A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A Wild Sheep Chase is the fourth Murakami novel that I have read and the earliest. It is also the first of Murakami’s novels to have received wide international acclaim. The novel is broken up into multiple parts, eight in all, but really there are only two main parts, the observational character development describing the narrator’s relationships with his wife and then his new girlfriend and the sheep chasing adventure. I found it weak story telling that the slow clear description from the first bit of the book did not reoccur as the narration unfolded. Murakami must have too, in his later books he overlaps the two styles with much greater success.
Not to belittle the sheep chase. It is a good adventure, an average man tasked to find a mysterious mythological sheep that can enter one’s consciousness and give one the will to build empires. With nothing to go on but a picture. And if he does not find it, dire consequences. Very fun. Though, throughout the story I often found myself wondering. Why a sheep? Really, why does this power demon take the form of/is described as a sheep? It seems to be an important point that our narrator is a very average man, it’s repeated several times, and the sheep seems to me to be the very most average of animals. Sheep in of themselves have not real stand out qualities, save their ability to create wool. The sheep could be seen as symbolic of the human condition. But then why the demon sheep if there is no analogous demon person? I feel like I am missing half of the symmetry.
Regardless, I did enjoy the book. Murakami’s matter of fact metaphysical realism always leaves me wanting more as does the fact that I feel as if I am always missing the last piece of the puzzle. If only I could stay with it a little longer, it all would become clear. But it never does.
Tags: books