Sorry, no pictures for this post. Blogging from my precious eeepc.
One of my best friends lent me a book a while ago. It’s called A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami. He said I’d like it and he wanted me to read it. So I wiki-ed and google-d the book up and it seemed that it’s a MUST-READ and no one had anything bad to say about it. I was all hyped up to read it. Another notch in Kim’s pursuit of culture & class so to speak….
The novel read very easily. Not many rare tongue-tying words which meanings I’d be too lazy to find out. I like the part about the girl with a pair of mysterious sexy ears and I was looking forward to descriptions of the protagonist having some “good time” with her. They came and went with a thud :(
Then on to the main premise of the story. The wild sheep chase. Protagonist met up with mysterious fella from secret organisation (Hrmmm). Asked to find sheep with a star on its ass (Hrmm). Ventured on a journey with said girl with sexy ears on journey to find sheep with a star on its ass. (Oooh more sex?). Not much sex really (sigh). Protagonist moved into a deserted house (oh sex now!). Girl with sexy ears left (damnit no sex). Weird male hobo in sheep costume stalked protagonist (oh THIS is the sex part huh *snigger*). Most scandalous thing that weird male hobo in sheep costume did was drinking a can of beer (wtf!). Male hobo in sheep costume turned out to be protagonist’s long lost friend who is called Rat and is also the sheep with a star on its ass.
So after flipping page after page, filled with anticipation of a chapter that would finally tie everything together ala Tarantino’s flicks….I reached the end of the book.
What the fuck did I just spent 5 hours reading?? I have absolutely no bloody idea -_-.
I tried to find an answer to my conundrum. Among the stuff I’ve discovered is that Haruki Murakami wrote all his books in Japanese and the english versions we’re reading are courtesy of elite translators. Could it be that the whole book is consisted of metaphors that only a native Japanese would understand? Does that mean that everyone who has raved about the book has at one point or another immersed themselves in Japanese culture or literature?
Am I the only person who doesn’t like the book, for when I googled “A wild sheep chase sucks” not many relevant explanations popped up. Or are people too embarrassed to admit that they don’t get the bleeding book due to peer pressure? Heh heh.
Of course, I’m not disputing the fact that I may be just another freaking knob-head. Classless, uncultured organism from Cheras aye!
So really, I appeal to anyone of you who have read the book or a big fan of Murakami please enlighten me in simple straight forward english sans methaphors….what is A Wild Sheep Chase talking about? :(