Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985) by Haruki Murakami

As part of Murakami's early oeuvre, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World stumbles a bit in its execution. He was clearly still perfecting his ability to blend these ideas into a meaningful narrative. Hard-Boiled takes a long time to get going, and it's the most exposition-loaded Murakami novel I've ever read (and I've read quite a few at this point), but there's a reason for that. This is a book with an exceptionally big brain: Murakami has long been inventive and imaginative, but Hard-Boiled sees him dipping into science fiction for the first time, exploring notions of transhumanism, biocryptography (is that a thing? it is now), and altering levels of consciousness.

Unfortunately, to make room for such a large brain, it seems to lack a heart. While Murakami's protagonists are usually steeped in malaise and postmodern ennui, I've always related to them on some level. But I found little reason to care about the protagonist in Hard-Boiled, or any other character within its pages. I found myself wishing for a genuine antagonist, as well—I felt Murakami didn't go far enough with the potential mad scientist angle. So while this book tickled my brain, it seldom made me feel any emotion or root for or against any of its characters—something rare, considering Murakami has remained affecting to me despite reading quite a few of his works. It's got a lot of big ideas, but it's light on narrative, and thus reads more like a cloud of neat stuff to think about than an actual story.

That's not to say it isn't a worthwhile read, though. I've never seen Murakami this direct with his weirdness. He's more focused on exploring these themes and ideas than I've yet seen and he manages to remain topical throughout the novel, whereas in other books I feel he dithers about in too ambiguous a manner and often throws stuff at the wall to see what sticks rather than proceeding with a specific idea in mind to explore.

If you're a fan of science fiction and you like reading about big ideas then you'll probably love this. But if you're interested in reading a story and relating to the struggles and changes of human characters, this will leave you wanting in the same way it did me.

It's not a bad book. It's just not to my taste. I've always preferred Murakami's more concrete work (rare among his readers, I know), but I still enjoyed the places he took my brain with Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I just had trouble finding a reason to care about all of the mind-bending window dressing beyond thinking "oh, that's interesting".

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