Review--A Wild Sheep Chase

Book Review

I am really slow to decide whether I liked a book or not, so my reviews are pretty slow in coming. All the same, for the sake of furthering my understanding my own writing, I am going to post reviews of the books I’ve recently finished.

A Wild Sheep Chase (1989)

This book, the third in a series, was Haruki Murakami’s U.S. breakout novel, and it is clear how this powerful, and often pensive novel, made it past the U.S. market border.

On the surface, the book focuses on a quest that the protagonist must go on to avoid having his life destroyed by a man that is only know as “the boss.” The narrator (we never get a name), and his girlfriend (“the girl with perfect ears”) set out to find a mysterious sheep that may or may not be pivotal to the boss’s existence. Along the way, the narrator realizes that an old friend is somehow connected to the sheep and possible the boss. This friend, “the rat,” becomes the focus of how to find one sheep in all of Japan.

The story takes us from urban Tokyo to the very rural Japan in an ever-increasingly bizarre adventure. This story is what I would call literary speculative fiction, as a number of important elements of the story depend of paranormal events. I ended up really liking the book, but it was definitely not a quick or light read. I suppose you could breeze through it, taking in only the quest plot, but what I liked most about the story was the focus on the various character’s interpretation of what was important in life, the quest, and each other. I can’t whole-heartedly recommend the book, but when you are feeling adventurous and patient, pick it up and follow Murakami on his mental hike through human spirit.

Stars (out five)

3.5

Harry Potter Review

I know I am super late on this, but I really have to throw my two cents into the Deathly Hallows ring. I read the book about three weeks ago, but I wanted to think about it before I posted my thoughts on the matter.

First, I’d like to say that the series, as a whole, is good. Ms. Rowling did a good job of telling a very long and involved story. She clearly managed to reach out well beyond the believed market for such stories.

Now down to the nitty gritty …

I really didn’t like Deathly Hallows for many reasons. There, I said it! I know that lots of people are going to wildly disagree with me on this, but I really feel pretty strongly about it. There are several reasons for my not liking the book, and most of those reasons revolve around rule breaking and logic errors. I know, I am an uptight reader about things like this, but I really want the writer to make it work it out correctly, as in, in accordance with the rules of the world. In my writing group, this is the first thing any of us will point out in the each others’ stories. It is so important! So where did she fall down, in my opinion?

1. The elder wand. The rule was that the elder wand couldn’t be defeated in a duel, yet that is how Dumbledore won it from Grindelwald. Bad. Bad. Bad.

2. The final duel. What weird logic was that? Really? Harry can defeat Voldemort because he defeated Malfoy and took his wand, and Malfoy is the rightful owner of the elder wand? So, somehow the elder wand knows that its true owner (Malfoy) was defeated while using a different want and now must belong to Harry? I don’t buy it.

3. More Final Duel. Nor do I buy that a teenager (and not a well-studied one at that) defeats the most powerful wizard of all time, who is currently using the unbeatable wand, with a simple disarming spell. Sorry, it doesn’t fly with me. You know what I would have believed? I would have totally bought into the concept that the horcruxes held his power, as well as his soul. Thus, if the majority of the horcruxes were destroyed, so was the majority of his power. This would clear the way for Harry to defeat him easily, but this would also mean anyone else could have done the same, too.

4. The epilogue was horrid. I wish I hadn’t read it, truthfully.
I could go on, but I am afraid of the rabid Potter fans. On that note, until this book, I was a pretty rabid fan.