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The Amazon Store at MillionDollarPetPix.com ( In association with Amazon.com )Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the Worldfrom: Kodansha International Ltd  EAN: 9784770018939 ISBN: 4770018932 Label: Kodansha International Ltd Manufacturer: Kodansha International Ltd Number Of Pages: 416 Publisher: Kodansha International Ltd Studio: Kodansha International Ltd Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display 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. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Amazing bookI 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 Rating: - another catching Murakami adventureThe 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. Rating: - Another trip down the rabbit holeAs 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 Rating:  - bits missingI 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 Rating:  - A wonderful novel about the mind and the desire for immortalityA wonderful and weird novel about the mind and what the desire for immortality entails (compare with Borges' short story 'The Immortal', you won't be disappointed). Fans of Philip K. Dick and Jonathan Lethem's 'Gun, With Occasional Music' will like this, I know I did. The first 100 pages or so can be hard going, at this point the novel seems to lack direction, but be patient and you will be rewarded. I am now eager to read Murakami's other works. 
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