Susanna’s Reviews > The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle > Status Update

Spending over 12 pages trying to explain in excruciating detail why someone bothers you only to end it with "OK, let's face it. I hated that guy." Iconic. Relatable. What a mood. I swing between loving this book then hating this book, rinse and repeat, so thus I keep reading to figure out how I actually feel about it.

Is it a mistake or the correct choice to read this every night before I go to bed? I couldn't tell you really. I just find myself reading a chapter mystified by how I feel at the end of it. I have a feeling this will feel like a distant strange memory when I finish it. So I am trying to write my thoughts during the experience to delay that. Why? I have no idea.

This book frankly makes me feel a little bit like I am not quite real or am going crazy. It is the most calming banal thing I've ever read. It is also absolutely unhinged. I will say the threads of the red hat and pokadotted tie in a teashop are funny. The bit about Malta's sister being raped by Toru's brother-in-law is disturbing as hell. But the reaction of Toru was upsetting. Equally Malta is unsettling.