Goodbye Mr. Wind-Up Bird

When I returned Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle to the library today, I was overcome with a strange twinge of sadness. After all, I've had the 607-page book in my safekeeping since 14 July (hehe ... after one renewal and two days overdue).

It's a very weird story that conjures up a myriad emotions - hilarious at some points, reflective at others; it can be nose-wrinklingly disgusting or downright repulsive. Between Kafka On The Shore and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, I cannot decide which I enjoy more as both tease my imagination into a delectable surreal world that I enjoy taking temporary refuge in.

What I find most interesting in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle are the magnificent chapters on WWII, a period in history that I've always been fascinated with. Although true to Murakami style, one may not be quite sure when the facts end and when the imagination begins, I am convinced of certain war scenes that have been portrayed in this book, the Japanese's role and their perspective on this pointless war and that these seemingly barbaric soldiers who terrorised the Chinese from Mongolia to Singapore were very much the victims themselves against the equally (if not more) ruthless Russians.

Of course, there are the usual 'magic' lines like the one that got me today: Have you ever seen the shadow of a tear?"