My Book of Choice for February

This took me more than a month to read. I knew I was lagging behind so I brought it with me to Boracay. I managed to read just a few pages, though. It was only last night that I officially finished the book.

How do I feel about it? Um... I don't know... I'm still trying to figure out what to say about this one.

The first Murakami book I read was "Kafka on the Shore." That one I enjoyed because I could relate with the main character, 15-year old Kafka, who likes to read books. Although it is not a story about books, it does mention a lot of them. Kafka even finds himself working in a library far away from home.

But Toru Okada, the narrator and protagonist in "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" is quite a character. He is extremely passive, unemployed, weird (he goes down a dried-up well to think), and there are just far too many women around him besides his wife, Kumiko. It's not his fault, I know. Two of the women were introduced or referred to him by Kumiko (to help them find their missing cat), one is a teenage neighbor (who has a thing for wigs), and the last one is a fashion designer turned psychic healer (although she doesn't know how she does it herself) who gives him money to buy a haunted house.

It all sounds interesting, yes. That's why even if I couldn't translate my feelings for this book in a good way, I still read it the whole way through. More interesting are the chapters where other characters talk about historical events such as the Battle of Nomonhan and World War II. It was a point of interest for me because I've never read about Nomonhan, the life of prisoners of war in Siberia and Manchukuo. I never imagined that a little thing such as a border violation could spark a war in another part of the world. It makes me feel that we are all connected, somehow, by the little acts we do. Sort of like a ripple effect.

I didn't like the chapter where Lieutenant Mamiya told Toru about how he witnessed an officer skinned alive by a Mongolian barbarian, upon orders of a Soviet general. It was painstakingly detailed! I could practically see it in my mind! For that maybe I have to give Haruki Murakami some credit for affecting me so much. Also graphically worded was the chapter on the Chinese prisoner who was tied to a tree and beaten to death with a baseball bat. I mean, baket?!?! Baket kelangan pang sabihin?!?! Baket kelangan pang ilagay sa storya eh wala namang koneksyon?!?

I marked some pages though, that had me crying. Maybe it's because I'm pregnant that's why my hormones are on overdrive, hehe. But yes, there were some parts where I found myself tear up... Like when Toru and Kumiko were having a conversation in the first and last parts of the book. I hate myself for forgetting to bring my book with me now so I can quote them!!! But anyways, it lets me take a peek into the inner workings of Toru's mind and will. Yes, he is passive. Yes, he is currently unemployed. Yes, he is peculiar. But he is also faithful, he is simple, and! he loves much in spite of the fact that Kumiko left him and was unfaithful to him.

I loved it when he said to Kumiko --- when she was finding it hard to reveal a secret to Toru --- that everything that is hers, he will accept as his own. =) Whatever deep dark dirty secret that may be of his wife's, will also belong to him. To that Kumiko answered, "That's why I married you." =)  It's a reassuring thought for married couples, don't you think?=) When I read that, it made me feel like any spouse can say to herself, "I'm not alone, I don't have to feel alone, because someone has willed himself to stand alongside me." To me that's one of the biggest perks of this institution called marriage.

In the last parts they also have an exchange of messages through chat. It was amusing how Murakami made me feel that online chat was also still in its infancy (the book's time and setting was 1984-ish). In their exchange, Toru explicitly reveals his feelings for his wife --- how he's so confused with her leaving him, how he's figuring out what the real reasons were, and how he is set on taking her back. When I read that, I thought, "Then Toru is not so passive after all!" :) Hurray Toru!:) Ten pogi points for you!:)

This book for me is like "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I couldn't quite figure out my feelings for it. When I try to sum it up, it sounds interesting enough. I might be a moron for not being able to appreciate this book as, say, Oe Kenzaburo had (this man was Haruki Murakami's harshest critic and yet he gave him the Yomiuri Literary Award).

I read an article in Newsweek a couple of months ago about How to Read Haruki Murakami. His latest book, IQ84, just came out, and the writer posed that question: how must one read Haruki Murakami? Given that his style involves the metaphysical and the bizarre interspersed with everyday life in contemporary Japan, must one find meaning, a connection, an analogy, or go into further study in order to have a better understanding of the book?

"When I’m not writing, they are gone,” Murakami said of the mysterious creatures that populate his novels. “I don’t even dream.”

And so that kind of gives me an idea as to how to enjoy my next Murakami novel. Don't over-think, don't over-analyze. Just open the book, read the story, and enjoy the ride.