A Wild Sheep Chase: the surreal, breakout detective novel, now in a deluxe gift edition

havent read the book yet but it came with creases in the book spine and a light fold on the cover.

Proud to say I first read A Wild Sheep Chase back around the late '80s before Murakami was famous, and now I recommend it to others as the best place to start if you're curious about this celebrated author. It has many of the motifs that have become mainstays of his novels such as a mystery, a quest, pop culture references, oddly metaphysical encounters and suggestions of an alternate reality. In fact, you might call it a metaphysical detective story. While Murakami wrote several works beforehand (Hear The Wind Sing, Pinball, Norwegian Wood), in my opinion this was his first real mature work, exhibiting the matter of fact economy of style that has won him so many fans. Some should be warned, like a few other Murakami works it ends in an ambiguous fashion, but that's part of what keeps you thinking years afterwards. Enjoy.

想定以上の良いコンディション

This was Murakami’s first novel to be published in America, and it is one of his finest. Everything is here: his sense of humor, his sense of the absurd, offbeat side stories, alternate realities, and gorgeous prose. Chapter headings alone give a sense of the wonders to come: Chapter 4: The Whales Penis and the Woman with Three Occupations; and Chapter 6: The Further Adventures of Unblocked Ears. The main story opens with a mysterious stranger arriving at the narrator’s office to discuss a problem. He explains that something is very odd about a photograph of grazing sheep that the narrator’s company has published in a journal. All issues must be destroyed or the narrator’s life will be threatened. The stranger hands the narrator an envelope full of money and sends him to Hokkaido to verify the exact location of the sheep farm. There are a couple of unnecessary chapters midway in the novel (when the narrator is preparing to leave on his journey) that slow the book down, but Murakami quickly recovers. There are so many delights, it’s hard not to mention them all, but by all means search out the story of the worm universe and the cow’s search for pliers. As always, a Murakami novel is fast reading. If Murakami, with his wild imagination and sense of humor, were allowed to rule the world, we would all be wondrously confused and deliriously happy.

Kafka on the shore introduced me into Murakami's world and I absolutely loved it, so I thought I would keep going with this one too. Although I can still see Murakami's style in this book, I felt that the story was not particularly the catchiest. I do feel a bit unsatisfied/ unmoved by the story, but nonetheless, it remains a good read