A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami (6 points)

 While reading "A Wild Sheep Chase" by Haruki Murakami, I had a hard time predicting where the narrative was going. I had no idea that the journey would lead to traveling to rural Japan and literally going on a sheep hunt. 

I found there to be a lot of parallels within the book and the writing was very deliberate in terms of execution. It is still hard for me to take some of the big themes of the novel and try to make sense of them. I think there is a definite split in depictions and definitions of good vs evil in western media as opposed to different cultures. To me, western depictions and expressions are usually very specific and will go to lengths to explain to the audience the motivation or intention of the evil or antagonist. This is not always the case but it seems that other cultures' expressions of good vs evil in media tend to not explicitly define these assumptions as thoroughly. 

We talked a little in class about the idea of Japanese literature oftentimes not being made clear to the audience. Comparing to American culture, where things are usually quite literally spelled out to us to make sure we understand because Americans need to be babied. So there was something quite fresh about ending a book but still having questions. In my opinion, it contributes more to the overall quality of a novel. Many themes of this book were quite mysterious and not explained. For example, the book's odd obsession over ears and the author's seeming interest in them. As just one theme, it serves as an example of the satisfying nature of letting each reader take what they want from the ideas presented in the novel.

This is not a book I would have picked out for myself but I was glad to have read something out of my own comfort zone and walk away feeling like I could say yeah I tried it.