Rating: 
Summary: Mesmerizing.
Review: An exercise in writing a novel "through the looking glass", Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel by Haruki Murakami and translated from the Japanese by Alfred Birnbaum is a complex psychedelic ... schizophrenic novelistic odyssey. The text is essentially two stories that are, in many ways, mirror images of one another that play out in alternating chapters and which, over the course of the novel, slowly merge into a unified whole. The two protagonists are characters that share may traits but are emotionally and intellectually polar opposites. This is true also of the settings-the one a modern day cyberpunk thriller that seems to take place almost entirely in the tunnels beneath the streets of Tokyo, the other an ancient, walled city of unknown location. The protagonists are complex and vividly drawn. Yet, they both exist within a framework of incompleteness and there is the sense that beneath the frenetic aspects of the one story and the bucolic serenity of the other all their actions, to the extent they can dictate them or even understand them, are aimed at obtaining a unity they can sense yet don't understand. This is a large, elegant risky undertaking on Murakami's part and the fact he brings it all off with such skill and aplomb speaks volumes about the depth of both his talent and his imagination. This is not your typical Murakami novel. Fans of his other books need to understand that this book reads like nothing else Murakami has produced. Don't be put off, however. While this is not an easy read-it requires your attention and persistence-the effort is well rewarded.
Rating: 
Summary: good quick read that doesn't quite measure up
Review: Make no mistake, this book is an easy and enjoyable read; I read the majority of it on a flight from Boston to LA. The first chapter is great but the rest of the book unfortunately fails to live up to the high standard it sets for itself. I think it is easy to overrate this book; the entire underpinning of the book is a bunch of Star Trek-like scientific babble about cryptography and consciousness that has little bearing on reality and serves little purpose other than to provide a deus ex machina to move the characters along the road the author wants them to move down. It is not a fantastic and amazing book, but it is a good book and there are worse ways to spend your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Reality-Bending Oddness
Review: Murakami never fails to astound - I say this having read only two books but its clear from what I understand about his entire body of work that the subject matter of his novels might be considered a little odd (and I think that's an understatement). Hard-Boiled Wonderland is no exception. Unfolding through two separate narratives, Murakami deftly paints the pictures of two contrasting realities and the actions that inevitably tie them together. It recalled Iain Bank's 'The Bridge' and Irvine Welch's 'Mirabou Stork Nightmares' - both novels that dealt with characters inhabiting multiple realities. Murakami pulls off something wonderful and magical here. Not to be missed.
Rating:
Summary: stripes
Review: Murakami is my GOD. Well, not really. ...[This] was the last of Murakami's translated works I read. I'd saved it until last, because the back cover mentioned 'Cyberpunk' and the novel's 'relentlessly inventive' qualities with far too much enthusiasm. I mean, inventiveness is okay. It's just that I usually try to refrain from reading anything 'relentlessly' anything. I don't want to get dizzy. The good news is this: if HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND AND THE END OF THE WORLD is 'relentlessly inventive,' it is so only on a subtextual level. On the surface -- where it counts -- the content of the novel is laid out in as straightforward a fashion as a Chinese historical romance. Ahem. This novel happens to be 'striped.' A 'striped' novel has multiple stories, told in alternating chapters. If this term is unfamiliar to you, it's because I invented it. I invented it, because there was no satisfactory way to describe such a novel before I invented this method. ...Ten chapters in each stripe, twenty chapters in all. The narrator is, in many ways, not like any other Murakami narrators, and, in many other ways.... The ending(s) is (are) the perfect ending(s) for this narrator. Or so I think. I can't say anything else about this book. I just wanted to say something. I plan on ripping off its style in the near future. I'll try to give it a nod in my book, just as Murakami mentions Bob Dylan.
Rating:
Summary: Innovative and Enjoyable
Review: Although Murakami's works usually tilt towards the paranormal, this one had a bit more of a science fiction bent to it than some of his others. The pace was fast and the two connected story lines sped rapidly towards their joint conclusion. The protagonist in the HB Wonderland and again in the End of the World start off not questioning much, rolling with the punches, but end up looking for more, asking questions, and seeking answers and solutions for their issues: in HB Wonderland, the shortage of time; in the End of the World, too much of it. I couldn't help but be a little disappointed with the ending though. I felt that Murakami set the reader up for a climax that just never came. The Wonderland protagonist put his affairs in order and then quietly awaited his mental switch-over. The End of the World version of the protagonist was left with unanswered questions. Why didn't he go with his shadow into the real world (and what happened to his shadow)? Is the reader to assume that the protagonist and the Librarian are going to live in exhile off in the Woods? What happens when he tires of this? What's Murakami trying to say by having his protagonist choose to stay in the sterile, perfect Utopia instead of going out and re-discovering life in the real world? Murakami's questions about the meaning and substance of life, and our priorities in it were fascinating and thought-provoking. But I think this book falls just short of Murakami's later "Dance, Dance, Dance" in probing and commenting on contemporary life. Nevertheless, an enjoyable read.
Rating:
Summary: Heaven is in Your Mind... (not so metaphorically speaking).
Review: This writer is an incredible wordsmith. Simply an exquisite read.It is a rare read. I have read 1000's of books, & this book will be in my top five.I rationed the last 50 pages. I wish I could read it again for the first time & perhaps in my mind's eye I will. There are 2 stories & the narrator is everyman, who defines himself by pop culture.It has a scientist,thugs& a sultry librarian. The man's brain is split as are his worlds. That's just an INKling of the plot. Reviews mention cyber punk, DO NOT let that dissuade you. One review compares it to Kafka, Borges & the Prisoner's TV Village(Village Voice)& IMO that's spot on. It is a mentally senuous experience. Treat yourself & READ IT.... (It merits a sixth (shooting!) star for the DYLAN references.)
Rating:
Summary: intelligent and morally invested
Review: "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" is a dystopian pop-culture-infused cyberpunk fantasy that starts out as two separate narratives that are woven together at the end. The first narrator is a psychological data processor/hacker/storage unit living an uncomplicated life in Tokyo. The second nameless narrator lives in a place called The Town, where everything has allegorical names, and where he is assigned the job of a dreamreader and has to part with his shadow in order to assimilate. Slowly, hazily, he tries to reconstruct his path to his mind, his memory, the world he left behind. Though funny at times, and always suspenseful, for me the book was first and foremost a meditation on alienation and fragmentation of individual in a technological postmodern society. The first narrator with a more conventional lifestyle is completely disaffected, and constructs his existence through the pleasure of films, music and books that date back to the time when emotion was sincere, and not ironic. The second narrator is at a moral crossroad, having to choose between easy, mindless complacency and the hard task of affirming one's identity. These two stories are reflections of each other, and, within the main storyline, much more than that. The ending is quite subversive--it took me a while of thinking about it before I realized that it played with the conventions of the genre of utopia and fantasy.
Rating:
Summary: Camels!?!?
Review: When I was young, we had an imaginary camel in the basement upon which we blamed all that went wrong. I knew this book would appeal by about the second page when, to describe the size of the seemingly not-moving elevator, he says that it would house an office plus three camels: probably no more incongruous an animal could be found in a Japanese book! There were several warped touches of humour like this, although he did tend to get on with story-telling as he progressed. Everyone has mentioned the dual nature of the book - took a little while to dawn on me that the "I" is the same in both: doesn't help that no-one is ever named, even if we do get to see the name of the winner of horse races and all consumer goods are identified with specificity. There was only about one chapter when the Professor got a bit wound up in his explanation of what was going on - I found him to be strangely portrayed as he was a genius yet his language was distractingly informal. At the end of the day, I found this a thought provoking novel, as the main guy was faced with a choice: "life" with its ups and downs in the real world or existence without a mind but without anything bad ever happening in a kind of Utopia. Or was it as cut and dried as that? Find out for yourself - this was a great book, my first by Murakami.
Rating: 
Summary: Kills time, nothing more
Review: A bright initial idea and a few passages of lovely prose in the alternative world plot, but basically random filler to carry out the clever plot design. The characters are cardboard thin, the plot convolutions incomprehensible or arbitrary, the philosophy muddy and doesn't withstand close scrutiny, the whole story seeming purposeless except to carry out the predestined narrative framework. Nothing is at stake emotionally or intellectually; the whole enterprise feels hollow. It's one of those books that seems smart, until you really think about it. An easy way to kill time while reading, but little more.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning--a work of pure enjoyment
Review: First, let me start off and say, I have not read a more enjoyable book in years. Why? It has everything that keeps fiction fresh--mystery, color, self-propelling story, reasonable protaganist and more. The fact that this is a giant mystery story is a tremendous bonus, and keeps you turning page after page. And with each page, you're sure to be entertained. The characters and events are so unique, yet grounded, that they become livid mental images instantly. You may even find yourself relating to the protaganists issues in an allegorical way. So, enough with praise, how far can that go anyway, right? You want to know, is there something wrong with this book? Well, the only problems I had were towards the end. The novel works in an alternating chapter way--there are two stories (sort of..) being told, one is odd, one is even chapters. I became a bit let down by the resolution of the even-chapter story, but this may be more that I was sad the book was coming to an end. Also, I feel that this book may be very male-oriented. There are a few instances of situations that seem...difficult to understand, unless you're a male. Nevertheless, these are but minor flaws on an otherwise wonderful work. In short, if you enjoy Auster, Marquez, Borges, or other writers along these lines, you'll enjoy this book. I'll end off with this line to give you a final idea of it's impression on me: I'm afraid to read another novel right after this, because I feel that it's beauty will be dimmed in comparison to this vivid artwork. Grade: 9.8/10
| 
