Sunday, February 10, 2013

A Rat among Sheep

Murakami's tale was taking a very similar avenue to 1Q84 before it got interrupted by the letters from the Rat. Possibly because there's nothing to announce it, or maybe because the section before it is so comic and enjoyable, I found the first letters from the Rat jarring and a little confusing.

However, it does point to something that I've noticed up to this point: None of the male characters (and most of the female characters) have names. they have adjectival phrases like "she would have sex with any guy" or "my partner" for names instead.

Since A Wild Sheep Chase is in first person, maybe this is just a way to sneak around naming characters. After all, this is Murakami's first widely published work. He's not going to be a superstar right out the gate, but he does definitely have the potential. That much is clear from his generous pepperings of evocative imagery. But, as far as I can tell, Murakami's not yet begun to write. Hopefully the main plot doesn't suffer another break.

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