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The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

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The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

By: Haruki Murakami
Narrated by: Rupert Degas
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Toru Okada's cat has disappeared, and this has unsettled his wife, who is herself growing more distant every day. Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has started receiving. As this compelling story unfolds, the tidy suburban realities of Okada's vague and blameless life, spent cooking, reading, listening to jazz and opera and drinking beer at the kitchen table, are turned inside out and he embarks on a bizarre journey, guided (however obscurely) by a succession of characters, each with a tale to tell.

©1994 Haruki Murakami (P)2020 Penguin Audio Fiction Genre Fiction Magical Realism Fantasy Mind-bending

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All stars
Most relevant  
If you can read the book just read it yourself. You won’t be able to concentrate by the noises of this audiobook.

The voices of different characters put me off

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Great narration of book. Engaging and interesting novel. Like nothing I’ve ever read before. Highly recommended!

Brilliant!

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I was a bit annoyed by the voice of Mae Kasahara, but I think that was also the point of the character. If the story wasn’t this long, I would listen to it again to comprehend it better. Now it will probably take me a few years to start again. Would recommend!

Good but lengthy

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This is an over-long work and whilst it might cohere and carry cultural significance for a Japanese reader ir a reader or a student, it left me utterly confused as to what the author may have been trying to put across, and I doubt whether the problem could have been the translation which read perfectly well.

As for the reader: editors need to be aware that drastic changes of tone and volume, however in character, are unsuitable for those people living in close proximity to others: May,s shrieking and news commentator - not to mention the hideous Urakawa needed to be handled more sensitively by the recording engineer!

Had its moments

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Every female character is made to sound petulant and annoying. The story is fantastic and well paced, but the narration spoils the otherwise excellent dialogue.

Ruined by poor narration

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Some have mentioned they had an issue with the narration but I thought it was a wonderful performance. Murakami books are always so deliciously dreamlike and this is no different. I highly recommend it.

Intriguing

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This is the the third Murikami that I've listened to. I had high expectations as loved the previous ones. This one disappointed a little. I found the story too meandering places but there was enough of a strong plot to sustain my interest.

The principle narration is good - what really brings it down is when he voices other characters in the book. The irritating female voices destroyed (and some of the male) the experience for me. Indeed on some of them they were so grating that I would have to fast forward some of the longer sections of narration as it was too painful to listen to.

Good story, narration irritating in places

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Other reviewers have complained about the female voices adopted by the reader, and at the outset I agreed - especially in respect of the voice given to May Kasahara. I continued to listen even so, and as the reading proceeded I came to think that Rupert Degas had done a superb job of characterising each and every character that features in this marvellous, moving, often surreal, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, utterly engaging novel. I should say that Degas gave careful consideration to each of the voices so that, for example, irritating as May Kasahara's voice may be, it's entirely suitable to this fabulously wayward teenage girl. Ditto for the lazy drawl allotted to Nutmeg Akasaka, the rich, middle-aged, superbly dressed woman who helps Toru Okada acquire the hanging house.
I first read the book a good 20 years ago, soon after the English translation appeared. I had read several Murakami novels by that time, and I thought that The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle was definitely the best. Indeed it remains unsurpassed by any of his later novels, fascinating though they are. There's no doubt that this is a great addition to the Audible library.

brilliant novel - superb reading by Robert Degas

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Narrator ruined the book because his character voices were extremely annoying. On top of this it’s probably one of murakamis more challenging reads given that it’s very “Japanese” in its style which I do like but that combined with the ridiculous voices he’s given the women and the lawyer made this audio book excruciating to get through.

Narrator makes the characters hateable

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I know people have different tastes. It makes the world interesting. So I would understand someone saying they don’t like an interpretation. It often happens that we read a book and the voices are branded into our consciousness and other people’s interpretations sound wrong. I get that. But I cannot understand those who berate this performer for what is clearly a brilliant (in every sense of the word) narration. The range is staggering. The characterisation is stunning: male, female, old and young alike.

As for the novel, it is Murakami’s wild imagination on day release. Bizarre and wonderful and weird and thrilling.

And it is very well read, honestly. I’m not lying.

Great reading - truly.

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