Well, today I finished Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. I really liked it a lot, but as is the case with many of his books, it left me a tad confused about uh, lots of things. The story line is this: a nameless data processor gets caught up in some crazy capers driven by an old loopy scientist. Turns out the old guy’s been messin’ with his mind – literally. So the book alternates between the real world and a world constructed in the guy’s consciousness. It’s pretty nuts, and it didn’t all quite come together for me in the end, (but it was close.) It kind of made my head hurt trying to figure out exactly what was going on in some places, but that’s okay. Thinking is good.
So, in the world constructed in his consciousness, the guy lives in a seemingly perfect peaceful little town. But at a cost, as his ’shadow’ (the manifestation of his true self) tells him:
…the absence of fighting or hatred or desire also means the opposites do not exist either. No joy, no communion, no love. Only where there is disillusionment and depression and sorrow does happiness arise; without the despair of loss, there is no hope.
So the guy and his shadow spend the book trying to escape from mind world. But lo and behold, the old scientist has other plans.
Maybe I’m just dumb, but I wasn’t totally sure what happened in the end. I think in a few days it might come together for me. But even if it doesn’t, it was still a good read.
So next, I’m going to get started again on For the Love of Animals. Maybe Larisa might have finished a book by the time I finish this new one. Don’t worry, L, it’s a long book.
Samara
1 Comment
November 30, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Interesting…sounds very Jungian. Ok, you’ve guilted me into a real post. stay tuned.
Larisa