A review by selenajournal
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

2.0

Is it possible, finally, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another?

We can invest enormous time and energy in serious efforts to know another person, but in the end, how close are we able to come to that person's essence? We convince ourselves that we know the other person well, but do we really know anything important about anyone? -pg 24

Would I ever see the rest? Or would I grow old and die withotu ever really knowing her? If that was all that lay in store for me, then what was the point of this married life I was leading? What was the point of my life at all if I was spending it in bed with an unknown companion?

This was what I thought about that night and what I went on thinking about long afterward from time to time. Only much later did it occur to me that I had found my way into the core of the problem. -pg 31

Unfortunately, certain events mad it impossible for me to do so. These things can happen, Mr. Okada. As you know, we live in a violent and chaotic world. And within this world, there are places that are still more violent, still more chaotic. -pg 42

I could disappear from the face of the earth, and the world would go on moving withou tthe slightest twinge. Things were tremendously complicated, to be sure, but one thing was clear: no one needed me. -pg 250