A Wild Sheep Chase (1982) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

• Narrator: The unnamed narrator. Coping up with his PR/advertising business and recent divorce, our narrator was a 'mediocre' life in Tokyo. Until his whole life gets thrust into a surreal adventure to find The Sheep.
• The Rat: Friend of the narrator who has left town long back.
• The Sheep Professor: The father of the proprietor of The Dolphin Hotel
• The Boss: Shadowy right-wing figure, who has amassed a great power base by controlling media, advertising, and the political realm.
• Haruki Murakami: The author of this book

Quotes edit see section history

• “Two o'clock, six o'clock, ten o'clock, I kept trying her number, but got no answer. Apparently she was going about her own life.”

  Narration (pg 29)

• “Time really is one big continuous cloth, no? We habitually cut out pieces of time to fit us, so we ten to fool ourselves into thinking that time is our size, but it really goes on and on.”

  Unnamed Narrator

• “I'm well on the way to veteran class when it comes to killing time in the city.”

  Unnamed Narrator

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• Time really is one big continuous cloth, no? We habitually cut out pieces of time to fit us, so we tend to fool ourselves into thinking that time is our size, but it really goes on and on.

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• Whether you take a doughnut hole as blank space or as an entity unto itself is a purely metaphysical question and does not affect the taste of the doughnut one bit.

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• We can, if we so choose, wander aimlessly over the continent of the arbitrary. Rootless as some winged seed blown about on a serendipitous spring breeze.

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• To wit, existence is communication, and communication, existence.”

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• There are symbolic dreams—dreams that symbolize some reality. Then there are symbolic realities—realities that symbolize a dream.

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• “Body cells replace themselves every month. Even at this very moment,” she said, thrusting a skinny back of her hand before my eyes. “Most everything you think you know about me is nothing more than memories.”

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• One of these days they’ll be making a film where the whole human race gets wiped out in a nuclear war, but everything works out in the end.

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• Age certainly hasn’t conferred any smarts on me. Character maybe, but mediocrity is a constant, as one Russian writer put it. Russians have a way with aphorisms. They probably spend all winter thinking them up.

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• There’re many things we don’t really know. It’s an illusion that we know anything at all. If a group of aliens were to stop me and ask, “Say, bud, how many miles an hour does the earth spin at the equator?” I’d be in a fix. Hell, I don’t even know why Wednesday follows Tuesday. I’d be an intergalactic joke.

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• “Speaking frankly and speaking the truth are two different things entirely. Honesty is to truth as prow is to stern. Honesty appears first and truth appears last. The interval between varies in direct proportion to the size of ship. With anything of size, truth takes a long time in coming. Sometimes it only manifests itself posthumously. Therefore, should I impart you with no truth at this juncture, that is through no fault of mine. Nor yours.”

  Highlighted by 24 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Hokkaido
• Japan
• Tokyo
• Sapporo
• Ainu
• Dolphin Hotel
• Rat
• Shinjuku Station

First Sentence edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by Pinball, 1973.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Haruki Murakami (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Alfred Birnbaum (Translator)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Noma Literary Newcomer's Prize

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 895.635

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › Japanese
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary

Books That Cite This Book edit see section history