I finished Wind-up Bird, the first of his I'd read, in a state of not only bewilderment but intense frustration - because the protagonist is indeed so ordinary, I kept expecting all the weirdness to get 'explained' at some point and instead I wound up without anything under my feet, in a narrative sense. Er. What horrible phrasing. Sorry.
But I liked it nonetheless, and found much the same thing with Hardboiled (thanks Strawbs!), except that I was prepared - and it ends up in a proper separate reality, rather than this reality minus any sense, which was a bit easier to deal with. And then with Kafka, I felt even less bewildered, because all the weirdness is (mostly) behind you, though not actually explained, and you're back in the real world. This is my impression; but I do wonder whether it's just me getting used to the Murakami Madness, or whether he is in fact mellowing. Huh.
Re: Hardboiled Murakami
But I liked it nonetheless, and found much the same thing with Hardboiled (thanks Strawbs!), except that I was prepared - and it ends up in a proper separate reality, rather than this reality minus any sense, which was a bit easier to deal with. And then with Kafka, I felt even less bewildered, because all the weirdness is (mostly) behind you, though not actually explained, and you're back in the real world. This is my impression; but I do wonder whether it's just me getting used to the Murakami Madness, or whether he is in fact mellowing. Huh.
robynn