Top picture is one of the Japanese editions of Neuromancer I picked up when I visited Tokyo. Below is the different versions I’ve collected over the years. (I had Gibson sign the 4th from the left when I met him).
Set in World War II, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is difficult to describe. It is surreal and psychedelic. It is mysterious and otherworldly. To indulge, you need to let yourself be carried away. It begins with a seemingly ordinary day in the life of a very ordinary man. But things only gets strange and stranger as dreams spill into reality. The lines between natural and supernatural are blurred, a guy sitting deep down in a well digs into his subconscious: a boy’s personality is stolen by the devil, a miraculous blue mark on a cheek heals people. Unusual characters drift in, tell their unusual stories and leave.
Unfortunately, the end of the book was a rude awakening from the most wonderful dream, you never want to be over.
Amidst the complex, ethereal, Murakami addresses the themes of alienation, loneliness, an individual’s search for identity. He questions the national identity as well while exploring some horrifying stories about the second world war. Though Murakami leaves a lot of questions to be answered, but it takes your on a majestic journey. In a few places the prose is a bit too wordy and repetitious. May be it is a flawed masterpiece, but a masterpiece nonetheless.
