A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

Perhaps one mistake that I made while reading this book was to hype it as much as I did. How could I not, with everybody extolling its praises? So AWSC was supposed to be my introduction to Murakami, the book that made me a convert. Unfortunately, I wasn’t too impressed with the novel.

The writing was superb, and I thoroughly enjoyed the sequences of adjectives that Murakami employed. His word choice was also beautiful, and cuttingly efficient:

“… sweat blood.”

The novel would have been a pleasure to read, if it had more substance. I was bored for most of the novel. There was a small bit that made it interesting, about halfway through, when the sheep as the mastermind was introduced. I thought that all the threads would now become connected, and I became excited. Unfortunately, this did not really happen, or at least to the extent that I had hoped. The book fell back into a rather unenthusiastic chase. The hope for the connected strings was that the numerous deus ex machinas, characteristic of magic realism, would actually more than convenience, and that there would be this larger current flowing through this world. But alas, the coincidences were simply that, and nothing more.

Perhaps this speaks to the book, which is apparently all about zen and how the things we chase are wild sheep, goals that even after reaching are useless. One review spoke about how those people that the sheep infected were all ambitious, and this led to their demise, as after accomplishing their goal they were left defeated, purposeless. It was the (lazy) protagonist who ended up succeeding.

Still, was the length of the book worth it for the message it imparted, which wasn't as strong of a message anyway? Why not instead read any number of other existentialist novels? What was the point of the girl with the beautiful ears? Not that books all have to have meaning. But at least the read should be enjoyable, no? Unfortunately, my next Murakami book may have to be put on hold after this experience — and probably good too, as the other novels are even lengthier.