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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780099448785
ISBN: 0099448785
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Date: September 28, 2001
Publisher: Vintage
Studio: Vintage

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
This is a narrative particle accelerator that zooms between Wild Turkey Whiskey and Bob Dylan, unicorn skulls and voracious librarians, John Coltrane and Lord Jim. Science fiction, detective story and post modern manifesto all rolled into one rip-roaring novel, "Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" is the tour de force that expanced Haruki Murakami's international following, tracking one man's descent into the kafkaesque underworld farce, compassion and detachment, slang and philosophy. The result is a wildly inventive fantasy and a meditation on the many uses of the mind.




Rating: - Thought provoking
I have read this book both in English and Japanese. Although there's some intentional change, the translation is superb. The essence is never lost in translation.
This particular book is a bit different from his other books and I personally believe this is the best. It's more philosophical than your usual cyberpunk and it makes you think about your own life.

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Rating: - Amazing book
I picked this book up at random at a book store. Something about the cover just caught my attention, and it seemed oddly familiar.

Over a year later, I finally picked it off my shelf and started reading. Initially, it read like a gritty detective novel. Then, I noticed hints of what felt like an early 80's Cyberpunk novel (which may be a result of it's original 1985 release).

This book is typical Murakami: a main character who thinks himself fairly ordinary, in whom ... Read More

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Rating: - another catching Murakami adventure
The story might seem a bit crazy first (a guy neurologically trained to shuffle experimental data, a professor who does research on sound-removal, and his lonely grown-up grandchild), but Murakami knows how to make it sound realistic and breadth-taking. On the other side the story tells about some of the problems of every-day people, not in a soap-opera style, but between the lines of saving the world.

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Rating: - Another trip down the rabbit hole
As the fifth Murakami that I have read, this is my favorite. All of Murakami's works share elements such as having a 30something seemingly nondescript protagonist, an underage secondary love interest (the "girl in pink" in this case), frequent references to total darkness and subterranean existence, transfer to and from an alternate world, fast food, and nighttime Tokyo. "Hard Boiled Wonderland..." is a dystopic tale of an alternative near-future, reminiscent of some of Margaret Atwood's best or ... Read More

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Rating: - bits missing
I am about to finish reading the Japanese text, using the English translation as a help. The novel is OK, but what I noticed is that entire bits of it are missing in the translation. Not just sentences here and there - sometimes entire scenes. That happens over and over again. Sometimes boring bits are cut, sometimes obscure ones, but also funny ones. Not sure why. Maybe a page limit was imposed on the translator (the English edition I have does have exactly 400 pages). Other than that, it is a good ... Read More

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