"Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" Book Review (4.5/5) -Thaddeus

There's something about a great title.

As a supposed writer, I've found titles to be even more elusive than those confounding opening lines that have me bloodying my forehead on the laptop keyboard. The right title can tie everything together and if you have one out the gate, I've found, it makes whatever world you're weaving feel more stable as you build it. And when uncertainty strikes, when you find yourself asking "Where the hell am I? Where do I go from here?" it's comforting to have that signpost at the top of the page. Like the American flag on the moon.

You look up and say, "Oh, right. I'm on America's moon."

What? It's ours. We put a flag in it.

"Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" is maybe the best book title ever. I was nudged in the direction of this volume by an English professor who understood my hunger for noir and unfathomable weirdness. I was sold on the title alone -- anyone who put that right on the door was worthy of my attention.

Writer Haruki Murakami has put together two seemingly unrelated worlds in this gritty tale of the world behind the world behind the world. The chapters alternate between the titular narratives: one follows a data encrypter drawn into conflicts he never knew existed, the other shows a man in a walled city with his shadow cut off along with his memories.

The voice, in the "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" sections is detached and cool. He knows about songs and food and books I haven't read, but not in a snobbish way; he's just like that. "The End of the World" is a heady blend of the mundane and the inescapable weirdness of fantasy.

The worlds float along, side by side, telling separately engaging stories with little connection between them at first. But things swish and swirl and are tied together in a whirlwind of madness.

It's the world the way I like to read it. Crazy as you like, with all the finicky details of everyday life.

I'll be looking for more by Murakami. You should look up this one, and probably any others you happen by.

-Thad out