Daniel's Reviews > The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

I don't get why this book is considered Murakami's best work or why there's so much hype around it. It's a mishmash of stories, with a plot that's just chasing its own tail. The stories of the neighbor, the clairvoyant sisters, the lieutenants in WW2, the mother-son duo, the events in the zoo, and other distracting tangents were interesting but felt disconnected and didn't contribute to the whole. The ending was so anticlimactic, leaving many questions unresolved, that it honestly pissed me off. I felt like I got nothing out of it. I couldn't even give a one-line summary of what the book is about. I appreciate the atmosphere Murakami creates, which is why I constantly return to his novels.

I considered rereading this 707-page monstrosity (my edition is this long) to see if I had missed something crucial, but eventually, I cooled down. It's simply not worth it, but who knows? I still appreciate Murakami's atmospheric prose and his exploration of themes like loss, memory, potent sexuality, and the elusive nature of reality. However, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle was a disappointing reading experience.