Pinball, 1973 by Haruki Murakami

Pinball,1973

Author : Haruki Murakami
First Published in 1980
Origin : Japan

"If you look at things from a distance," I said as I swallowed some lobster, " most anything looks beautiful."

Pinball, 1973 is the second book from the trilogy of the Rat and preceded by Hear The Wind Sing and later followed by A Wild Sheep Chase (1982).

Still in format of Novella, the story started with still, the remain unnamed protagonist and take place 3 years after Hear the Wind Sing conclusions.


The character is almost the same, the protagonist is somehow lonesome, questioning the life meaning. He works as a translator in the company that he built with his friend from university. Somehow he looks unhappy with his life.

By living alone in a apartment, suddenly an identical twin sisters appeared in his apartment and started living in there. The twin never mentioned their name, the protagonist somehow managed to call them by number.

The second story is about our friend, The Rat (which also mentioned in first book). In this book, The Rat is told that he is dropped out from University and still spending his time by hanging out in J's bar, watching the sea.

Whilst The Rat struggling to stay interested in life, having relationship with (yet another) unnamed woman, while mulling over whether or not to leave his town and follow his fate elsewhere, the Protagonist found his amusement of life by playing a pinball machine.

Later, the machine was disappeared and the Protagonist started to hunt it else where. That's why at the beginning of the book, it is told that this is story about a pinball machine.

Like I said on my review at Hear The Wind Sing, the Murakami's character is already there. The protagonist, the lonesome, quirky and having a deep thought of life is always be Murakami favorite character. I could not help thinking that thus must be how Murakami describing his self. The same background of the protagonist and his self strengthen my allegation.

Overall, this book is worth to read but not my favorite one. I guess I will wait until I read the end of trilogy of the rat and start to judge it.

May you like the other Murakami's novel :
Kafka on Shore
1Q84
Norwegian Wood
Hear The Wind Sing


Or any other first person narrated novel :

1. The Perks of being Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky 
2. Less than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
3. The Stranger by Albert Camus 
4. The Outsiders by S.E Hinton
5. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
6. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
7. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
8. The Fault of Our Stars by John Green
9. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
10. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway