A Wild Sheep Chase

A Wild Sheep Chase (羊をめぐる冒険) is a 1982 novel by Haruki Murakami. It’s something of a mystery with elements of magical realism mixed in (the first book I’ve ever bought with 3D glasses taped inside the front cover). It’s told by a lackadaisical, beer-drinking, unambitious narrator whose name we’re never given, perhaps to make him an everyman of sorts, even described as definitively mediocre by another character in the story.

He’s coerced into searching for a particular sheep, one with a star on its side and of a breed no one can identify. An alien sheep, it would seem, or at the very least something extremely foreign. The narrator falls for a girl with striking ears, and the two head off to Hokkaido in search of his friend “the Rat” and this mysterious sheep. Along the way they encounter a cast of eccentrics in a surreal adventure that leaves us with more questions than we started with, which feels typical of what I’ve read of Murakami.

I sometimes wonder whether Murakami has some grand design behind his stories or if he’s simply letting his imagination run riot and inviting us to follow along. Either way, it works. There are also themes you can latch onto here, such as war and its lingering influence in Japan, urban versus rural life, and ambition versus apathy. It’s funny at times too, especially in the first half, while the final chapters become more surreal as the narrative slows considerably.

I liked this one for its laid-back storytelling and absurd elements. The narrator is a bit like a Japanese Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski; both he and the reader are left guessing about the meaning of it all as the story unfolds.