I must admit that it’s taken me a bit longer than usual to work through this particualr Murakami book. Without checking, I’m not quite sure where in the oeuvre this fits, but it truly is a wild “sheep” chase. It involves a typical Murakami protaganist, a small-time publisher, who’s dragged into a neverworld built around a mythical sheep. I know it sounds unlikely, but it works. I noted that there was a second appearance of a Dolphin Hotel as well.
Reading the reviews at Amazon, it seems that this is one of his earlier works.
And while I’m talking about Murakami, you simply can’t move for his books at the moment – he’s being promoted like he’s a Messaih or something. Even my local Virgin Megastore, which carries barely any books, has a selection near the cash desk. I am surprised, since I don’t see them as being that populist a series. Leave those people to their new Harry Potter books (I happened to be in Kings Cross station around midnight on Friday as the new book went on sale. There were several hundred people queuing outside the WH Smiths there, with celebrities Dermot Murnaghen and Linda Robson is attendance. I’m not sure I’d ever turn out for an event like that unless I was specifically after a book being signed).