wind up bird chronicle thoughts (spoilers, as one would imagine)

i finally finished wind up bird after reading it on and off for like a year. i picked it up because i have been comfortable with murakamis writing style. i dont like his books at first, they slow burn and it my attention drops. but then after once i get like 1/3-1/2 through the book, it really grasps my attention and i get really into the book.

who are the characters?

Okada goes to find the cat. Kumiko often reminices how the cat is a symbol of the good things that grew between Okada and her. the good memories, and escape from a controlling person, being able to be your own person. when the cat disappeared, kumiko disappeared. maybe the cat was a sense of free will. by the cat disappearing, kumikos sense of control over her life left, and she fell into the control of noboru wataya again. the cat is also called noboru wataya at first. they live with cat-noboru wataya as a metaphor for showing the escape from real noboru wataya.

murakami likes exploring the dream world. a world that feels very real, that looks very real, but is ultimately a different world from the real world. When the cat returns, Okada still isnt able to contact kumiko (i cant recall if shortly after he is able to talk to her on the computer). there is the real world that okada, may kasahara, and everyone else lives in. and there is the dream world that noboru wataya, the darkness, the mysterious woman, even for a point kumiko, lives in. malta and creta kano are somthing of a spiritual link between these worlds. okada goes to sleep, and in his dreams hes able to speak with creta kano in the dream hotel. at first, we meet many of the characters in the real world. kumiko is getting ready for work, creta and malta are in the cafe, may karahara is in the alley way. but eventually we can only meet them through an abstract kind of world. okada talks to kumiko through the computer and through the dream world, may kasahara exists in letters that are only ever read by the reader (and not okada) and dreams, creta kano also appears only through dreams.

there is also a theme of providing services. creta and malta provide a service of looking for things that are lost. creata shows okada to the dream hotel. she acts as a vessel. she comments on how shes empty. cinnamon and nutmeg -- nutmeg also provides a service for high powered women (maybe men? i cant remeber) who cant express their feelings. they enter a room, they provide a service, and then they depart. they enter one world that is seprate from the real world. may kasahara visits the wig making factory, a world that is suspended between one world and the next. may kasahara feels guilt because she believes she crashed the motorbike that killed a young man. kumiko ends up resigning herself to kill real noboru wataya in order to gain control back over her life. kumikos sister commits suicide because noboru wataya stole her will to live.

theres the war side. honda and mamiya. honda tells war stores, but dies from old age. mamiya, hondas friend, takes over and tells his war stories. mamiya was left to die in a well. Okada goes down into the well. both of them think, they revel in the darkness of the well, a world sepearte from the world above. mamiya encounters an evil russian man in the prision camp. mamiya is an assistant to him. mamiya attempts to kill him, but is unable to. he want able to shoot boris, he couldn't shoot straight.

in the well, okada thinks about kumiko. when he enters the dream hotel, for the first time, he leaves with a blue mark on his cheek. bruise like. like Nutmegs grandfather. separated through time. there was also a weird story about a young boy watching two men climing down from a tree, digging a hole, and burying something in the hole. there is a man ushikawa. noboru wataya is handsome and clever, but okada believes there is something evil and wretched inside him. ushikawa is ugly and disguting on the outside, and serves messages from noboru to okada.

okada visits the hotel room for a final time. a woman is there who morphs between different personalities. firth a young youthful girl (may kasahara?), second a mature elegant woman (nutmeg?), third something completely different, eventaully kumiko is revealed. are the women separate? is there a mystery woman staying with kumiko. kumiko reveals to sleeping with many other men during her time away. creta kano was "defiled" by noboru wataya. creta feels empty, and sleeps with many men. a shadow figure enters the hotel room. okada beats the man with the baseball bat. okada gets cut with a flash, the flash of a silver tray, the flash of a knife, the bright white flash of the moon light. hes cut on the cheek. when he returns to the real world, his blue spot disappears.

her eyelids sparkled like amber sunset water.  sharp sparkles. pockets of light entering your eyes, disappearing, reappaering, shifting. a lock of air. a pocket of hair.