[NoahMacchione]

Hi Sparkle,

I have read a Wild Sheep Chase by this author. It is a very short read 110 ten pages total. It is very Monty Python-ish. So, if you like that type of humor you will like this book.

It is a mock-detective tale that follows an unnamed Japanese man through Tokyo and Hokkaidō in 1978. The passive, chain-smoking main character gets swept away on an adventure that leads him on a hunt for a sheep that hasn’t been seen for years. The apathetic protagonist meets a woman with magically seductive ears and a strange man who dresses as a sheep and talks in slurs; in this way there are elements of Japanese animism or Shinto.

There is a sequel to it as well entitled Dance, Dance, Dance which follows the adventures of the Sheep Man and the protagonist from the first book.

I have not read the ones you have mentioned. However, you did ask for a recommendation so I would try the short read and see what you think.

Happy Reading !!

Originally Posted by Sparkle

Is anyone here a Haruki Murakami fan?

I'm looking for a recommendation.

I enjoyed 'Sputnik Sweetheart' quite a bit -but- couldn't get through the first few chapters of 'Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World' it was incomprehensible to me.

I think I found 'Sputnik Sweetheart' a bit easier because it was more linear with less layers and layers of fantasy and I didn't have to wait so long to "get it".

I love the surrealism & the post-modernism of his writing. I like the themes and his humour. But some of his works feel so barren, so stripped of emotional depth that I just can't get in to them. Or maybe its a cultural thing? Anyone?