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a Wild Sheep Chase (3rd book of Trilogy of the Rat)







A Wild Sheep Chase

Author : Haruki Murakami

Published in 1982

Origin : Japan


A Wild Sheep Chase, the final book of the trilogy of the Rat which occasionally the first full novel of Japanese Author, Haruki Murakami. It is also the first book of Murakami's which translated in english and sold outside Japan (the previous two is translated in english but sold limited in Japan).

From the title, a Wild Sheep Chase, like always, Murakami is rarely using a metaphor for its title. A wild sheep chase is literally story about chasing a wild sheep. Yup, hold your breath, stop questioning what it will like.

The story set when the remain-unnamed-protagonist is already married for 4 years long. The story open about the death of one of his acquaintance in college. A girl who sleep with every one. Back from the funeral, the protagonist found his ex-wife sitting inside his apartment. It is a brief scene how his ex-wife saying goodbye and leaving the reader puzzled, craving more stories about how their marriage going or 4 years.

The Protagonist is still working with his same old friend, their translating-service company is getting bigger and they start to expand on advertising. But accidentally, one of the protagonist advertisement is being put down by the publishing company.

Wondering why, the protagonist being invited with a mysterious man and told the reason why the advertisement shall be put down. There is nothing strange about the content, but the photograph itself. The photograph captures sheep in a certain place in Japan.

In fact, the photograph is being given by the Rat to the protagonist few years earlier, before the Rat decide to vanished. The story revert back to the Rat's life and brief letter he sent to the protagonist.

Finally, the mysterious man give a task to the protagonist to chase the strange sheep on the photograph. Decide to sold his ownership to his friend, the protagonist wrapped his bag and went to chase the wild sheep on the photograph, accompanied by his beautiful-earred girlfriend. Later, the protagonist eventually able to solve the mystery of the sheep and lhow it linked to the Rat.

Like always, the detail description, the odd yet out of the box-theme of murakami is still remarkable. He success to create his identity as an author, and keep consistent from the very beginning until now. There is always a cat in the story- much or less, and there is always lonely human as protagonist. How he describe light thinking into deep-full idea, is stunning.

You know I hate illogical story if the genre is not fantasy, but Murakami brilliantly made my brain easier to tolerate the illogical side of his story.

Well, among three books from the trilogy, i think the last one is the best and recommended.





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