Mortality in Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore

I feel almost guilty taking a break from Compendium during NaNoWriMo to write this blog post about Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but I just finished it yesterday, and I want to get my thoughts out there while the book is still fresh in my mind. I have also read Kafka on the Shore by the same author, and I think the symbolism of Wind-Up B…