Wild Sheep Chase - Week 3 J-Horror

        Haruki Murakami the author of “A Wild Sheep Chase” is a very well known horror author in Japan similar to Stephen King in America. Making his novels a must read for Japanese literary horror. He is also known for his magic realism themed writing where he arguably moved the genre to popularity. Magic realism is defined as a realistic view of the real world while slowly revealing magical elements similar to surrealism. This is a clearly shown through his book “A Wild Sheep Chase” where we start out just trying to understand a young mans life to magical demon sheep and sexy ears (yes the ears are magical too). The surrealism aspects only really kick in near the end of the book making it a bit of a dry read. Being dry it wasn’t a horrible book however I would care to read it ever again, simply not my taste. The main reason for that is the fact that the main character is not only un-relatable but also boring himself. He talks in a very indifferent tone when it comes to pretty much everything other then his new girlfriends ears. He even talks poorly of almost every women he has encountered in his life(other then sexy ear girl) even at one of the girls funeral, not caring to even remember her name. His uncaring demeanor even extends to the novels overall plot and problem of finding the sheep or losing his job. There is no true sense of danger for he doesn’t care of the consequences of not finding the sheep. So it leaves a very pointless taste in your mouth as you read, always  making me think to myself; “If he doesn’t care why should I even care to finish this book?”. Of course I did finish the book mostly in the want to stay true to my new years revolution on actually finishing books I start to read. Anyway to go back on the topic of the novel, “A Wild Sheep Chase” to some is a deep mind blowing novel that’s the best mix of realism and horror that’s engaging, leaving a state of disbelief keeping you at the edge of your sit. A review that I sadly cannot relate too.