TrustedPlaces     refinance your mortgage
Reader² -> books -> Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel (Vintage International)

book

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel (Vintage International)

"The last surviving victim of an experiment that implanted the subjects' heads with electrodes that decipher coded messages is the unnamed narrator of this excellent book by Murakami, one of Japan's best-selling novelists and winner of the prestigious Tanizaki prize. Half the chapters are set in Tokyo, where the narrator negotiates underground worlds populated by INKlings, dodges opponents of both sides of a raging high-tech infowar, and engages in an affair with a beautiful librarian with a gargantuan appetite. In alternating chapters he tries to reunite with his mind and his shadow, from which he has been severed by the grim, dark "replacement" consciousness implanted in him by a dotty neurophysiologist. Both worlds share the unearthly theme of unicorn skulls that moan and glow. Murakami's fast-paced style, full of hip internationalism, slangy allegory, and intrigue, has been adroitly translated. Murakami is also author of A Wild Sheep Chase ( LJ 10/15/89); his new work is recommended for academic libraries and public libraries emphasizing serious contemporary fiction."

One of the best surrealist novels of our time.


what book to read next



comments


  by carouselambra


  • Current


Type:


Status:


Author:


Description: "The last surviving victim of an experiment that implanted the subjects' heads with...


2008-05-07

  by gretchers


  • Current


Type:


Status:


Author:


Description: "The last surviving victim of an experiment that implanted the subjects' heads with...


2007-09-11

  by babyduo


  • Current


Type:


Status:


Author:


Description: Two stories braided together. One reads like a Kafka fable and the other like Vonnegut's...


2007-06-25


  by mark


  • Current


Type:


Status:


Author:


Description: This may be Murakami's masterwork. And that's saying a lot, given the body of work...


2006-12-22


  by feanoro


  • Current


Type:


Status:


Author:


Description: "The last surviving victim of an experiment that implanted the subjects' heads with...


2006-08-15


  by chaserude


  • Current


Type:


Status:


Author:


Tags:


Description: Two stories braided together. One reads like a Kafka fable and the other like Vonnegut's...


2006-06-15

  by phthallo


  • Current


Type:


Status:


Author:


Description: "The last surviving victim of an experiment that implanted the subjects' heads with...


2006-06-07

  by younglove


  • Current


Type:


Status:


Author:


Description: "The last surviving victim of an experiment that implanted the subjects' heads with...


2006-05-25


  by cweedall


  • Current


Type:


Status:


Author:


Description: "The last surviving victim of an experiment that implanted the subjects' heads with...


2006-05-25