BOOK REVEIW: Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami

Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami is the fourth book in the Rat Chronicles but it is not required for you to read the all the books in the chronicles before this one. This fourth part is more of a sequel to the third one, A Wild Sheep Chase but still has little connection to it.

This book is narrated by a nameless writer who is divorced. The story starts with his adventures and memories of a hotel in the mountains of Sapporo, where his mediocre life is elevated by an incident that builds the course of this novel. His ex-girlfriend, named Kiki in the book, and no second name provided, has mysteriously disappeared. He encounters the Sheep Man, a being from another world that claims everything and everyone in the writer’s life are connected. He meets a friend who is a famous actor and just spends money to show his expenses. Then he come across a thirteen year old girl with whom his friendship grows through out the novel.

Several incidents related to disappearances and death take place that are related to one thing, the nameless writer, as the Sheep Man predicted correctly. There is little or no element of science fiction, other than the sheep man. The narration is typical Murakami style filled with sense of mysteriousness, short chapters and that a peculiar kind of calmness that is found only in his work. The storyline does show some sign of being vibrant, as incidents keep on happening and hopefully the reader won’t feel being dragged or bored. The characterization is has no flaw neither it’s the extraordinary thing in this book. One interesting point to notice is that, Murakami himself makes an appearance in this book.

What I like about this book is that it lightly reminded me that no matter what the circumstances are, life goes on. However, as I said, lightly, the storyline overall does not express any kind of message strongly. After reading it, my first thoughts were that it’s just a series of incidents that are co-related to one another in simple manner.

3 out of 5