author. But it was with his novel “Norwegian Wood” (1987) that he achieved major national recognition and became somewhat of a superstar amongst Japanese youth with this story of loss and sexuality. His books have been adapted for both film and stage with his short story “Kami no kodomotachi wa mina odour” (All God’s Children Can Dance”) the most recent adaptation for a film by Robert Logevall in 2007.

I spent a lot of my early to late 20’s travelling either for pleasure or business with too many long, tedious hours waiting and actually getting to my desired destination. After reading my first Murakami novel, I really wish I had known back then of this author and the brilliance of his writing, as I would have happily wasted many hours in planes, trains and automobiles being drawn into his fabulous worlds of drama, fantasy and surrealism. I almost feel like I should write the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) to express my sincere gratitude for interviewing him on their Arts program as that is how I came to know of his work. With the excuse of having to travel back to Sydney from Toronto on a very long 26 hour flight, I headed straight for Indigo Bookstore to purchase one of his novels and was taken in by the cover of the “Nejimaki-dori kuronikuru” (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle). Unbeknownst to me at the time, this novel is considered one of Murakami’s greatest works.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle tells the story of Toru Okada, a young Japanese man who after being somewhat disillusioned and tired of his work as a paralegal, decides to quit his job and instead tend to his home while his wife Kumiko continues to work in a publishing agency. All seems to be going well until suddenly their beloved cat disappears, Kumiko begins acting strangely and mysteriously disappears herself and he begins receiving explicit phone calls from a complete stranger.  Almost instantly his very ordinary life begins to embark on a very extra-ordinary journey.

The novel follows an interweaving series of stories with enthralling and curious characters introduced throughout Toru’s search for his wife and cat.  Sometimes disconnected but often completely involving, the events that Toru encounters are incredibly strange with his search seemingly leading him further and further away from ever finding what he is looking for. As a reader, you get the sense that Toru or “Mr Wind-Up Bird” as he is called by his morbidly cheerful teenage friend May Kasahara, is searching for something more than just the physical. Each character leads him deeper into his search and often out of exhaustion and frustration he spends much of his time in thought and dream delving into the impossibly surreal worlds that make up this book.

I think that Murakami’s brilliance lies in his ability to pay close attention and detail to the seemingly mundane areas of the protagonists’ life and surroundings while skimming over the insanely bizarre so that it seems entirely normal. This style had me completely engaged right from the beginning but also intrigued as to how all the pieces and characters would fit together. My expectation was that it would all come together in this “ah-ha” moment and when I came to the end and I was left hanging, I was initially disappointed and frustrated. However, upon reflection, I realised it was exactly that reason that made this book so fascinating; it doesn’t follow your typical structure and format with everything being connected and making sense. It was, for lack of a better word, “real” in the sense that it followed the structure of life itself which is often a series of unconnected events that can sometimes start and end with no explanation or purpose.

If you have an interest in the illogical and surreal or a fascination with the extra-ordinary and strange then The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle comes highly recommended. I loved this book for its’ complete departure from any other book I’ve ever read. I will definitely be making another trip to the bookstore to seek out the other books in Haruki Murakami’s collection.

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