Review: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Title: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Author: Haruki Murakami
Nationality: Japanese
Year: 1985
Publisher: Vintage, translated by Alfred Birnbaum
Rating: 9/10
Summary: Wonderful Wonderland, but not for readers who prefer their fiction realist and close-ended

The outline

An open-ended, surrealist narrative in typical Murakami style. The odd-numbered chapters, set in the near future, follow a ‘Calcutec’, a man who encrypts confidential data in his brain, as he goes on the run from a criminal organisation which wants to steal his thoughts. The even-numbered chapters focus on a man devoid of all memories who arrives in an inescapable fairytale city, where unicorns roam outside the walls and shadows are forcibly removed from inhabitants. As the story progresses it becomes clear that these two narratives are not as disparate as they first appear.

Sample

As dusk falls over the Town, I climb the Watchtower on the western Wall to see the Gatekeeper blow the horn for the herding of the beasts. One long note, then three short notes - such is the prescribed call. Whenever I hear the horn, I close my eyes and let the gentle tones spread through me. They are like none other. Navigating the darkling streets like a pale transparent fish, down cobbled arcades, past the enclosures of houses and stone walls lining the walkways along the river, the call goes out. Everything is immersed in the call. It cuts through invisible airborne sediments of time, quietly penetrating the furthest reaches of the Town.

The verdict

This beautiful and enigmatic novel is pure Murakami - a work of poignant magic realism where the characters have no names and the mundane sits side-by-side with the supernatural. The story weaves together two alternating narratives - one fast-paced Tokyo cyberpunk, the other a poetic and haunting fairytale - which are at first connected only by motifs of unicorn skulls and elegant librarians but gradually become more and more closely entwined as they move towards a superb and powerful ending.

This is a must for fans of Murakami and anyone else who appreciates unconventional storytelling.