As one of Haruki Murakami's earlier novels, Dance Dance Dance is quite a feat. I really did enjoy it, but found a number of flaws that lessened my opinion of the work. It appears to be a sequel to the novel A Wild-Sheep Chase, which I have read, but the story lines overlap almost imperceptibly, meaning no, you do not have to read one in order to read the other. Dance Dance Dance has an almost nonexistent plot line. The main character is a middle-aged divorcee at a dead end job who is so maddeningly and predictably similar to so many other Murakami main characters. He is, as usual, completely controlled by unseen forces moving around and within him and, omg, NO ONE KNOWS WHY. He appears to be almost completely helpless throughout much of the novel, with no recollections of his past. Except for a few strange women, one of whom is naturally a prostitute who has been missing for almost a decade. I am getting sick of this crap. He is surrounded by women of various ages and has all of these conflicting feelings for all of them. The truth is, I do not even care very much for the main character or his silly dealings with "The Dolphin Hotel" and "The Sheep Man." The absolute best thing about this book, and the only part I would consider as worth salvaging and am enraged that it wasn't developed more, is the 13-year old girl who the main character looks after for a while. Her name is Yuki. Snow. She is a damaged young girl who is not significantly cared for by either of her rich, famous parents, and is often alone in her big, fancy apartment. She really likes rock music - Bananarama, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Genesis, Iggy Pop - and is unnaturally beautiful. She is also psychic. Anyway, Yuki is one of the only great parts of this novel, and I read it for her.