Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

6 reviews

danielknorek's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Damn. Damn, damn, damn. This is a phenomenal work of literature that I’m confident has the complexity and density to be looked back upon as a masterpiece. It is truly unlike very many books of its time: Murakami is a master of motif and theme, ensuring that his characters just barely think they know each other, and ensuring that each of those characters is completely imperceptible from one another. Only we, the reader, can bridge that divide. His unique brand of magical realism meshes with vivid settings and diverse characters that create this world that feels so real, in more ways than one.

This is a book about desires and the subconscious with a little bit of Imperial Japanese history thrown in as a wonderful way to ground the novel and really bring it home. It’s confusing at first but grows increasingly clear the more and more we learn about the plot. Toru Okada is not the most interesting protagonist in the world, but that’s the point: the things that happen to him are so extraordinary and strange that by the end of the novel, he’s grown so much and yet he’s almost exactly the same. He just… makes more sense.

Maybe we’re the ordinary ones and this book is pulling us away from what we think we know. That’s how I see it, anyway.

Definitely reading more Haruki Murakami.

Content Warnings

phantomeyer's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book read like a fever dream. However, the replacement of seemingly central characters half way through, as well as a few other loose ends left me feeling like the story was incomplete. If I’m going to press on through what is at times a bit of a slow hard slog, I want a bit more payoff. Will try another Murakami one day, but probably not one 600 pages long.

Content Warnings