August | 2014 | Book Chatter

Grab Your Book I literally forgot about the long weekend! Thankfully, Bryan clued me in when he was talking about it the other day. Normally I begin stacking my piles up in anticipation but since it surprised me, I have no stack prepared. I want something really good to read. I am in that awkward “I want something amazing but can’t seem to find it” stage.

I am 25% into Twelve Years a Slave, and it’s good and all, but it’s not a book to get all crazy excited about. I also have Euphoria started but I can tell that one is going to take a little bit of time to get going. I call this my Murakami hangover. I tend to hit a funk after reading his books. It’s like, my brain stops working and needs to be jump-started. I did read Station Eleven right after Murakami because I knew if I didn’t read something fast, I’d fall into that well of despair where nothing sounds good but even with the quick read right after, I am still feeling a little untethered.

I want a book that will make me put off everything else. A book that will make me ignore the very loud cricket that is hiding somewhere in my house. A book that will cause the laundry to pile up. A book that will have me feeding the kids cereal in lieu of cooking a meal. Do you know of any books like that? What will you be reading this weekend?

A Wild Sheep Chase
By Haruki Murakami
(Vintage, Paperback, 9780375718946, April 2002, 368pp.)

The Short of It:

Quirky, thought-provoking and strange. In other words, classic Murakami.

The Rest of It:

I’m not sure why it took me so long to finish this one. I purposely held this one back so that I’d have a novel to read before his new book came out, but when I finally allowed myself to read it, I think it took me almost three months to finish it! Unheard of. Seriously.

Why? Well, it’s one of his more quirky ones. It’s very dreamy and surreal in a lot of ways, but at the same time, it’s very “normal” and domestic, if you know what I mean. There is a lot of eating, and thinking and yes…drinking. The main character is sent on a wild sheep chase. No, seriously. He’s sent to find a sheep with a peculiar mark upon its rump. He meets all sorts of strange people, including a woman with magical, seductive ears and a man who likes to dress-up in a sheep costume. It’s all very bizarre but also fascinating. I marveled at each paragraph. Maybe that’s why it took me so long to read.

The story itself did not pull me in like some of his other stories have, but that’s not to say that it wasn’t good because it was. It’s definitely a book to ponder and coming here to share the review, well, is a bit of a challenge. What do you say about a book that is just so odd in so many ways? As I have said before, Murakami has a way of working all the parts of your brain that you haven’t used in awhile. He’s great for putting an end to a reading rut and his writing is somehow comforting in all its strange, little ways. I find myself seeking him out, after reading a lot of mainstream fiction.

After all my Murakami gushing over the years, some of you have taken the plunge and read him. Many of you have come back to tell me that you enjoy his writing. The rest? Some are too intimidated by him to give him a try, but I have hope.

Source: Purchased
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