Haruki Murakami's The Wind-up Bird Chronicle: A Reader's Guide

Continuum Contemporaries

by Matthew Carl Strecher

This is an excellent guide to Haruki Murakami's extraordinary novel. It features a biography of the author (including an interview), a full-length analysis of the novel, and a great deal more. If you're studying this novel, reading it for your book club, or if you simply want to know more about it, you'll find this guide informative and helpful. This is part of a new series of guides to contemporary novels. The aim of the series is to give readers accessible and informative introductions to some of the most popular, most acclaimed and most influential novels of recent years - from 'The Remains of the Day' to 'White Teeth'. A team of contemporary fiction scholars from both sides of the Atlantic has been assembled to provide a thorough and readable analysis of each of the novels in question.

Genres: Fiction, Japanese Literature, Japan, Literary Criticism, Books About Books

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 21, 2002

About the author

Matthew Carl Strecher is a scholar of Japanese Literature, particularly known for his study of Haruki Murakami. He is Professor of Modern Japanese Literature and Chair of the Department of Liberal Arts at Sophia University in Tokyo.

Reviews

[7jane]

Firstly: do NOT read this before reading the book, since it has *major* spoilers about the plot, including the ending.
Somewhere between 3.5 and 4, in my opinion.

Another good thing about reading this book afterwards, besides the reason above, was that I could form my own view of the book beforehand, though this book didn't tell that particularly much from what I had managed to understand of the book's plot and its branchings.

Like the other books in this reading guide series, it first speaks about the writer, the on the novel, its themes and ideas, the reception of the novel, the level of its success (and possible film(s)), then adds further reading, question ideas and online addresses. You do have note that this book was released in 2002, so some online addresses have changed, and more further reading stuff is available. (Plus of course the author(s) have written more, and more stuff has been translated.)

Some new things about the novel I did find here:
- that the main point of the book is about identity (and its 'inner core') and its crises + resistance of the State
- the importance of the May girl, the truth-teller
- the handling of sexual control, in which Okada is better and kinder (duh) than Noburu Wataya, who can't do kind due to his nature, his state of mind. That the sexual phone call at the start of the novel is actually Kumiko, with repressed side talking
- the room 208-world: chaotic unconscious, chaotic like a dream can be, and a place of constant danger. But also a place of connection - this is how Kumiko can communicate better. And I think the end state of Wataya is partly due to his beatdown by Okada at the end of the book (well-deserved really). The well in the abandoned site is a place through which one can get connection to the room 208-world the best.
- that Cinnamon connects through the computer world *and* at least a little through the room-208 world (and perhaps why he can so quickly save Okada from the well).
- that Wataya is like the 'other' self of Okada, the violent being the opposite of the mild. Wataya is the obstructor of life's flow; he wants to control whatever happens with and in the well.
- the question of what the wind-up bird means remains open: State power? keeping the time flowing? (Toru as a restorer of time-flow, so *is* Mr. Wind-Up Bird, as May the girl puts it.)

The reviews of the book were mixed but generally positive. Some wanted more closure, but Murakami generally avoids such. The story shows also that the author doesn't really plan the story but lets it flow like mind, not always from A to B directly. The story's language style is less closed-off than older Japanese authors' style - it's connected to the world and favors plain style.
Translation-wise the end of part two was trimmed so that it flowed better into part three, but I feel this was a good decision. Likewise with the fact that some words were trimmed out of the text. The author didn't mind; he likes when the story doesn't stay *exactly* rigidly 'every word there'. I didn't feel there was much missing.

It is also remarked that the story gives a decent view of Asian authors, not giving us the'exotic Asian' thing, but something stretching outside Japan's world... people maybe will know now something about Japan more than just brand names of watches, cars etc.

This is a nice adding to the main book, especially when read after. Well worth having.

[Sharon Millar]

I read this book in one sitting. Murakami's management of patterning and repeated motifs is remarkable. At the end of the book, he somehow manages to pull all the disparate pieces together (a feat I was not convinced he would be able to execute). This book addresses psychology, war, marriage, loyalty, evil. It's all packed in here, narrated by an unremarkable hero who manages to perpetually surprise. While there is a heavy reliance on tropes we are all familiar with - the unremarkable hero, the good/bad woman, the use of magic and the surreal - these all become surprisingly fresh in Murakami's hands. Read this book just for the cast of women! I would have loved to read this in the original Japanese.

[Ella Dincă]

A very good introduction into Murakami’s world, if The Wind-up Bird Chronicles is the first book you read from the author, like it’s my case!

[Joe Davoust]

I read this to try to find meaning in the wacky and sometimes confusing magical realism novel that we read in a book club. This small, less-than-a-hundred-page, work suggests meanings, connections, trends in the writing but then goes on to point out that the author may have not intended them to be there. It is put forth that most of the characters, plot points, and settings have deep meaning. But it is also pointed out that the writer of the novel does not plan his books out, letting the story run its course, and that the writer of the novel does not think of his works as art. So for that reason, it appears that this book is a bit of psychoanalysis of the writer, putting meaning to the author's stream of consciousness, and psychoanalysis of the readers on how they choose to interpret what they read.
The suggestions this study makes are well thought out, based on research and a familiarity with Haruki Murakami's life story and body of work, but are still only suggestions. I read this to find clarity in the novel, but instead got a treatise on why there really is none.
Included in this are some of Murakami's biographical information, author interview excerpts, critical reception, and publication information.
I would suggest this to someone who wants to know more, but not for someone seeking clarity.

[Leslie]

I just don't find fictional coincidence at all amazing.

[Evgen Novakovskyi]

першу третину тексту чувак намагається переконати нас себе, що відкриті фінали, короткі розділи та прості речення — це нормально, останню — оповідає про продажі книжок пана Муракамі та його місце на культурній мапі світу (станом на 2002 рік, звісно), й лише середина присвячена безпосередньо аналізу тексту. правда, не твору в цілому, а символам окремо: водичка те, перекритий потік се, заводний птах робить крі-і-і-і-і-і, але чому саме — хз, ну, а про постмодернізм взагалі не будемо, бо тоді дуже довго вийде. оце аналіз так аналіз. кароч, мінус дві години життя 🫠

[OrdinaryPete]

Totally awesome story. It’s imaginative, gripping and the book that got me into Murakami. Lovely.

[Nathan Chamberlin]

Did not help at all

[Jaime Poulton]

review could’ve been more in depth i feel as if it was too short and too simple i was just really wanting something that felt like understood the book itself

[Nicole Bunge]

This is an interesting little book. It's only 98 pages or so, but they pack a lot in. There is a biography of Murakami, that involves a lot of psychological analysis and history (with lots of quotes taken from interviews - which is what I really enjoyed.)

Then it has a "reader's guide" with a breakdown of events and character relationships (and is keen enough to give relevant information/characters from his other works.) Then there is a "discussion questions" section (which I skipped) and another "discussions section" which analyses the book in reference to his whole body of work. (up until publication-2002- which dates this a bit.)

Finally there is a short bibliography and "other references" (although the websites are kind of dated- and don't even list his official Random House page - but it WAS done in 2002.)

Totally worth buying - if only for the biography, though rabid fans may already know most of the biographical bits. Or have gleaned more from "Haruki Murakami and The Music of Words" which I haven't read yet.

(edited from my paperbackswap review)

[Emily Beebe]

My favorite Murakami book to date. I didn't want it to end.

[Meredith]

The first chapter about making spaghetti is one of my favorite pieces of writing. Fun and though provoking.

[Seri]

I loved the majority of this book, a weird compilation of a contemporary discovery of self and elements of magical realism that you aren't always sure are truly there. I wanted to constantly know more for the first two books (there are three 'books' within the novel) but found it was pretty hard to continue in the last few hundred pages. The character moving aimlessly around the story after such a long and intensely built plot around his wife, his personal growth and the stories of war that built towards the final book felt left behind momentarily, like there was a random pause at the peak of the tension.

Would make sure anyone reading it knows there are some intensely graphic gore scenes as well!

[Sebastiano Saraceno]

A great work of literary criticism that analyses this famous novel by Murakami.
It is well written and goes straight to the point, analysing the plot, structure, themes, symbols, and motifs. It helped me clarify some doubts I had about the novel and offered great insights. I think that the idea of the novel mostly being about the struggle between the unconscious and conscious parts of identity makes a lot of sense.

[Steve Klemz]

Having just read The Wind Up BIrd Chronicle I ran across this short book - discussing thoughts on the Wind Up BIrd. I guess I was pleased that I agreed with a lot of the analysis. It would be easy to start a Murakami book club that would endlessly debate the meaning of all of his books.

[SASKIA]

The Guide is a very useful tool to get easier into the wonderful realms of Murkami; Great books, both of them; I carry them everywhere I go!

[Andrew Tucker]

Super helpful guide to the depths and meanings of Wind-up Bird. Connects a lot of Murakami themes across his major works and helps to explain the deeper themes of his work.

[Reading_between_the_lines]

very helpful

[Timmy Yip]

My first H. Murakami. Came for the title. Stayed for the storytelling.

[Billy]

Short, interesting, and insightful. This was very nice to read after all the questions I had finishing The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

[Ursula Mirbach]

Great. Love everything written by Murakami.

[Aidil]

An Interesting peculiar journey

[Chris]

I found this book very boring.

[Crookedspoon]

Strecher offers some interesting ideas regarding the novel, but unfortunately nothing that is convincing enough to make me think about the novel differently. To be fair, he had a tough time convincing me of anything because I found The Wind-up Bird Chronicle to be mind-numbingly boring for the most part.

The chapters on Murakami and the reception of Nejimakidori offered some more context about the novel's intention or non-intention and thus made for a more interesting read.

[Lauren]

I love literary criticism...but I think that is mostly because I like to test and expand my ideas against what the critic is saying. I think Strecher is great at blending Murakami's background and intentions with what the text itself is pointing to on its own. I feel like half of the fun with Murakami is not understanding everything (almost like a Nirvana song where you love the sound of the song but can't always make out the words). It was interesting to get some direction on Murakami's themes, esp. the cross reference of themes through several of his novels.

[Terry]

Why is it that I tend to get fed up half way through Murakami's books? This was no exception. I hate it when authors go into 'dream' mode. Page after page of what the character is dreaming about and I am sure no one in reality really dreams in such detail. At least 5% of this book (and many others of his) takes place in 'dreams'. So with my hate of that I skip those bits and therefore miss 5% of his books. The novels start so well too.

[Joe Vigil]

Since Goodreads is super lame when it comes to posting re-reads and favorites that avid readers enjoy at least once a year, I am posting this reader's guide for the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I have read the book 4 times now and I love it. Obviously.

[Avsperling]

So far so good...I have no idea where this book is going but it's compelling me to continue reading, which is positive!

[Zil]

whoops--meant to rate the book, and not the companion guide. i'm sure this is great, too!

[Muz]

An interesting read, but typical Murakami: a lost soul, a young beautiful woman, and a mysterious other world. Nevertheless, it is well worth reading.