A Wild Sheep Chase.

Haruki Murakami’s English-language debut novel, A Wild Sheep Chase, gives an early glimpse of the mind-bending plot twists that define his two best novels, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore, along with the usual measures of food, cigarettes, nonchalant sex, and characters that alternate from three-dimensional to transparent, sometimes within single passages. While it can’t match either of the other novels I mentioned, it’s a good read on its own both for plot and for its expansive thinking, and also interested me as a look back at Murakami’s formative years as a writer, like watching video of a big leaguer from when he was a prospect in high school.

None of the characters in A Wild Sheep Chase have names; the best we get are the Boss, the Rat, and J, while the protagonist and his girlfriend don’t even get so much as a nickname or a single letter. The main character is in advertising and, as the book opens, his wife leaves him for one of his closest friends (although he’s more numb than mad or grieving, as the marriage seems to have been long dead), shortly after which he receives an urgent summons from a mysterious businessman about a PR flier his firm put out that included a photograph of a very unusual sheep. That photograph, sent by our hero’s friend the Rat, seems to show a sheep that, by all accounts, shouldn’t exist, at least not in Japan, but the businessman’s interest goes beyond mundane questions of taxonomy, as this sheep appears to have powers beyond any other ovine known to man.

That businessman represents a shadow organization that controls many aspects of Japanese industry, particularly on the advertising side. He offers the protagonist a deal, without much say in the matter: Find that sheep within a month or find your life ruined. So the hero and his girlfriend – whose ears are, as it turns out, fairly important in their subplot, if not the main plot as well – set out to figure out where the Rat is and thus, they hope, find that sheep.

The wild chase is anything but wild; it’s slow, halting, and in some ways quite realistic, even if the sheep they’re chasing and the people they encounter aren’t. And it’s not clear, even after the chase is resolved, whether the protagonist was searching on behalf of the Boss’s minion or for his own personal growth. Before the sheep tale appears, he has no real anchors left in his life – no wife, no kids, a routine job, a scarce existence in the physical or emotional planes. The chase itself provides much of what’s missing from his life, including purpose and urgency, but of course the chase will end, after which he’ll either find his life in tatters or he’ll have the riches promised him … and he’ll have to find a new purpose. Explaining my thoughts on the end and what Murakami may have been trying to express would give away too much of the resolution, but I can say that I found that payoff a little underwhelming. The physical plot was resolved, but the philosophical questions and answers remained vague. It’s a better read as a suspense novel that makes you think a little differently than as a book pushing for any specific philosophy or emotional reaction, whereas his best works provide more clarity without devolving into sermons.

Next up: Martin Amis’ Money: A Suicide Note, which seems to be just the book to buy your sister if she’s already read At Swim-Two-Birds. it’s currently on sale through that link for $6 in the Penguin Ink paperback, with cover design by tattoo artist Bert Kerk.

Comments

  1. I’ve now read Wind-Up, Hard boiled, After Dark, South of the Border, Kafka and most recently Norwegian Wood… wondering if anyone has an alternative author suggestion for me (I need a change of pace) before I start the early Murukami trilogy klaw seems to have begun. I should add that I enjoyed them all on varying levels. Thanks!

  2. I think most Murakami readers would enjoy David Mitchell. Number9Dream and Cloud Atlas are my personal favorites.

    As for the Murakami you haven’t read yet, I think Dance Dance Dance is his most underrated novel. I’d rank it third after Wind-Up and Kafka.

  3. Ill definately check it out, thanks

  4. Jack Bauer is dead

    Incidentally, A Wild Sheep Chase wasn’t Murakami’s debut novel. He wrote two before — Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973. Pinball, 1973 is widely available on the internet for free in .PDF form while Hear the Wind Sing is not. Both were published in English, but only in Japan. Murakami no longer digs them, and seems to have basically vowed not to have them printed in wide release. Still, they’re easy enough to find.

    Also, let me say this: I agree with you on Kafka on the Shore, but The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is wildly overrated. He should have closed it after book two, like he did in the original. He wrote book three years later. For what it’s worth, I would promote Norwegian Wood — simple, but highly effective, much like one of his shorter works, South of the Border, West of the Sun.

  5. Jack: That’s why I specified “English-language” in the first sentence.

    I read Norwegian Wood and wouldn’t rate it as high as my two favorites. It’s a fine novel, but not terribly imaginative, which is Murakami’s strength.

  6. Imaginative, yes–one of the reasons I so enjoyed hard boiled. His story telling shines without the magical element whatsoever in south of the border though. He is a visionary no doubt, but it seems there is a specific murukami that connects with different individuals for all sorts of reasons we care not examine and would rather enjoy.

  7. Wonderful Post!
    Recently heard about Murakami and after reading Wind-Up i resolved to ready all his books, i am 3/4 through it and i must say i think I’ve found my new favorite writer. And Mike is definitely right, him and Mitchell have a little similar styles especially Number9dream, even though Cloud Atlas is my ultimate favorite

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  1. […] value, enough to at least make it a quick read if not an especially deep one. A sequel of sorts to A Wild Sheep Chase, it attempts to be more expansive than that earlier novel but still feels like unformed Murakami, […]