Wild Sheep Chase

The main character was a loser of sorts, but his dry humor and interesting internal thoughts made the read not only surreal, but interesting and unpredictable. The ending was, very, uneventful. I'll have to read "dance dance dance" after this.

I really enjoyed how clear everything was written. Descriptions were so stark, and forward, it made it easily to see what the main character saw, and to actually better understand his own feelings. I loved some of the descriptions, the the bit about fallen gingko leaves making the road golden for example. These simple descriptions were imaginative and the book was filled with them. Most of the characters are so average it made the story somewhat humorous and uneventful a times, as if the author wanted us to focus more on the little things. The main character's plain girlfriend with the "ears" that made sex amazing.

What i really loved, was the part about his ex wife. For some reason, I'm not sure why, I just really loved that chapter. The main character talks about when she leaves. Something this simple, was made into an iconic moment with just the way the words are put together. We aren't told what to think, ever. Murakami lets us think about the situation. He simply describes everything in plain simple language. The main character is retelling the day it happened, every little detail. The details, are what amazed me. Think about it, can you look back, at a time in your life when something amazing happened, or when something devastating happened, and recall that strangest details, things that, on an average day, you might never notice, but on those days, when something happens that is life changing, you remember so much. The main character just sits there, recalling all of this without even a second thought, building up to the final point, he talks about her things. he things, not her body, not her hair, not her eyes, but her things. The things in the bathroom, the things in the kitchen, those things. Her things. The main point of it all is that she takes everything. She takes even the pictures in every photo album they have. Leaving the author nothing for him to remember her by, giving him no reason to remember her, erasing herself from his life not in the way one would normally consider, she doesn't pack her things and go, no, she takes every memory the main character might have of her, every detail of her life from him. We never learn the main characters name, because Murakami doesn't really want us too, it's the details he wants us to look at. Just like the main character remembers the details on the day his wife left him, we remember the little details the author leaves for us to see using the words he writes. Amazing.

Murakami's writing style was very refreshing and simplistic. He focus us on things that really don't move the story forward. In fact, the plot moves simply because the author wanted it to, but it's not really an action story, nor a mystery, nor anything really. Just a collection of thoughts, or details, of memories, from the main character. Even the end really doesn't do much. It's not a huge deal, not really anything to get excited about. At first I was disappointed with the ending, but after thinking about it, it made sense, the whole book was like that.

I really enjoyed it for that reason alone. Those thoughts traveling in the mind of the main character makes the book what it is in my opinion. After reading, it makes me think twice about the little things. Like leaves or sunlight, or just the idea that we are simple things moving in a simple liner life line, doing human things, and not paying mind to where we stand at every moment of the day, or even paying much notice to the months that pass, the years that pass, when we are just working day to day and waiting for the next reason to move on to something new.

Ok, so the book was depressing, read it with that warning. Still a great book, but not one that will make you think about friendships and happy wonderful things. It's...Monotone.