Dreaming of Wild Sheep

Add  “A Wild Sheep Chase’, to the reasons why I don’t like sheep.  My lifelong fear of sheep has had nothing to do with the Haruki Murakami’s magical mystery tour around Japan in search of an elusive mystery sheep with the powers of mind control...until now.  I did not know there was a mutant sheep on the loose in Japan and that sheep could in fact take over your body.  It’ exerts it’s mind control through a cyst it creates in your brain once it gets in, apparently through telekinesis while you sleep.  And,  if that’s not enough, this particular sheep is bent on no less than world domination.  Finding that sheep and destroying it’s evil  master plan describes this novel in a nutshell.

OK, maybe the story isn’t everybody's cup of tea.  It’s not my cup of tea, particular with my lifelong bias against sheep.  But in typical fashion, Murakami held my attention...in this case for two solid days at the beach.  He is a magnificent storyteller, of this we have always been assured.  Whereas I might have been disappointed by the plotline, I was not disappointed by his character descriptions, the Japanese vistas he paints, and the other reasons we keep turning his pages...his a-political view of world events, his ability to capture common life, and the torment in the mind of his main character...when by all accounts we should be putting the book down when plot starts to develop.  There could be no redeeming ending to this book...a complete flight of fancy...right down to the Sheepman who smoke’s Seven Stars and drinks brandy.  If androids were to dream of sheep, it wouldn't be this one.  Yet we have “A Wild Sheep Chase” in the portfolio and on our bookshelves.  

This is only my third Murakami  novel  I have read both “After Dark” and “Norwegian Wood”.  I have also read two of his non-fiction works.  I will read a few more.  Start with four stars for a Murakami novel full of his descriptive prose, and take off one star for sheep with mind control.