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For people who have read The Wind up Bird Chronicle (spoiler)

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  • 12-12-2009 2:26am
    #1
    speedy2007
    Registered Users Posts: 170 ✭✭


    i read this book and really enjoyed it. But there's one part of it that is really bugging me. Maybe i just didnt get it, but it seems so pointless to throw it in there.

    Its the part (i think there were a couple of chapters devoted to this side-story or whatever it was) about the boy who is woken up by a wind-up bird outside his window. Then one night he sees two men and one climbs up into the tree. The other buries something which the boy later digs up and finds it's a heart which is still beating. Then when he gets up the next morning he feels like he's different, that something has changed but only he can notice this change.

    Can someone explain the significance or the meaning of this? I thought by the end of the book it would become clearer but it didnt:confused:


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    #2
    mackthefinger
    Registered Users Posts: 116 ✭✭mackthefinger


    I've lent the book to a friend, I'll have a look when I get it back, see if
    I can make any sense of it.

    Though I would say its typical of Murukami, he has a habit
    of leaving storythreads hanging, bizzare happenings remain
    unexplained. There's a lot of red herrings in there. If he's
    comparable to anyone, it's probably the Director David Lynch.
    The interpretation is left to the reader.


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    #3
    Malari
    Registered Users Posts: 18,150 ✭✭✭✭Malari


    I have that book at home too, I must have a look at it. I'd say it's at least 7 or 8 years since I read it, so I don't remember that detail of the plot.

    I was really into his books a while ago, but that open-ended interpretation stuff sounds like it would annoy me now. :o


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    #4
    speedy2007
    Registered Users Posts: 170 ✭✭speedy2007


    thanks, yeah the rest of the open-ended stuff didnt bother me cos i was able to put my own interpretation to it, but this part just seemed so random.
    Be interested to here what you guys have to say if you get a chance to have a look thru it again. Athough its a big enough book, so mightnt be too easy to find the part im talking about :)


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    #5
    mrsdewinter
    Registered Users Posts: 2,142 ✭✭✭mrsdewinter


    Well, the kid is Cinnamon (or Nutmeg), isn't he? As in the son of the mysterious businesswoman Nutmeg (or Cinnamon) who recruits the hero for her strange healing centre? Isn't that when he stops speaking?
    To be honest, there were so many storylines which are never explained, and this wasn't really one of the interesting ones, that I was happy enough not to think about this one too much.


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    #6
    Joe Cool
    Closed Accounts Posts: 324 ✭✭Joe Cool


    mrsdewinter wrote: »
    Well, the kid is Cinnamon (or Nutmeg), isn't he? As in the son of the mysterious businesswoman Nutmeg (or Cinnamon) who recruits the hero for her strange healing centre? Isn't that when he stops speaking?
    To be honest, there were so many storylines which are never explained, and this wasn't really one of the interesting ones, that I was happy enough not to think about this one too much.

    Yeah, that's what I was thinking. He can't call out for his mother when he wakes up, that's when I figured it was Cinnamon.

    Thought there might have a connection between the heart he digs up from under the tree and his old man being murdered and having some of his organs taken out.

    Just a thought.


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