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Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
 
 
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Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (Paperback)

by Haruki Murakami (Author) "THE elevator continued its impossible slow ascent ..." (more)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Murakami's lightning prose more than sustains the elaborate plot of this thriller, set in a Tokyo of the near future.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal

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.
- D.E. Perushek, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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THE elevator continued its impossible slow ascent. Read the first page
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Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
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Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World 4.3 out of 5 stars (78)
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Customer Reviews

78 Reviews
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4.3 out of 5 stars (78 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5.0 out of 5 stars Unicorns at the end of the world, Mar 11 2008
By E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Imagine if Raymond Chandler had collaborated with David Lynch, maybe with Philip K. Dick throwing in a few cents every now and then.

That gives you some idea of what Haruki Murakami's "Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" is like. Split into two different, barely-intertwined narratives, Murakami's quirkily bittersweet novel is a bizarre sci-fi mystery and an exploration of the human mind's limits... right to the world's end. It's a brilliant, bittersweetly intricate novel, and one of Murakami's best.

The protagonist is just doing his job -- he's a "shuffler," with a chip in his brain -- when he visits an eccentric scientist and his precocious granddaughter. But then he gets sent an animal skull, which appears to be a unicorn's. And even weirder, corporate agents are invading his home and tearing it apart.

At the same time -- in alternating chapters -- we are told the story of a man who arrives at a walled city surrounded by unicorns, at the End of the World. He becomes the Dreamreader at the library, finding memories hidden in skulls. But he soon discovers that this city is a prison of sorts -- and that after surrendering his shadow, he faces losing his soul.

Meanwhile, the original narrator -- who may also be the second -- is called in by the granddaughter when her grandfather disappears. Turns out the whole world may be about to end. The two brave an underground cavern riddled with voracious, monstrous INKlings, only for the narrator to discover that the greatest danger is in his own mind -- and it offer a terrifying, glorious possibility to him.

Not many serious authors could write about computer chips, unicorns, sci-fi corporations, the intricacies of brain "circuitry," and sewers full of nasty Japanese hobgoblins who like rotting meat. All in the same book, and without making you shake your head and groan "Aw, come on!".

But amazingly, that is not what makes "Hard Boiled Wonderland And The End of the World" a work of genius. Rather it's that "Hard Boiled Wonderland" and "The End of the World" are two separate books -- one is written in angular, wry prose in a grimy urban landscape, with moments of horror woven in. And one is written in flowing, soft, almost dreamlike prose in a pale, almost idyllic world that may or may not be real.

In both stories, Murakami weaves intricate, detailed webs of words, evoking subterranean chases from flesh-eating kappas and mildly comic encounters with thugs, as well as the poignant emptiness of the End of the World city. And he explores the whole concept of the mind being infinite, and that time does not exist in our dreams.

As both plots wind on, Murakami intricately twines them together. Hints, phrases, a shared lover, and the whole question of unicorns -- these tie together the two alternating plots, first in tiny ways. As the final quarter of the book unfolds, Murakami paints a complex vision of just what is going on for our unlikely heroes -- and reveals just where the End of the World is.

And it's even harder to tell at first if there is are two narrators, or if one of them is dreamed, in another time, or on another planet. The Shuffler and Dreamreader seem like very different men, but similarities start to pop up between them -- such as their dual attractions to pretty young librarians -- but Murakami successfully keeps you guessing until he reveals what the Shuffler and Dreamreader truly are.

"Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" is a masterpiece of modern fiction -- a sci-fi mystery that looks to the horizon of the human mind, written as two intertwined stories. Definitely outstanding.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Urban Cyber Punk World Fiction, Dec 24 2007
This is a novel that is worth reading. It is an analysis of the mind, and mental processes that we engage in as humans. The fragmentation of the consciousness is what is being examined and I'd recommend this book to anyone who has any interest in psychology. But this book is not simply a medical commentary wrapped up in fiction. It's also a fantasy urban waste-land in which a young computer programmer is thrown into a world where information is the most important thing a person can own, and the information that he has trapped in his mind, which he himself is unaware of takes him into alternate reality worlds where unicorns are herded through the streets and dreams are read from skulls. Worth checking out. My only advice for readers: "Be patient." It takes some time before things are explained, just after the half-way point of the novel. The point is that if you are patient, you will be rewarded with some very innovative thinking and writing, cheers.
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5.0 out of 5 stars the real murakami?, Mar 24 2004
although most people would prefer norwegian wood (which remains one of murakami's top seller), this is, i think, closer to murakami's true style. an exploration of self, a search for a potentially nihilistic life within the mind and an in depth look into reality. a good follow-up of this book is his latest (not yet translated, I believe) Seaside Kafka - that uses the same motif - a split story - about the search of oneself.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Last Time I Buy a Book Based on Other People's Opinions...
Okay, I listened to all the hype and bought the book. And I'm not even half-way through but feel compelled to write a review. The book is a severe disappointment. Read more
Published on May 29 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars A mind bending twist
This book, is and of itself, a mind bending twist. Esentially two stories that are intertwined (and I won't spoil how.) His characters are well crafted and deep. Read more
Published on Mar 21 2004 by Jim Richards

4.0 out of 5 stars A Little Too Much
I love Murakami's works, especially Norwegian Wood, but this one is longer than the others and a little too much Science Fiction for me. Read more
Published on Feb 16 2004 by John I. Provan

5.0 out of 5 stars A hard rain's a-gonna fall
This has been the first Murakami novel I have ever read, and I must say it is by far the best novel I have read in a long time ! Read more
Published on Feb 9 2004 by Van Der Zee

4.0 out of 5 stars End of the World
This is 'Alice in Wonderland' colliding with a strangely symbolic sci-fi universe. I see the shadowy landscapes and the brilliantly colored streets of imagination. Read more
Published on Feb 2 2004 by Michael Mott

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard-boiled and utterly smashing!
Amazing, awesome, brilliant...no word of praise is too hyperbolic for this bizarre sci-fi fantasy work. Read more
Published on Jan 26 2004 by Sursubbu

4.0 out of 5 stars great read
In my opinion this novel serves as a bridge between genre-fiction (sci-fi/cyberpunk in this case) and more serious literature. Read more
Published on Jan 17 2004 by Simone Oltolina

4.0 out of 5 stars Murakami at his best
This novel has been classified light sci-fi for advance science themes and creepy underground creatures, by the Buddman921 book association. Read more
Published on Nov 24 2003 by William Black

3.0 out of 5 stars Jeni's REVIEW
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is a book that definitely takes getting used to. It is the first work I have read by Murakami, and I honestly was not looking... Read more
Published on Sep 3 2003 by Jeni Mckenna

4.0 out of 5 stars Humans Are Immortal in their Thought
Haruki Murakami creates two equally wild worlds in which the antihero simultaneously exists. The character has one foot in his waking life, which anticipates The End of the World,... Read more
Published on Aug 29 2003 by sasha p

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