Murakami’s
latest book in English is interesting for a number of reasons: its brevity, its
pictures and the return of an old, favourite character the Sheep Man. Its shortness
means that the plot is quite simple. Whilst the idea that reading makes the
brain creamy to the taste might put some children off reading, it is a dark fantasy
in which parallel worlds are jumbled up and what belongs in this world one
minute doesn’t belong the next. As his pet starling dies in order to secure his
release from the strange library so too his mother passes away soon after he
notices “shadows gathering around her.”
The
pictures are also very much part of the story. As the narrator reads the diary of an
Ottoman tax collector and becomes the tax collector he experiences the sights
and sounds of Istanbul. The book transports him to another time and another
world despite having no knowledge of the language. The pictures come from the
books in the library and they illustrate events in the narrative as they
unfold.
Finally
there is the character of the Sheep Man. It is impossible not to read this
story and to have flashbacks from Pinball
1973 and the Wild Sheep Chase and
Dance Dance Dnce etc. The whipping he
receives at the hands of the old man in the strange library perpetuate the his ongoing
struggles. The sacrifices he continues to make his equanimity all the more
endearing. This is a story for the fans who fell in love with this character
and never want to let go…
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