Now that we have a better idea of Murakami, his literary inspirations, and his style I can't seem to get a grasp on what I should take away from these novels.
A Wild Sheep Chase bounces between themes of capitalism, colonialism, identity, magical realism, mystery, boredom, suicide, wasted marriages, friendship, alcoholism, and so so so many more. Does anyone else get so overwhelmed with the scope of ideas that they can't seem to point to what it all means? Or does that defeat the purpose? Often, when I read something new, I try to walk away having understood what the author was trying to convey or the main idea. If I tried to do that with
A Wild Sheep Chase, I could make the case that it's about "coming to terms with the loss of a friend" but then there are so many other threads I could follow.
Murakami creates these entertaining, bizarre, and complex stories filled with allusions to history, art, politics, and literature, and I walk away wondering what the hell I just read. What strategies do you use to map out other Murakami stories? Are they meant to be understood or is the perplexing nature of the stories what makes them good? Maybe their power comes from their ability to baffle us while still making us care about the story and its characters, who knows?
BONUS: Okay, this is completely off-topic from what I wrote above and I don't know Japanese but I've been listening to The Blue Hearts song "リンダ リンダ" (Linda Linda) and the first line is: "ドブネズミみたいに美しくなりたい" my questions is: rat or mouse?
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