Wind/ Pinball: Two Novels

Having read a lot of Murakami's novels I was really interested to read the prologue about his past, his method and how he got into writing in the first place. It was nice to finally understand who "The Rat" was since he was mentioned in "A Wild Sheep Chase" without any explanation and to read the history of the main character from "Sheep Chase" and "Dance, Dance, Dance." I enjoyed the book/stories but his writing definitely improved in later books. If you are new to Murakami I would recommend starting with another of his novels.

His first writings I believe...interesting to see how he developed from here...his roots. This is not like his accomplished and alternative novels. But as follower of his novels, I was interested in how it all began.

Reading Murakami is such a war of attrition. The level of detail at times feels amateurish and needless, like someone knocking at the door thirty-five times, or extended descriptions of how pasta is cooked. At times, such details seem to work backwards and make some sense of his emotionally vacant or repressed narrators, but long stretches of such just make my eyes wander. He seems to pull things back together in more charged moments, like the moments about pinball in the second novella, but in the end they just don't make up for the long detritus of minutiae that has been dominating the scene for so long.

Also, a jab at the state of major publishing, so obsessed with only promoting familiarity that old tomes previously unpublished get dusted off for a quick buck--this book stinks of the taint of Harper Led's first draft and buried Seuss in the realm of publishing retardation.

i haven't even started reading this book (containing 2 novellas) yet ... but from having read ever other novel ever published of Haruki Murakami's work ... i know it (they) will be brilliant and entertaining in their own way!

I love Murakami's work. Read everything of his that has been translated into English. I jumped at the chance to read these two pieces when I saw them on the store. All I have to say about these two pieces is why were they even published?

Newly translated into English, "Wind/Pinball" are the first two books of the author, part of "Rat" trilogy that is completed with, A Wild Sheep Chase.

Both Wind and Pinball are very short and probably best described as novellas. In "Wind", an unnamed narrator is home from college for the summer and spends his time patronizing J's Bar, listening to music and drinking beer with his wealthy friend, "The Rat". He talks and fantasizes about the women he has been with including a 9-fingered woman he has been seeing,

In "Pinball", the narrator is now out of college and living and working in Tokyo as a translator. He's bent on tracking down a spaceship pinball machine he played while in college. He's involved with identical twins who are staying appeared in his bed one morning. The twins at times are only distinguishable by the numbers on their shirts - 208 and 209 (assuming they haven't switched shirts to have a little fun of their own). The Rat is still hanging out at J's but seems depressed and has had no luck with women.

For Murakami fans who have an appreciation for the writer's work, these (2) entry novellas seems to reveal how the author is trying to develop his style. "Wind", almost seems incomplete with rambling dialogue which reader's new to this author may be put off by, especially since there is no real plot or resolution to this short story.

In " Pinball" there was more of a surreal feeling developing. I couldn't help but wonder if this unnamed narrator in both stories was in some small way a bit autobiographical of the author at that particular point in his life.

There were recurring themes like loneliness, death and obsession. We also see emotionally devoid young men and physically imperfect women much more like the author's later offerings. I especially enjoyed the quirkiness of the characters and the conversations between the narrator and "the rat". Overall, I was satisfied by this combined offering, as I think it gives readers a nice glimpse into the creative talent this author possesses. I thought the introduction which describes how the author was inspired to write was fantastic.

The audio version, read by Kirby Keyborne, was very well done.

I guess I thought with Murakami's name so outstanding on the cover that it was a book of his short stories; but as it turns out, only one story is by him. The rest of the stories are unknown, poorly written, etc. I didn't enjoy it at all. I had already read Murakami's lone story in one of his other books. Let the buyer bewared.

“Hear the Wind Sing” is the first thing Murakami wrote, back in 1979. He just got the idea he should write a novel, then sat down and did it. The book is short and fairly undeveloped; hardly a novel at all. I’m really surprised it got published. He wrote “Pinball, 1973” directly after “Wind”, and the difference is amazing. That the author learned so much about writing so quickly is almost unbelievable. The characters in “Pinball” (some of whom are the same as in “Wind”; it’s a sort of sequel) are developed and have depth. It’s like “Hear the Wind Sing” was just an outline, whereas he actually got around to writing “Pinball”. The really odd part about these stories? Murakami himself doesn’t like them and really didn’t want them published in English.

Both stories revolve around an unnamed young man and his friend, the Rat. Both are narrated by the nameless man in the first person, but the sections about the Rat are written in third person- the two are never even in the same scene in “Pinball”. There is little plot in either tale; they are simple strings of events. In “Wind”, the narrator is home from college for the summer and hanging out with the Rat in a bar run by J; in “Pinball” the narrator has graduated and set up a translating business with a partner. He is living with a pair of mysterious twin women who just sort of show up one day, and searching for a pinball machine he played obsessively in college. “Pinball” has that touch of surrealism that Murakami does so well. The characters are drifting through life, unattached to family, mostly content to let life happen to them- even if they are unhappy with it. I don’t think these stories would be good introductions to Murakami’s work, but for a fan, they are important to read.

Newly translated into English, "Wind/Pinball" are the first two books of the author, part of "Rat" trilogy that is completed with, A Wild Sheep Chase.

Both Wind and Pinball are very short and probably best described as novellas. In "Wind", an unnamed narrator is home from college for the summer and spends his time patronizing J's Bar, listening to music and drinking beer with his wealthy friend, "The Rat". He talks and fantasizes about the women he has been with including a 9-fingered woman he has been seeing,

In "Pinball", the narrator is now out of college and living and working in Tokyo as a translator. He's bent on tracking down a spaceship pinball machine he played while in college. He's involved with identical twins who are staying appeared in his bed one morning. The twins at times are only distinguishable by the numbers on their shirts - 208 and 209 (assuming they haven't switched shirts to have a little fun of their own). The Rat is still hanging out at J's but seems depressed and has had no luck with women.

For Murakami fans who have an appreciation for the writer's work, these (2) entry novellas seems to reveal how the author is trying to develop his style. "Wind", almost seems incomplete with rambling dialogue which reader's new to this author may be put off by, especially since there is no real plot or resolution to this short story.

In " Pinball" there was more of a surreal feeling developing. I couldn't help but wonder if this unnamed narrator in both stories was in some small way a bit autobiographical of the author at that particular point in his life.

There were recurring themes like loneliness, death and obsession. We also see emotionally devoid young men and physically imperfect women much more like the author's later offerings. I especially enjoyed the quirkiness of the characters and the conversations between the narrator and "the rat". Overall, I was satisfied by this combined offering, as I think it gives readers a nice glimpse into the creative talent this author possesses. I thought the introduction which describes how the author was inspired to write was fantastic.

The audio version, read by Kirby Keyborne, was very well done.

I guess I thought with Murakami's name so outstanding on the cover that it was a book of his short stories; but as it turns out, only one story is by him. The rest of the stories are unknown, poorly written, etc. I didn't enjoy it at all. I had already read Murakami's lone story in one of his other books. Let the buyer bewared.

“Hear the Wind Sing” is the first thing Murakami wrote, back in 1979. He just got the idea he should write a novel, then sat down and did it. The book is short and fairly undeveloped; hardly a novel at all. I’m really surprised it got published. He wrote “Pinball, 1973” directly after “Wind”, and the difference is amazing. That the author learned so much about writing so quickly is almost unbelievable. The characters in “Pinball” (some of whom are the same as in “Wind”; it’s a sort of sequel) are developed and have depth. It’s like “Hear the Wind Sing” was just an outline, whereas he actually got around to writing “Pinball”. The really odd part about these stories? Murakami himself doesn’t like them and really didn’t want them published in English.

Both stories revolve around an unnamed young man and his friend, the Rat. Both are narrated by the nameless man in the first person, but the sections about the Rat are written in third person- the two are never even in the same scene in “Pinball”. There is little plot in either tale; they are simple strings of events. In “Wind”, the narrator is home from college for the summer and hanging out with the Rat in a bar run by J; in “Pinball” the narrator has graduated and set up a translating business with a partner. He is living with a pair of mysterious twin women who just sort of show up one day, and searching for a pinball machine he played obsessively in college. “Pinball” has that touch of surrealism that Murakami does so well. The characters are drifting through life, unattached to family, mostly content to let life happen to them- even if they are unhappy with it. I don’t think these stories would be good introductions to Murakami’s work, but for a fan, they are important to read.

“Hear the Wind Sing” is Haruki Murakami’s first novel, and was first published in 1979. It was followed, in 1980, by “Pinball, 1973” – together, they made up the first two books of the Trilogy of the Rat. The two books had been translated into English, but for sale only in Japan – as a tool to help people improve their English. There were suggestions that Murakami didn’t want the books published outside in other countries – that he didn’t feel they were quite up to the standard of his later books. The two were finally published in both the UK and the US in 2015, in a single volume.

Whatever Murakami may have thought, I enjoyed the two books a great deal - much more so than1Q84. The first book I’d read by Murakami was “A Wild Sheep Chase” – the final part of the Trilogy of the Rat. It was told by a nameless narrator and featured his friend, the Rat, as a supporting character. (It, too, had a sequel – “Dance Dance Dance,” told by the same narrator. However, as the Rat didn’t appear in it, the Trilogy of the Rat didn’t become a Quadrilogy). “Hear the Wind Sing” and “Pinball 1973” follow the same format – our nameless narrator telling the story, with the Rat in a supporting role.

“Hear the Wind Sing” is set over a roughly three week period, at the end of August in 1970. The narrator is on the verge of returning to university; Rat, his best friend, has dropped out and will be remaining behind. The pair spend much of their free time in J’s Bar – drinking, smoking and eating peanuts. Here, the narrator also encounters a girl who works in a local record shop – despite a spiky start, the pair also go on to spend a little time together.

In “Pinball 1973” the story, again, follows the same narrator and the Rat. This time, however, their stories are told in parallel. Our narrator is now living and working in Tokyo – and things aren’t going too badly for him. Early in the book, he wakes up, in bed, between a pair of twin sisters. (Frankly, I can think of worse ways to start the day). His translation company seems to be doing well. Over the course of the book, he becomes somewhat obsessed with a pinball machine he used to play, and sets out to track it down. Things aren’t going anything like as well for the Rat. As the two books progress, the Rat becomes more and more adrift, frustrated and isolated. Despite the fact he’s seeing someone in “Hear the Wind Sing”, J – the barman – still seems to be his closest confidante.

I’m delighted the two books have finally made it onto the bookshelves here. I was glad to get to know something about the Rat a little better and I’m sorry things didn’t work out better for him. I found the lack of names a little frustrating – for example, the Rat’s girlfriend in “Pinball 1973” was only ever referred to as the woman, the narrator never introduced himself and the twins were known only as 208 and 209. Even so, very much recommended – especiallyif you’ve enjoyed “A Wild Sheep Chase” and “Dance Dance Dance”

Murakami's first two novels have such a refreshing sense of youth and energy to them. While Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball might not manage the historical and psychological depth of novels like Wind-Up Bird, the two are so artistically raw and unrefined that the breezy tone of the narratives help balance out the duo's restless writing -- Murakami's first novels are imperfect and unpolished but their creativity and slacker-cool feel mark Wind/Pinball as some of his most vigorously interesting work. Although these two started it all, the novels contain the beginnings of many of his famous tropes and recurring symbols, and their placement righfully feels more organic and inspired. Both novels are short, emphasizing the dreamlike and ephemeral elements of the overall narrative. Although these two may not contain the narrative and stylistic flourishes that Western readers have grown accustomed to in Murakami's recent work, these two manage to capture the same feelings as the deepest wells in Wind-Up Bird and the darkest sandstorms in Kafka. These are essential reads for any Murakami fan.

“Wind/Pinball” is the 2015 translation and American publication of Haruki Murakami’s first two novels, written in the late 1970s. Both novels are very short and the book is preceded by a wonderful author’s note about how he became a writer. If you are a Murakami fan, you will recognize the magical realism, existential, and spiritual tones found in all of his later works.

The first novel, “Hear the Wind Sing”, is told by a 29 year-old narrator looking back on eighteen days during a summer spent at home while on break from college. The novel revolves around the narrator’s friend (Rat), a girl he meets passed out on the bathroom floor in a bar, the bar owner (J), baseball, American pop music, and memories. I had a hard time writing the review for this first novel because the events of the story are so disjointed and the foggy feel in the book comes through the characters thoughts and cryptic conversations, none of which makes for easy summarization.

Rat comes from a wealthy family, hates rich people, drinks too much and speaks in philosophical riddles. “The Rat’s favorite food was pancakes, hot off the griddle. He would stack several in a deep dish, cut them into four neat pieces, then pour a bottle of Coke over the top.” We learn that Rat is involved with a woman and he arranges for the narrator to meet her. When the appointed time arrives, and the narrator shows up in suit and tie as requested, the Rat advises that “It’s a no go….I gave it up.” Rat suffers from dark moods and the story ends with him writing novels, presumably because that is what people who suffer from dark moods do.

The narrator loves to write and finds it easier than living in the moment. “I love writing. Ascribing meaning to life is a piece of cake compared to actually living it.” The only thing we learn about the narrator’s family is that his father required that he and his brother shine his shoes every day. The narrator describes each of the girls he has slept with, including the woman he met passed out on the floor in a bar. In one particularly peculiar interlude, a disc jockey telephones him and tells him that a young woman has dedicated the song California Girls to him, because the narrator had borrowed the album from the woman many years before and never returned it. He goes out and buys the album and spends a great deal of time trying to find her. The book ends with the narrator going back to college.

The second book, “Pinball, 1973”, involves Rat and J the bartender again. In this book, the narrator and a friend have begun a translation business and business is booming. The narrator is living with female twins who somehow just show up at his door. We learn more about Rat and the woman he is involved with, and J and Rat become very close. In the meantime, the narrator tells us a little history about pinball machines and he becomes obsessed with a particular machine in J’s bar. When the bar is closed and the machine suddenly disappears, he goes on a quest to find it. In typical Murakami fashion, that quest takes him to a surreal warehouse filled with 78 previously discarded pinball machines and at least one of the machines virtually comes alive.

If you are a Murakami fan, then read these two novels just to get a sense of his beginnings. If you are not a Murakami fan, do not read these novels; because if you do, you will never become a Murakami fan and you will miss the good stuff, like “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” and “Kafka on the Shore.”
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I would not typically combine two works of fiction into a single review, but Hear the Wind Sing, and Pinball, 1973, by Haruki Murakami, are inextricably linked, not only because they date back some thirty-five years yet were only released in the United States for the first time in 2015 -- in a single volume entitled Wind/Pinball -- but because together these two short novels neatly form the essential foundation for the exceptional artist that Murakami would become. The author emphasizes this connection, fondly tagging these as his “kitchen table novels.”
Murakami’s genesis as a novelist is an extraordinary story that he recounts in an introduction to this edition that is definitely worth the read. Apparently, he and his wife married young, opened a jazz club in the Tokyo suburbs and labored throughout their twenties just to pay the bills. In 1978, the nearly thirty year old Murakami decided one day that he wanted to be a writer, sat down at his kitchen table and struggled to find a style. Remarkably, he put initial frustrations aside and began composing in English, which he later translated back into Japanese. His reliance on direct, simple sentences to construct paragraphs and chapters was born in this exercise. The result was Hear the Wind Sing. He submitted his only copy of the manuscript to a journal, and basically forgot about it. Sometime later, he learned that he had won a prestigious literary prize! All at once, he was convinced he would become a full-time author. The following year, he wrote Pinball, 1973, also at his kitchen table, as a sequel to Hear the Wind Sing, then sold his jazz club and set off for fame and fortune.
Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973 are considered the first and second volumes of the “Trilogy of the Rat” series, which precede A Wild Sheep Chase, the novel that really launched Murakami’s career. Together these works introduce the quintessential Murakami passive male protagonist who populates most of his novels, as well as “the Rat,” his existentially peculiar drinking buddy who reappears posthumously in A Wild Sheep Chase. There are also the familiar well-drawn quirky female characters who inhabit Murakami’s fiction as lovers and friends: a girl missing a finger in Wind; a pair of utterly indistinguishable twins in Pinball. Conspicuous in their absence for well-travelled Murakami fans, however, are erotic female earlobes, missing cats, or the author’s special brand of magical realism which first shows up in A Wild Sheep Chase. Both Wind and Pinball are composed more as a series of vignettes and character sketches than a narrative storyline; not an unusual Murakami construct but yet far more noticeable here than elsewhere by virtue of their brevity. Yet, the characters and events are both decidedly colorful and strikingly memorable.
To date, I have read all but one of the volumes of Murakami’s fiction. As a devotee, I felt an obligation to read these nascent works, but hardly expected to enjoy them as much as I did. Hear the Wind Sing indeed feels a bit like the writer working to find his voice, as described in the introduction, but it remains a pleasure to read. And Pinball, 1973, despite its brief length and its reliance on vignettes already has the feel of the product of a fully-formed craftsman. As such, I would recommend these first Murakami novels not only to longtime fans but to anyone who appreciates fine literature.

Although this work isn't Murakami's best, I really enjoyed reading both these short novels, because they helped me understand his later writings better. Probably my favorite part of the book was actually the introduction, in which Murakami explains how he first became a writer and his process for writing. It's an amazing and fantastical story, kind of like some of his fiction. The two novels themselves are sort of like Murakami lite - not nearly as surreal as his later work, but still suffused with the existential loneliness which characterizes a lot of his writing. Kind of like a Japanese Waiting for Godot. Highly recommended for Murakami fans who want more insight into him as a writer.

Narrated in a bare-bones style, this short work begins the story of a young university student in Japan, home for summer break around 1970. That is all you need to know. He hangs out with his buddy the Rat, smokes and drinks beer, gets involved in relationships, you get the idea. There are various musings on writing, lifestyle, and Western musical references. All in all , fascinating early material from a future brilliant Japanese writer.

The book begins with an introduction, where the author explicates the reasons for whom he has a certain use of the language. Such research of words can like causal, but it reveals paticular aspects of his concept of literature. So we can read his short stories, which repeat the usual advantures of those typical men. They try the love, the distance from the chaos of the world, the research of a proper nature. The situations happen in a context that we have learned to understand in the previous romances, and we want read in a way probably new, but always related to traditions.

My favorite Murakami book was IQ84, a lengthy and more recent work. These two short novels, Wind/Pinball, were written in 1969-73, when the author was in his early 20s. Yet they evidence Murakami's fascination with music (jazz, classical, and popular), as well as with contemporary Japanese culture, so different from what an American reader would imagine it to be. The characters float through a world of mystery in which they interact with other people, but do not form relationships, seeking to recover an elusive past. I can't pretend to understand Murakami, but I find his books irresistible.

Haruki Murakami's reissue of his first two novels is a mixed bag of goods. Known for his brand of surreal fiction like "The Windup Bird Chronicle" and the epic "1Q84" trilogy, this pair of startup works (the first 2 parts of a loosely-connected series of 3 books about the narrator and another character Rat) introduces the reader to Murakami's more realist work, closer to the style of "Norwegian Wood".

These works surprise me, because they are almost existential in nature, and closer to, say, Raymond Carver's school of dirty realism with its many bar counter and kitchen sink settings and dialogue. The most interesting part of the volume is in Murakami's introduction, where he tells us how his "Kitchen Table Fiction" came about, and his clear moment of epiphany at a baseball game when he knew he was going to write a novel.

The moment-by-moment and metafictional style of the first book "Hear the Wind Sing" felt more natural and fluid than the follow-up work, "Pinball". The latter was complicated perhaps by the disconnectedness of Rat and the narrator's narratives, their stories running parallel without intersecting, and one wonders if this marked the beginnings of the surrealism Murakami would refine in his later works, by making it look like two sides of the same character (or maybe I'm just reading too much into it).

There was also a certain tedium to the whole list of unrelated things going on in the narrative, which the narrator surprisingly admits to late in the novel: "Switch panels, sandboxes, reservoirs, golf courses, torn sweaters, pinball—how long would this go on?... So why was I racing through the darkness? To keep a date with fifty pinball machines. It was idiotic. A dream. A dream without substance". And that pretty much summed up my impression of the second novel.

This collection, though checkered, has the effect of giving us a glimpse of Murakami's budding genius, and the work-in-progress feel it gives us, only makes us appreciate his later works more.

As you would expect, this book, in itself, is not Murakami's best work, but I'm glad it was published, as it demonstrates the author's early efforts to develop his unique literary voice. What's more, it provides a welcome introduction to the narrator and the Rat, who appeared too suddenly--with too little of their backgrounds-- in the famous sequels, Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance. As a result, I was inspired to revisit those classics, which I had first read and loved many years ago, from their first English translations. Together, these books provide a truly amazing literary experience!

I read both these short novels, Hear the Wind and Pinball, 1973, and found them to be interesting first efforts. If you're looking for a plot driven story, this is not the book for you. I was a little surprised to read about so much world weariness coming from two characters in their early twenties. Looking forward to reading some of Murakami's more mature works.

I love Murakami. Well, when I got a review copy of Wind / Pinball, I nearly fainted. Why? Because Hear the Wind Sing was Murakami’s very first novel and Pinball, 1973 was his second. Along with A Wild Sheep Chase, they form what is known as The Trilogy of The Rat.

Wind / Pinball was not available in English here in the US so all this time I’ve wondered about The Rat and his origins, as did fans everywhere. I’m happy to say that readers will get to spend much more time with The Rat in this volume of two books. Two books in one! I die!

In Wind, we meet our unnamed narrator. He’s an unassuming guy (a Murakami trademark). He hangs out at J’s Bar, has an on again, off again romance with a nine-fingered woman and when he is not fantasizing about her, he’s hanging out with The Rat. You could call this novel “uneventful” but it’s classic Murakami. Lots of deep thinking. Not a lot of action.

In Pinball, things pick up a bit. It’s the same unnamed narrator but set during his days as a student. This novel is more surreal in feel. He comes home to find a set of twins in his bed. He calls them 208 and 209. As you may or may not know, sex is almost a given in a Murakami novel and if there are ears involved in any way, then you get to take a drink (kidding, sort of). To make this novel even more interesting, our unnamed narrator and The Rat find themselves obsessed with a particular pinball machine which sends them on a search to find it.

The beauty of a Murakami novel is often how simple the story is. It’s usually this tiny thing that’s surrounded by strange and unusual people and sometimes weird, fantastical happenings. I love his writing.

That being said, there is a slightly different tone to Wind. I could tell that he was still figuring out what type of writer he wanted to be. After all, if you read the newly added introduction, you learn that he decided to be a writer while attending a baseball game. Just like that. He wanted to write and did. If you read nothing else, read the introduction.

This first novel made me feel as if I was reading something in secret. I sometimes think that Murakami injects pieces of himself into his books but in Wind, it felt as if HE was a character in the book. I kind of loved it for that reason.

It comes out today so run out and get a copy if you can.

I’ve read all of his novels now. What am I going to do? I was thinking about reading Kafka on the Shore again. Why? Because that is what you do when it takes years for a new book to come out.

I've read most, if not all, if Murakami's work - until now, with the exception of his first in English translation.

It was interesting and well worth the effort to get a sense of this superb writer's beginnings.

The first novel was great, 5 stars. Second was pretty good but maybe not as wonderful as the first. I enjoyed Murakami's introduction to the books. It was really interesting to hear how he got into writing and how he came to his style.

I have read most of his books. These two are rough and undeveloped, like student work. The interesting thing is that his familiar voice is here as are the themes and characters he goes on to develop as he becomes one of our great contemporary writers.

Wind/Pinball, Haruki Morakami, translator from Japanese, Ted Goossen, narrator is Kirby Heyborne
These are the first two novels/novellas written by the author, and they were supposedly penned as he sat at his kitchen table pondering the great effort it is to write one. Although separated by several years, the two novels are joined together. The first begins in August of 1970 and ends 18 days later in the same month. The nameless narrator of both, whom we shall call our friend from this point on, is a 21 year old college student whose feathers never seem to ruffle. He is calm and even tempered even as his friend is loud and overbearing. When the novella begins, our friend is in J’s bar sharing a rather raucous moment with his newly acquired good pal, Rat, a college dropout who resents his wealth but takes full advantage of it. They are both whiling away the time of their summer respite. Rat and our friend leave the bar in an inebriated state and are involved in a car accident which causes damages to a park and upsets some monkeys. When the car is totaled, Rat doesn’t mind because he will simply purchase another. However, both men are saddled with the burden of paying for damages sustained by the park, for the next three years, so there are consequences. Both of the young men are aspiring authors and when the second novella ends, in 1978 with the quote “How can those who live in the light of day possibly comprehend the depths of night”, our friend is 29, married and seems content, and both he and Rat are still writing. Rat’s novels have always remained free of any references to sex or death, and both subjects are still absent in his latest works. He dedicates his books to his nameless friend with a cryptic message which our friend understands, but would be meaningless to others.
Our friend is even-tempered as he encounters and interacts with an odd assortment of characters that flit in and out of the narrative, through a revolving door which is often one way and does not return them. Only a few are recurrent and then only barely. Nothing of major import seems to ever get resolved. It is as if there is little meaning, in the end, to their lives or their interactions. Our friend has a mentor, Derek Hartfield, an author who jumped to his death from The Empire State Building, holding an umbrella in one hand and a picture of Adolph Hitler in the other. It is an unusual choice of mentor and an unusual image for the reader which foreshadows the rather inane narrative of both novellas.
In conversations between Rat and our friend, Rat talks about his fear of death. If everyone dies, eventually, he seems to feel that everything, in its own way, is futile, perhaps purposeless. Since most do not leave a permanent mark and do disappear from view, vanish not only from sight but from the memory of others, might we not all ask, “what then, is our ultimate purpose”?
Our friend, remains true to character, stays fairly quiet and neutral, emotionally, throughout both novellas, simply listening to his friends and acquaintances while neither condemning nor judging them. We learn that our friend has a brother, and both of them routinely are required to shine their father’s shoes out of respect for him, and yet, at certain times, he casually dismisses his obligation. True to form, nothing has major import as characters meander in and out of the narrative. Our friend tells about many of the unusual characters he meets. One is a young woman who has a twin. She has only 9 fingers, and that meaningless, missing body part is the only distinguishing feature that separates her from her sister. He speaks of a one time girlfriend who took her own life. Another friend died from alcohol poisoning. There is a teenage girl who speaks of being confined to a bed for the last three years, hoping for a cure for her debilitating neurological disease. Then there is the uncle who survives the war only to ironically die, after it ends, when he steps on a landmine he himself had planted. We are privy to a conversation on the radio. The MC calls our friend and informs him that a young lady wanted them to play a song for him. He remembers that he once borrowed that record from this girl, lost it and thus never returned it. He sets about trying to return a new copy to her, but even after a broad search, he is unsuccessful. This is another unfruitful moment.
There are a series of conversations which bounce around and essentially go nowhere. Profound subjects are introduced but they are all, in the end, treated in a mundane manner. Subjects like life and death, truth and deception, trust and love are introduced but barely developed. Nothing is explored very deeply. Both novellas skirt around on the surface of life and sometimes I wondered if I was missing the author’s meaning, and then I wondered if there actually was a meaning other than the ultimate meaninglessness of everything we do, especially if we have no way to leave a permanent mark.
The reader, Kirby Heyborne, reads the novellas in a deadpan voice which perfectly conveys the author’s meaning and intent, but I am afraid, much of it may have been lost on me.

This was my first experience reading Murakami. In reply to the posted question about the plot, i could discern no plot. The two main characters seem two dimensional silhouettes with a series of events and other characters moving behind them. I actually found this a tiresome, pointless read.

I tried, and soon into, I died. So sprawling, fake hip, the author believing that anything he says will rivet his fans. And I see it does. Chics and easy lays, too shallow to engage. These authors resorting to booze and stream of consciousness tend not to go beyond lame first drafts. SO boring.

There are authentic Asian voices out there of spare compelling depth. One is surely the gifted Paul Yoon.