Book Review: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles ( by Haruki Murakami )

Profound and abstract at the same time, 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles' has been one of the most impressive books that I have read in recent days. Taking off with a mundane beginning that has a couple searching for their missing cat, the storyline quickly delves into their disintegrating marriage, a host of psychic characters, and surprisingly the evil happenings of World War II. It is not a neat little plot where all the strings are tied up but more like an magnificent abstract canvas on which the artist has painted discrete images with bold strokes.

Toru Okada's life in suburban Tokya is less than idyllic. He has lost his job and is hardly interested in finding another one. But when his wife Kumiko leaves him, he is completely shattered. Then there is his strange relationship with a sixteen year old girl who is fascinated with death. He discovers a dried up well and climbs down to the bottom to think with renewed clarity. A dream encounter with a prostitute in a hotel room leaves him with a purple scar on the face. And this scar is what draws another psychic woman towards him. She helps him with his search for Kumiko but at a price. He must turn into a 'prostitute of the mind' .

These surreal happenings in Okada's life are juxtaposed with the spine chilling and often nauseating events of the World War . One of the most memorable sections of the book is the skinning of a prisoner that is described in morbid detail. It is just too grotesque to be forgotten in a long time. The zoo massacre comes a close second on the grotesque scale.

And then there is the story of the shitty island which is actually symbolic of too many things than happen in the world. Things that propagate themselves by their own power to such an extent that after a point on one is capable of putting a stop to it. Not even the one who started it in the first place. Too philosophical ? Yes, it is .

If you have been wondering about the book's title,  'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles' is derived from the mechanical screeching of a bird that is portrayed as the harbinger of catastrophe. While it packs in quite a punch, this book is only recommended for die-hard fans of Murakami !!

[ If you looking to pick Murakami's works, I would recommend something like 'Kafka on the Shore' or 'Norwegian Wood' for the beginners. ] 

Book Review: Dead Souls (By Nikolay Gogol)

And translated by Robert A. Maguire.

"It is much easier to depict large-scale characters: there all you need do is fling the paints on to the canvas unstintingly - dark, burning eyes, beetling brows, furrowed forehead, a black or fiery-crimson cloak thrown over the shoulder - and the portrait is done. But if you take all these other gentlemen, of whom there are many in the world, and who greatly resemble one another in appearance, yet in whom, as soon as you look more closely, you will perceive many highly elusive traits - such gentlemen are dreadfully difficult to portray."



Thus wrote Nikolay Gogol, was one of the greatest writers of Russian literature. Brilliant lines that refuse to be erased from memory. His eccentric and highly satirical style of writing is not easy to understand as is the case with translated literature. Some of the nuances are definitely lost in translation. And add to that the fact that it is incomplete. But still it comes across as a brilliant piece of literature.

The story revolves around Chichikov,  a small time conman who plans to buy dead souls (who still exist on the census list) and then mortgage them for a handsome amount. As he goes about meeting and dining with the various landlords, the reader is exposed to various shades in the human character. One invariably falls in love with the characters who seem to be all flesh and blood, thanks to the author's brilliant delineation.

The Russian way of life is exposed in all its glory and shortcomings. The peculiar disease of living it up in style while being up to the neck in debt is finely depicted. When Chichkov sets about with his little scheme, some of the landlords readily agree while others try to hold on to the deal souls thinking that they might be worth more (one even wonders about the going rate for them). And still others strike a tough bargain for them by extolling the virtues of the serfs.

He almost succeeds and it the most sought after bachelor at a ball. But his undoing arrives in the form of a particularly greedy old lady who arrives in town to find out about the going rates of the dead souls.

So, he ends up moving to another town. And goes about his scan after spending some days in idyllic bliss. Until the bureaucracy and corruption does him in. (Doesn't it remind us of some famous people who have been in the news lately)

Apart from the detailed characterizations, it is the fact that this story still holds relevance, makes it for a most entertaining read.

But I must warn you that the language is not easy and one might just struggle with the first 50 pages or so. And then, it will just grow on one.