A Wild Sheep Chase
AnnotationModern Japanese fiction will not be seen in the same light again. The American debut of Japan's premier contemporary writer introduces a fresh, irreverent tale with a 30-year-old modern-day hero.From the PublisherA marvelous hybrid of mythology and mystery, A Wild Sheep Chase is the extraordinary literary thriller that launched Haruki Murakami’s international reputation.It begins simply enough: A twenty-something advertising executive receives a postcard from a friend, and casually appropriates the image for an insurance company’s advertisement. What he doesn’t realize is that included in the pastoral scene is a mutant sheep with a star on its back, and in using this photo he has unwittingly captured the attention of a man in black who offers a menacing ultimatum: find the sheep or face dire consequences. Thus begins a surreal and elaborate quest that takes our hero from the urban haunts of Tokyo to the remote and snowy mountains of northern Japan, where he confronts not only the mythological sheep, but the confines of tradition and the demons deep within himself. Quirky and utterly captivating, A Wild Sheep Chase is Murakami at his astounding best. From The CriticsPublishers Weekly Immensely
popular in Japan, the author's first novel to be published here is a
comic combination of disparate styles: a mock-hardboiled mystery, a
metaphysical speculation and an ironic first-person account of an
impossible quest. The narrator is a modern Japanese yuppie: divorced,
in a mildly exciting relationship and a much less exciting job as an ad
copywriter, he lives unexceptionally until a photograph throws his life
into chaos. The snapshot, which he uses to illustrate a newsletter,
shows a field of sheep with one unique crossbreed, and the picture is
special enough to have attracted the attention of both the nomadic
friend who sent it to him and a right-wing Mr. Big who, moribund, wants
the source found before he dies. The Boss's henchman, a sleek, scary
majordomo, gives the narrator one month to track it down, and the story
that ensues is a postmodern detective novel in which dreams,
hallucinations and a wild imagination are more important than actual
clues. With the help of a fluid, slangy translation, Murakami emerges
as a wholly original talent. $30,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild and
Doubleday Book Club alternates. (Oct.)
Library Journal This novel, the
American debut of a popular contemporary Japanese writer, will have a
familiar ring to Western ears. The narrative moves adroitly through
mystery, fable, pensive realism, and modernist absurdity to tell the
tale--at least on the surface--of a Japanese man caught up in a
puzzling quest for a somewhat mystical sheep. The spare style echoes
Raymond Carver, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler, with
matter-of-fact absurdities reminiscent of John Irving and, in less
inspired moments, Tom Robbins. While the climax of the story is
somewhat unrewarding, many readers will enjoy being pulled along by the
playful and engaging style and fluid structure. Interesting as an
example of current Japanese writing and as an unusually hip and
irreverent look at contemporary Japanese society, this would be a nice
addition to larger fiction collections.-- Mark Woodhouse, Elmira Coll.,
N.Y.
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