Book Review - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami - 3.5 stars

story of mild mannered man toru okada whose cat goes missing and then his wife (kumiko).




good descriptions of back alley way.




enjoyed the tale of lieutenant mamiya and his war time stories of fighting/surviving in manchukuo (manchuria) during world war 2.




some real interesting side characters like malta kano, creta kano (psychic sisters?), may kasahara (teenage neighbor), lieutenant mamiya, and noburu wataya (kumiko's strange brother).




enjoyed the story of the japanese soldiers trying to determine how to kill off zoo animals...




typical murakami themes of memory, blurring of reality and hallucination/fantasy, and long personal tales (metaphorical and real)...




very long and bogs down a bit when toru ends up purchasing? the supposed haunted house and his dealings with nutmeg and cinammon are even stranger than the rest of the book.