The Wind Up Bird Chronicle — Flow of Water

In Wind Up Bird Chronicle most of Murakami’s characters are fighting with a 'something' which is inside them. Not at any point in time any one of them actually defines it or gives it a name. This works. Essentially because while you are reading the book you have an inkling of what this something is. It this feeling of frustrated inside you which tortures you for your lack of understanding of things. It need not need a name because for everyone it might be a different thing or a combination of few things.

May be because this is one of Murakami’s initial books hence his philosophy is quite defined because may be he was building a sense of things for himself too as compared to his recent works where he is writing from his level of consciousness with a form belief that reader will follow. This is also the reason why when you read his recent books first with a novice level of consciousness you do get a feeling that you have read something profound but fail to put a finger on what it was.

The story of book is quite straightforward where a man name Toru Okada goes through a phase of separation which his wife and what he does to bring things back in order. At a deep level it is a very long, slow and complex arc of a man who finds himself via his bizzare experiences with people he meets and their peculiar stories.

In Wind up bird chronological Murakami essentially is talking about two kinds of people in the world. Takers and Givers in simplified terms ( an analogy which even the chef in “The Menu" also uses ). Creta Kano talks about how Toru Okada and Noboru Wataya are two extremes. Here Noboru Wataya is a economic intellectual who is eventually becomes a sort after personality and eventually a politician. He is also brother in law to Toru Okada. He is the first extreme who is a “taker" he is someone who is ambitious and would destroy everything in his path to achieve his goals. He projects his needs to be prevailed over every other being.

On the other hand Toru Okada is your very regular average person who is “the giver", someone who listens deeply, stays clean, follow a ritual and let’s you pass through them. He is truly, complete okay being average.

Something which Malta Kano mentioned resonates here. Let’s call that “something" with in us “water of life". When this water flows unchecked, like a flood it destroys everything in its path, including its own dimensions . Everyone who gets in touch with a person of this temperament comes out broken. That’s who Noboru Wataya is. Where as the other extreme is of the stagnant water — which most of us are in our lives. This kind of people attach themselves to a little something in life and stop moving altogether. Like how May Kasahara is not over the event where she got a boy killed, Nutmeg’s mother is attached to the glory of happy days and so on so forth. The pursuit of life or the meaning of finding oneself is just to find the flow of water. The quality of a free flowing river is it never let any attachment settle, always keeps moving forward, never fights the obstacles of the way but find ways around it and the best part it enables movement for those who gets in touch. A vessel of flowing water is what Toru Okada eventually becomes.

That’s it the Murakami philosophy which you will find in the deepest dry well near you.

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle — Flow of Water A review by Magicthreadworks