The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

    The Wind-up Bird Chronicle was written by Haruki Murakami in 1995 and was first translated and published in English by Jay Rubin in 1997.

    The Novel follows the story of Toru Okada, a man whose life epitomizes the word banal. A casually-lovable character, he spends his days cooking and eating, listening to music and ironing when he’s stressed. He left his job ‘because he wanted to’ and is happy to let his wife take over the role of breadwinner while he plays house-husband for the small period before he needs to find another job. In Okada, Murakami crafts the type of character whose steadiness and acceptance of the situations he finds himself in makes us part-envy and part-admire him.

    He is the readers’ point of access in an otherwise baffling (to both us and himself) world. The other characters that come and go are slightly bewildering, and their motives are often clouded, but rather than making the story inaccessible, it mirrors reality, where other’s actions and stories are mostly unknown to us. We recognise ourselves in Okada and invest in his character.

    As the story opens, Okada’s days are becoming increasingly disturbed; first when his cat, Noboru Wataya (named for Okada’s brother-in-law) goes missing and Okada has to abandon his commitment-free day to search for it, and later with mysterious and increasingly explicit phone calls. As the novel progresses, we see the threads of Okada’s blissfully-dull life weave themselves together and tie a knot around him from which he can’t escape. Many of the seemingly steady notes of his life slowly crescendo to become something dark and out of place. The juxtaposition of the disturbing secrets which are unearthed in the book with the casual attitude of the story makes them perhaps even more poignant than they would otherwise be, and Okada’s patient and resolute attitude to fixing what he can fills the reader with empathy and perhaps a small amount of second-hand pride.

    The craftsmanship of the story is highly elegant. Simple, beautiful and effective, Murakami plays Rumplestiltskin, spinning the straw of unadorned description into beautiful gold threads of the unexpected. Even in the title, we see the use of simple language that has been re-worked into description that gives a powerful and clear image of the writer’s intent.  This also is cause for the translator’s praise for not falling into habits of English clichés. Somehow the novel keeps a flavour of its original language, while still being accessible to us.

    For both the casual reader and one looking for a stimulating and engaging read alike, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle offers itself up completely to be consumed how and when the reader wishes. The narrative is light and engaging, the main character is accessible and it is impossible to not invest in and empathise with him, the story is full of mystery but we do not become frustrated by our unenlightened state, rather we are compelled to keep reading and discover the answers. In all, Murakami has created a novel which pays back every moment invested in reading both dextrously and engagingly.

By Briony Millman