1. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Alexandra Cequeria, Hunter Purcell, Cynthia Burton

2. About the Author Born January 12, 1949 in Kyoto, Japan
Grew up in Kobe, Japan
Studied drama at Waseda, Tokyo in 1973
Owned a jazz bar with his wife
Traveled through Europe in the late 1980’s (Greece and Italy)
Lived in the United States for several years
Taught at Princeton University, Tufts University, and Harvard University
Returned to Japan in 1995
Translates books

3. Culture
After WW2, Japan was poor and occupied by Allied Forces until 1952
Everyone was optimistic that things would get better, but they didn’t
Television came about in the 1960’s, which showed mostly American TV shows
Japan was still being westernized after WW2
Counterculture/ Uprisings in
Murakami was influenced by Kurt Vonnegut, Raymond Chandler, Richard Brautigan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Stephen King, Jack Kerouac
The earthquake and sarin gas attack in Japan in 1995 led to Murakami’s return and to two of his nonfiction books

4. Writings Hear the Wind Sing (1979) Pinball, 1973 (1980)
A Wild Sheep Chase (1982)
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985)
Norwegian Wood (1987)
Dance Dance Dance (1988)
South of the Border, West of the Sun (1992)
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994)
Sputnik Sweetheart (1999)
Kafka on the Shore (2002)
After Dark (2004)
1Q94 (2009)
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (2013)

5. Central Themes, Ideas & Symbols
Cats
Music (Specifically classical & Jazz)
Wells/ Holes
Utopia/Dystopia
Magical Realism
Postmodernism
Allusions to Western Culture
Lack of Names, Common Names (Identity)
First Person Narrative

6. About the Book
In the beginning of the novel, the protagonist Toru Okada, receives a call from a mysterious woman. This woman possesses the power of clairvoyance. She warns Toru that the disappearance of his cat, named after his brother-in-law Noboru Wataya, is the beginning of a series of life-changing events. Afterwards, Toru’s wife Kumiko goes missing and is under the control of her brother, who has attained a form of mind control. In order to bring her back, Toru must break the control that his brother-in-law has on his wife. The dream-like narrative of the novel is connected to Toru’s practice of lucid dreaming. Throughout the novel, The narrative also shifts from the present to the war of Japan against Korea in the early twentieth century.

7. Works Cited
Caesar, Judith. "Murakami, The Inklings, And The Uses Of Fantasy." Critique 52.1 (2011): 41. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 2 Apr Fisher, Susan. "An Allegory Of Return: Murakami Haruki's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle". Comparative Literature Studies 37.2 (2000): Web. 2 Apt Gregory, Sinda, Toshifumi Miyawaki, and Larry McCaffery. "It Don't Mean A Thing, If It Ain't Got That Swing: An Interview With Haruki Murakami." Review Of Contemporary Fiction 22.2 (2002): 111. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 2 Apr "Haruki Murakami". Haruki Murakami. N.p., Web. 2 Apr Murakami, Fuminobu. "Murakami Haruki’S Postmodern World." Japan Forum 14.1 (2002): Humanities International Complete. Web. 2 Apr Strecher, Matthew C. "Magical Realism And The Search For Identity In The Fiction Of Murakami Haruki". Journal of Japanese Studies 25.2 (1999): 263. Web. 2 Apr