Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (Extra book)

I am a big fan of this author and glad I was suggested to read this book, titled Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. I’ve read about 4 of his other books, and this one, like the others doesn’t disappoint.  This is one of his earliest books and you can tell it serves as a pre-cursor to how his style has been perfected over the years.  The book is actually two stories which are going on simultaneously (using the two different names to the book)! In the odd chapters, the story focuses on where the lead characters subconscious is used as an encryption key.  It is a government system vs. the people, though it appears one man is leading the government’s program.  They are also experimenting to have “sound removal” and the man who is narrating the story learns he only has a day and a half to live before he goes into a world that is created in his subconscious (which I guess could be good, huh?).  The End of the World story is the focus of the other chapters of the book set in a mysterious Town, which is surrounded by a large wall.  The lead character, only known as the narrator, learns he has lost his shadow – as have all of the other people he is associated with in the town.  The narrator is brought to the town as the latest in a long line of “dreamreaders,” which is a process that sets to remove the memory of the town.  The town, we learn is actually the world inside the subconscious of the narrator in the other chapters of the book, ah, sound confusing?  Welcome to the world of Murakami!  The narrator and his shadow plan to escape the town before the day and a half in which he will lose his shadow and be stuck in the town for good – without a history.  During his stay he falls in love with a Librarian, oh yeah, none of the characters have names outside of their role in the town, except the “Chubby Girl” who is the granddaughter of the Scientist who placed the narrator into this situation.  In the end, the narrator decides to stay in the Town and let his shadow fly away when it becomes a bird and leaves for good.  Murakami delves deeply into the conscious choices and those we do not have the ability to think through (just respond).  He also presents sex as a physical activity, rather than an emotional connection (as he does often in his other books) and is enamored with American culture and how it affects our society.  He often presents sub-messages regarding music and how it affects the psyche and our behavior.  Of course choice and our identity are central to his stories.  The stories are more surreal and fall in the genre of science fiction.  His imagination and depth of presenting how we behave under stress are some of the reasons I enjoy his work so much.  Creative writers who engage in a non-traditional way, but strongly influenced by authors like Kafka, Dostoyevsky, and Thomas Hardy can be found throughout.  He even has his characters reference these icons of literature.  If you are looking for a linear beginning, middle, and end, you may be disappointed.  It is the journey that makes us think. I really love his work!  Keep them coming RAs!