Spoil this crazy long book for me.

September 30, 2007 9:02 PM

Where can I read the entire plot of Murakami's Wind up Bird Chronicle ?

WARNING: A few spoilers from the book below.

Don't hate me, but I tried reading the Wind Up Bird chronicle and just couldn't get into it. I gave the thing about three hundred pages, but eventually gave up. I would like to know what happens to the narrator's wife, whatever happened to that little girl who gave him the "Wind Up Bird" nickname, and basically anything else that happens after the narrator and his wife start emailing each other.

Is there somewhere I can find the entire plot online?

posted by sweetkid to writing & language (6 comments total)

The Wikipedia entry should give you a good synopsis.
posted by amyms at 9:11 PM on September 30, 2007

I tried it, amyms--no dice.
posted by sweetkid at 9:12 PM on September 30, 2007

Sorry that didn't help. I guess there's not a Cliff's Notes version of it (I searched) lol.
posted by amyms at 9:23 PM on September 30, 2007

He finds out that his wife's brother sexually abused both his wife and her sister when they were children, leading to the sister's suicide. In a dream-state, he murders the brother, which leads to the brother having a stroke and entering a coma in real life. His wife pulls the plug on her brother (who's in a coma), and she's charged with and convicted of his homicide. She gets a light sentence, though, and their reunion is imminent by the end of the book. May is working at a toupee factory in the country; this is a job she truly enjoys. She has found a family of ducks that she relates to profoundly.

I may be misremembering some of this; my copy is loaned out.
posted by mr_roboto at 9:40 PM on September 30, 2007

I literally finished this book 2 days ago. mr_roboto seems to have the main gist of it. There's 16 chapters after the emailing one (22). Scanning the descriptions at the start of each chapter:

---MANY SPOILERS BELOW---

23: Japan's pre-WWII industrial/resource strategy
24: Nutmeg visiting Toru saying too much publicity = no more clients
25: Toru gets access to Wind-Up Bird Chronicle #8
26: Nutmeg's father (the veterinarian) watches the Japanese who killed the animals execute deserting Chinese disguised in baseball uniforms - there's a bat
27: Toru thinking on Cinnamon's chronicles
28: May writes Toru a letter about the Miyawakis (previous owners of the deserted house)
29: Toru can't get in contact with Cinnaom & Nutmeg, hangs at his house
30: Toru dreams - the cat's tail isn't as bent as it used to be, Creta is pregnant with Corsica; Toru gets a letter from Lieutenant Mamiya - his internment in Siberia, and how he meets Boris the Manskinner (Russian intelligence officer in Mongolia) also interned there
31: Toru goes down in the well, bat missing. Toru gets through the wall to the dream hotel - empty room. Follows waiter
32: Mamiya letter con't: Boris' rise to become boss of the priosn, Mamiya becoming his secretary to try and kill Boris, misses from point blank range
33: Toru had followed waiter to lobby of the dream hotel, sees broadcast that Noboru Wataya was attacked and seriously injured by a man with a bat fitting Toru's description. Friends of Norboru in the lobby chase Toru, who flees to room 208 with the help of the faceless man
34: Woman is back in room 208. Toru talks with her. It is Kumiko. Find out Noboru had controlled Kumiko's sister who committed suicide. Kumiko's pregnancy had awakened her ?power? until it grew that Noboru wants to control her. She give him his bat, knocking at door
35: Dream Noboru arrives with knife, Toru fights him with his bat, Toru wins. Toru wakes up paralyzed in the well. The water is back in the well and rising so that he might drown
36: May writes Toru a letter about ducks
37: Toru regains consciousness, Cinnamon had saved him. Apparently in real life Noboru had a stroke at a convention so Toru isn't an assault suspect
38: Kumiko's letter - she explains more what happened. She's going to unplug Noboru's life support and accept whatever the consequences
39: Toru visits May in the winter, ducks gone, he didn't receive any of her letters. Kumiko is pleading guilty, suspended or light sentence expected. Toru will wait for Kumiko. If they have a kid he'll name it Corsica. Toru leaves.

(I'm bored and procrastinating)
posted by curbstop at 12:30 AM on October 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

It's also convenient to remember that it was originally published in multiple parts and later put together as one book. That tends to not explain, but at least give some rationalization, as to why the two incidental characters from the beginning of the book are replaced by two completely different incidental characters at the end.
posted by mikeh at 6:52 AM on October 1, 2007