Yes, Gary - that first chapter does have a 'mundane' flavour. Even the phonecall he gets isn't that fascinating - that happens to people all the time.GaryG48 wrote:Yes, Murakami is a great story teller. The first chapter, as short as it is, sets the tone for the rest of the novel. Murakami actually keeps his readers interested in what are actually the mundane happenings of ordinary life. Then he springs the unexpected and truly surreal events on us. I'm glad we are reading this.
Even his meeting with the young girl isn't extraordinary - it doesn't happen a lot, but it's nothing unusual. Everybody, at least once in a lifetime, meets somebody that's sexually agressive like that.
In today's scenario, an adult man, who isn't 'on the prowl', would be more cautious, I think. If a girl in her early teens invited a man into her yard, he would think about backing off. If the parents complained to the police, he'd be the one in trouble, not the kid.