Haruki Murakami: A Wild Sheep Chase

At about page 30, I wanted to throw the book against the wall. In my frustration, I happened upon the first page with all the "Acclaim for Haruki Murakami." When I read this quote, everything became crystal clear: "Greatly entertaining...will remind readers of the fist time they read Tom Robbins or...Thomas Pynchon." Chicago Tribune Damn. I remember reading Gravity's Rainbow and The Crying of Lot 49 for my Gravity's Rainbow graduate class and being confused as hell. After class discussions I'd have slightly more clarity, but basically GR was 776 pages of random confusing plot lines that were connected in the most bizarre way.

So, when I picked the book back in I flew through it, and could appreciate it for what it was. I am amazed at what that tiny piece of schema could do for my understanding/appreciation/tolerance. I am looking forward to book club on Saturday--the conversations will be totally awesome based on the randomness of the plot. And I have some questions that hopefully we can talk about. I am disturbed by the lack of names for key characters (i.e. the main protagonist and his girlfriend) and still confused by who The Rat was. Really, no summary of this book could do it justice--too many random threads that are jumbled up but then somehow find awaytoseperateintoasinglethread. Thanks Sheep Man.