Title: Poor Story
Review: I previously read 'The Wind Up Bird Chronicles' which I thought was great. So I knew what to expect with the 'Sheep Chase' but I was terriblly disappointed. The writing seemed amateurish throughout most of the novel. The 'Sheep Chase' has characters that seemed to just drop out of the book suddenly for no plausible reason (The Girl with the Ears). And the strange power of her ears is never fully explained or even demonstrated in the book. The first chapter of the novel doesn't really seem to have anything to do with the rest of the story. Several of the characters seem to do things that are 'out of character'. For example, the mysterious 'Boss' Assistant' who is so powerful and rich (with a host of servants) and demanding agrees to take care of the protagonist's cat. This just seemed somewhat peculiar. Also, the 'Sheep Man' is one of the most unconvincing characters I've ever run into in a book - even one of this type. Overall this is definitely not one of Murakami's best.
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