A review by dragonlilly
A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective relaxing fast-paced

5.0

This book was shockingly beautiful in its descriptions of scenes, and incredibly charming in both story and character exploration. The main character has found himself stuck in life, both gaining things and losing them to the very end. Everything seemingly passes over him and he doesn't usually give it much thought, and I think his characterization matches what we've seen from the previous books, but shows how he has lost his innocent view on life and meaning in life. Then, he gets thrown into a wild sheep chase, as well as a journey to find his old friend, the Rat. The writing is even better than the previous books in the series, and it more of an actual narrative, but still includes interesting off-shoot elements that you don't always think relate to the story, but are actually important in developing our character and the more philosophical ideas that are presented throughout the story. In general, I would say this book is more reflective, but it also made me laugh a couple times, tear up at the ending, and overall, I was very engrossed in this work. 

I know some people approach this series differently, starting with different books and not always reading the first, but I am really glad I read Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball before this one, because I can feel the change in the characters, and appreciate our main character's relationship with the Rat much more, and I think it made the ending much more meaningful as well. The essence of the series really reaches its peak in this book, and I think the books that came before it build up to this story very well. I can't wait to read Dance, Dance, Dance, but I am unsure if it could possibly be better than this one. It is also so hard to rate this one, but it definitely excels past the previous two which I also adored, so it feels right to give it 5 stars, or at least 4.5. 
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