I know little about Haruki Murakami’s work, though his best-selling novels have been translated into 50 languages over many decades. I saw an exhibit this morning at Tufts University’s Tisch Library on his 1994-95 novel, “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,” which some consider his masterpiece.
The exhibit was on doctoral work by Tufts’ MFA student John Lehman entitled “In the Well of the Wind-Up Bird: Uncovering the Reader's Vision in Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.” Lehman analyzed all 607 pages to help translate the novel’s mystical, surreal, and even chaotic narrative into visual imagery. I’m not sure this attracts me to or repels me from the work, but it sure is interesting.
As always, the more we learn the more we realize how little we know. Learning is humbling, as it should be.
