Week Three - A Wild Sheep Chase

Haruki Murakami’s A Wild Sheep Chase was quite an interesting read to experience. I was only able to make it halfway through the novel, but there was something about the main character’s attitude that drew me in. A lot of depressing events have happened in this story, such as the death of this girl he got together with and the divorce of his wife, but he really never showed strong feelings towards anything. He just kind of…let it happen, and I found that pretty cool about his attitude! Once he started talking with the man about the sheep with the star birthmark and the strange tumor in the boss’s head, the story started to pick up a little, since at this point, some strange things begin to be addressed.

The girl with the magical ears was also interesting to think about. The main character never explained why they were so compelling to him, but he always stated that there was something about them that was drawing him in. He never seemed surprised or terrified about her ears though, he appeared to be more curious or interested about them and I thought that was kind of cute.

The thing that stood out to me the most though, was how nobody in this story had a name. Typically stories do this so the reader had some kind of way to relate or insert themselves within the story, but I don’t think this is the case in A Wild Sheep Chase. I feel like the sense of anonymity gave the novel more sense of mystery and actually struck my curiosity more than anything else. In terms of genre, this story felt less horror and more surreal, but I guess to some, a ghostly sheep that implants brain tumors in a man could be terrifying.