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 Bird is very different and in some ways more accessible. That said, having lived in Japan and studied Japanese culture, I understood some of the ways in which this book challenges common Japanese perceptions of its own culture in ways that would not ring as deeply with American readers who are unfamiliar with the intricacies.

For instance, that Mr. Okada's wife is the primary breadwinner and that he is in no rush to do something with his life runs totally counter to the vast majority of Japanese households, even modern ones, but especially ones in the early 1990's. The focus on the actions of the Japanese soldiers during World War II also…