Our group rated it an average of 7, which for our group means "recommend to others". We also read "Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" as a group and really love Murakami's (and his translator's) style. We really enjoyed discussing the connection between all the music and literature that is integral to the book. We wish we'd made a CD of it to listen to during the discussion.

There are many strong female characters, (male author and narrator). Be prepared for discussion of several sexual scenes, suicides, and mental illness.

This was not a pleasure to read. I only finished because it was the current book club selection.

This book was not popular with our book club. Many in the group could not get through the book to finish it. Those that did basically didn't like the book. The consensus seemed to be that something may have gotten lost in the translation and some of it may have been Japanese culture that we had a hard time relating to. Most thought it was very depressing and we didn't like the way it ended.

I didn't particularly care for this story. Our club thought that maybe we lost something in the translation. I didn't understand all the suicides and the alienation of the main male character while understandable somehow didn't connect for me.

This book was a very unique coming of age story for a Western reader. Toru is in his last year of high school when his best friend commits suicide. The effect this suicide has on Toru and Naoko, the girlfriend of the deceased boy, drives the story. Despite the fact that I read a translation, the writing was generally smooth and lyrical.

We really enjoyed this book

Like the song, this book is a beautifully sad, poignant melody, full of insight into life, death, and areas in between. Murakami's writing is so good you can actually hear it. Give him the Nobel Prize already!