bookaddict reviewed on 11/6/2005

Helpful Score: 6

This book generated quite a stir in the literary community--I think largely bcs no one understood what was going on in it! Is this like Firebird (Igor Stravinsky's avant-garde, misunderstood, seemingly chaotic piece that caused a riot when it was performed for the first time?) or Finnegan's Wake (James Joyce's seemingly nonsensical tome which is so complicated that *shelves* of lit crit have been produced trying to explain it)? Or is it just a wreck? I don't know. I couldn't make head or tail of it myself. But if you don't expect tidiness (neat endings to plotlines, for example, or explanations of any kind), there is a lot of very interesting stuff in this book.

Me, I think Murakami wrote it while he was feverish, and then never went back and revised.
:)

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