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81-415: Stylistically and thematically, the collection aligns with Murakami's previous work. The stories mesh normality with surrealism, and focus on painful issues involving loss, destruction, confusion and loneliness. The title for the book is derived from the final story in the collection. Note: This story was subsequently updated as the first chapter of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle . After being disturbed by

162-436: A gender reveal party which utilized a smoke bomb which is categorized as unsafe pyrotechnics. The El Dorado fire burned over a 71-day period, destroyed 20 structures and resulted in one firefighter fatality, for which the couple hosting the party were charged with involuntary manslaughter . The Esperanza Fire ultimately resulted in the death of firefighter Charles "Charlie" Morton, who became trapped while attempting to fight

243-561: A weapon of war against civilians. From the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état to August 2022, military forces committed arson on 28,434 houses in the country. While the Scottish legal system has no offence known as arson statutorily defined, there are many offences that are used to charge those with acts that would normally constitute arson in other nations. Events constituting arson in English and Welsh law might be dealt with as one or more of

324-420: A "Chinese elementary school" to take a standardize aptitude test. He remembers having to traverse up a hill to the classroom. When the proctor arrives he gives clear test-taking directions before announcing that he is Chinese and teaches at the school. He then asks the forty test-takers to respect the desks by not vandalizing them. Everyone but the narrator responds "yes" and the proctor tells them to be proud. As

405-551: A 28-year-old businessman, the man runs into a Chinese classmate from high school in Aoyama . Although they talk for a while in a coffee shop, the man is unable to recall who his colleague is until the line "a lot of water has gone under the bridge" is uttered, a memorable line from their English textbook from high school. The colleague then tells him about how he sells encyclopedias to Chinese families in Tokyo. Wanting for information about

486-410: A bakery ten years ago. The two intended to take all the bread they could from a bakery by force. The man who ran the bakery offers a counterproposal before the two men can act: since he is a Richard Wagner fanatic, if they listen to Tannhäuser and The Flying Dutchman with him in the bakery, he will give them all the bread they can carry. They agree, and the bread is enough to feed the two men for

567-414: A complete translation along with the requested abridged version. These chapters contain plot elements not found elsewhere in the book. For example, the two missing chapters from the second volume of the original three-volume elaborate on the relationship between Toru Okada and Creta Kano, and a "hearing" of the wind-up bird as Toru burns a box of Kumiko's belongings (Book 2 Chapter 15). In the third volume,

648-520: A conviction and penalty for wildfire arson. Some states, such as California, prosecute the lesser offense of " reckless burning " when the fire is set recklessly as opposed to willfully and maliciously. The study of the causes is the subject of fire investigation . A recent example of a reckless burning offense is the El Dorado fire which took place in 2020 in California. This fire was caused by

729-437: A discussion between Toru and May, Toru says Kumiko was successful in killing Noboru and is now serving time in jail after admitting the deed — time of her own volition, because she is waiting for the media circus to end so neither she nor Toru are targeted. Toru says that he will wait for her, and bids May goodbye. While this book has many major and minor characters, these are among the most important: The English translation of

810-446: A dreamlike sequence where he enters a hotel room and speaks with a woman, and notices a strange blue mark on his cheek after he leaves the well. While loitering in the city, he spends most of the day sitting outside a donut shop and people-watching. Through this activity, Toru encounters a well-dressed woman and also a singer he recognizes from his past, whom he follows and beats with a bat after getting ambushed by him. "The Birdcatcher",

891-437: A few days. After hearing of that story, the woman suggests that they do the same thing, despite it being 2:30 A.M. They drive around Tokyo looking for a bakery but all of them are closed; they “compromise” to “rob” a McDonald's instead. With ski-masks and a Remington automatic shotgun , they enter the restaurant and demand thirty Big Macs . The three employees working there fulfill the peculiar request. The couple then leave

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972-423: A fitting tribute to Murakami's prose. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle ( ねじまき鳥クロニクル , Nejimakidori Kuronikuru ) is a novel published in 1994–1995 by Japanese author Haruki Murakami . The American translation and its British adaptation, dubbed the "only official translations" ( English ), are by Jay Rubin and were first published in 1997. For this novel, Murakami received

1053-705: A long tale about his eerie and mystical wartime experiences in Manchukuo in the Kwantung Army , where he sees a man skinned alive. Mamiya was also left to die in a deep well before being saved by corporal Honda. The gift from Honda is an empty box. Kumiko is revealed to be missing at the start of the second part, "Bird as Prophet". Shortly after, Toru finds out through a meeting with Noboru and Malta that Kumiko has apparently been spending time with another man and wants to end her relationship with Toru. Confused, Toru tries several things to calm himself and think through

1134-733: A method of homicide, as was the case in California of Raymond Lee Oyler and in Texas of Cameron Todd Willingham . After the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, the United States started a National Fire Prevention Week in order to educate the people on ways to prevent fires, minimize their damages, and hopefully drastically decrease casualties. Fire Prevention Week campaigns includes various information on safe cooking practices pertaining to grilling, microwaving, and cooking on

1215-427: A middle school feud with classmate Aoki. Aoki was a model student who always got the top scores on tests. However, during one English test in middle school, Ozawa bested Aoki's score; Ozawa confesses that his parents promising him to buy an exclusive item motivated him to study harder than ever before. When Aoki learns of his "failure," he spreads the rumor that Ozawa cheated on the test. When Ozawa confronted Aoki about

1296-465: A month, but there are no signs of arson . The man sees the boyfriend again during Christmas and they share coffee. He asks if the boyfriend has burned a barn recently; he says he did about ten days after he visited the man's house. Before leaving, the boyfriend asks if the man has seen the woman lately; he says no, and the boyfriend says that he has not either, and she does not answer her phone or door. The man checks her apartment and sees that her mailbox

1377-511: A nineteen-year-old college student in Tokyo , he meets a similar-aged Chinese woman during a part-time job at a publisher's warehouse; being born in Japan, she has little ties to her ethnic background. After their final day on the job, they agree to have dinner together and go to the discotheque. After their night of leisure, he mistakenly directs her onto the wrong train. Noticing his mistake, he takes

1458-474: A shadow. A bachelor and his younger sister live together in a Tokyo apartment. During a trip to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco , the sister meets a man named Noboru Watanabe who later becomes her fiancé; the man disapproves of her choice. The sister retorts by saying that she thinks her brother tries to make a joke out of everything. When the sister invites Noboru over for dinner at the apartment,

1539-565: A stove. During World War II arson was a much higher concern in the United States . There was a severe lack of firefighters due to the fact most of the men were overseas to fight the war. There were few men left behind to help combat forest fires. For example, during WW II in Eldora, Iowa a fire chief reported that his regular membership shrank from 21 to 9 men and their fire fighting force recruited retired members and new members to fill

1620-415: A strange phone-call from an unknown woman demanding ten minutes of his time, a man goes in search of his wife's missing cat and meets a girl in a neighbor's garden. A recently married couple in their late twenties lie in bed, famished; they have little in their refrigerator: a six-pack of beer and some cookies. After drinking and eating all of it, the man recounts to his wife a time he and his friend “robbed”

1701-407: A stroke and is now in a coma. Kumiko sends him a message on the computer to let him know she is alright but intends to kill Noboru by pulling the plug on the life support. She reveals that she did not cheat on Toru with just one man, but in fact there were several. Noboru's obsession with their middle sister, continued with Kumiko, triggered sex addiction in her until Noboru stepped in. Subsequently, in

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1782-431: A trace, the narrator being the last to see them. Contents are: While the list above details which stories appeared before the publication of The Elephant Vanishes , many of the stories have also appeared elsewhere more recently: The British theatre company Complicite collaborated with Japan's Setagaya Public Theatre to produce a stage adaptation also entitled The Elephant Vanishes. The production featured three of

1863-413: A variety of offences such as wilful fire-raising , culpable and reckless conduct , vandalism or other offences depending on the circumstances of the event. The more serious offences (in particular wilful fire-raising and culpable and reckless conduct) can incur a sentence of life imprisonment . Ireland differentiates how it charges arson not by degree but rather by what is being destroyed and if anyone

1944-412: A woman who says she knows him. He also receives a phone call from Malta Kano who asks to meet with him. Kumiko calls Toru to explain that he should meet with the clairvoyant Malta Kano, who will help with finding the cat. Malta Kano had come recommended by Kumiko's brother, Noboru Wataya, which is also the name given to the cat. Kumiko's family believes in fortune-telling and had previously stipulated that

2025-460: A year of being missing. Toru discusses Kumiko's disappearance with Noboru directly and indirectly (through his agent Ushikawa) and eventually arranges for a talk with her through the Internet, using her recollection of the jellyfish date as a means to verify her identity. Finally, Toru is able to travel to the hotel room from the well and confronts the woman, realizing that she is Kumiko and breaking

2106-646: A zoo; he decides to call this letter to her "The Kangaroo Communiqué." A Tokyo man tells of passing the "100% perfect girl" for him in a Harajuku neighborhood. He imagines a scenario where an eighteen-year-old boy and a sixteen-year-old girl meet and agree that they are 100% perfect for each other. To prove their hypothesis, they agree to go their separate ways and let fate bring them back together. Years go by and one winter, they both get terrible influenza which causes them to forget much of their respective young adult years. They run into each other in Harajuku when he

2187-438: Is charged in five degrees. Arson in the first degree is a Class A-1 felony and requires the intent to burn the building with a person inside using an explosive incendiary device. In New York, the criminal charge of arson includes a maximum sentence of 25 years to life. In California, a conviction for arson of property that is not one's own is a felony punishable by up to three years in state prison. Aggravated arson, which carries

2268-452: Is filled with fliers. When he checks again later, he sees a new name on the door and realizes that she has disappeared. Continuing his daily routine, he sometimes thinks about barns burning. A monster burrows up into a woman's garden, breaks into her house, and proposes love. The creature can read her mind and she uses this fact to fight against it. Because of her adamant rejection of the monster, it eventually dies, reduced to nothing more than

2349-408: Is from 1864. English Common Law defines arson as "the malicious burning of the dwelling of another." This definition has four elements: Many U.S. state legal systems and the legal systems of several other countries divide arson into degrees, depending sometimes on the value of the property but more commonly on its use and whether the crime was committed in the day or night. Many statutes vary

2430-503: Is never fully explained. In return, Toru receives pay and partial possession of the abandoned house that had been purchased to resell by some property agency. Cinnamon, Nutmeg's son, maintains the house and refits the well with a ladder and pulley to open and close the well cap from the bottom. Toru periodically goes to the bottom of the well to think and attempt to revisit the hotel room. The cat, who has been hardly mentioned following Kumiko's disappearance, shows up at Toru's home after nearly

2511-400: Is not there to be fitted, so she finds a stranger of the same size. Note: This story was the basis for the 2018 South Korean psychological thriller film, Burning . A 31-year-old married man and a 20-year-old woman begin a casual and unclear relationship. The woman, an amateur mime , decides to leave Japan for Algiers . Three months later, she returns with a Japanese boyfriend. One day,

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2592-634: Is referred to as an arsonist, or a serial arsonist if the person has committed arson several times. Arsonists normally use an accelerant (such as gasoline or kerosene ) to ignite, propel, and direct fires, and the detection and identification of ignitable liquid residues is an important part of fire investigations. Pyromania is an impulse control disorder characterized by the pathological setting of fires. Most acts of arson are not committed by pyromaniacs. The term derives from Law French arsoun (late 13th century), from Old French arsion , from Late Latin ārsiōnem "a burning," ( acc. ) from

2673-405: Is thirty-two and she is thirty, but they do not stop for each other. The man says that this is what he should have said to the "100% perfect girl." A woman has not slept for 17 days but does not feel the need for sleep. She conceals her condition from her husband and children but spends the nights eating chocolate, drinking Rémy Martin brandy, reading Anna Karenina and going for drives through

2754-449: Is typically classified as a felony , with instances involving risk to human life or property carrying a stricter penalty. Arson that results in death can be further prosecuted as manslaughter or murder . A common motive for arson is to commit insurance fraud . In such cases, a person destroys their own property by burning it and then lies about the cause in order to collect against their insurance policy . A person who commits arson

2835-602: The Yomiuri Literary Award , which was awarded to him by one of his harshest former critics, Kenzaburō Ōe . The original Japanese edition was released in three parts, which make up the three "books" of the single volume English language version. In English translation, two chapters were originally published in The New Yorker under the titles "The Zoo Attack" on July 31, 1995, and "Another Way to Die" on January 20, 1997. A slightly different version of

2916-471: The "Hanging House" chapter to make the chronology of events consistent. Book 2 chapter 15 summary: In chapter 15 Toru awakens to Creta Kano who mysteriously appeared in his bed the night before. She tells him that she has lost her name and asks if he would like to flee Japan with her. To this request he agrees and leaves behind memorabilia of his old life with his wife. While Toru is in town gathering supplies for his flee he reads an article about Noboru Wataya,

2997-731: The English counterparts, 63 of the 1972 Ordinance provides a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, and s 60(3) of the Ordinance requires that if the damage is by fire the offence should be charged as arson. In the Burmese legal system, arson is considered "mischief by fire" under sections 435 and 436 of the Myanmar Penal Code and punishable by fine and imprisonment. The statutes were last amended on 1 July 2016, and made arson on houses and buildings punishable with up to 20 years in prison. The Burmese military has long used arson as

3078-495: The Japanese original. Nearly 20 years after the first translation Ursula Gräfe translated the book from the Japanese original, including also the missing chapters. 'Die Chroniken des Aufziehvogels'. The Dutch translation by Jacques Westerhoven was translated directly from the Japanese original, therefore includes the missing parts and chapters, and follows the same order as the Japanese version. Some chapters and paragraphs of

3159-416: The Japanese paperback edition were not included in the English translation. Translator Jay Rubin cut about 61 of 1,379 pages, including three chapters (Book 2 Chapters 15, 18, and part of 17; and Book 3 Chapter 26). Combining the original three-volumes (Japanese) would have been too long, and so the publisher requested that ~25,000 words be cut for the English translation, even though Rubin had presented them

3240-635: The San Jose Fire Department. According to a 2019 Press Release from the California Department of Insurance , Tyler and Kim Chen, Ha Nguyen, Sandy Ngo, Duyen Pham, and Trang Huynh were all convicted with various degrees of arson and insurance fraud. Tyler Chen was convicted with five separate counts of arson and two separate counts of insurance fraud in Santa Clara County in 2018. Tyler Chen's wife, Kim Chen,

3321-463: The TV people install a television in the narrator's flat, but the change is ignored by his wife. He later spots them carrying a television through his workplace, but when he mentions it to his colleagues they change the subject. Then his wife disappears, but he meets TV People again. A Tokyo man recounts his contacts with Chinese people. In 1959 or 1960 when the man was still in secondary school, he goes to

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3402-468: The alleged offense. First degree arson generally occurs when people are harmed or killed in the course of the fire, while second degree arson occurs when significant destruction of property occurs. While usually a felony , arson may also be prosecuted as a misdemeanor , " criminal mischief ", or " destruction of property ." Burglary also occurs, if the arson involved a "breaking and entering". A person may be sentenced to death if arson occurred as

3483-603: The alley, a closed-off strip of land behind their house. After Toru stays there for a while with no luck, May Kasahara, a teenager who had been watching him camping out in the alley for some time, questions him. She invites him over to her house in order to sit on the patio and look over an abandoned house that she says is a popular hangout for stray cats. The abandoned house is revealed to possibly contain some strange omen, as it had brought bad luck to all of its prior tenants. It also contains an empty well, which Toru uses later to crawl into and think. Toru receives sexual phone calls from

3564-467: The article explains that Noboru is now trying to become a politician. Chapter 17 is not completely removed, instead the excerpt where Toru takes passport photos is removed and the very lengthy conversation Toru has with his uncle about buying real estate is condensed into one English paragraph. Book 2 Chapter 18 summary: Creta Kano returns to Japan and Toru tells her that he will not be fleeing with her. After this he meets with May Kasahara and they watch

3645-435: The bruises. They suspected Ozawa because of his boxing background and because he had hit another student in the past; Ozawa concluded that Aoki spread that rumor about him, still feeling sore about their run-in during middle school. Ozawa, despite being cleared of any wrongdoing, was still ignored by his classmates; they maintained a complete silence towards him for the rest of high school. Once, he stared down Aoki while enduring

3726-446: The cause in order to collect against their insurance policy . An example of insurance fraud being the motivating factor for an act of arson is the case for Operation Firebird . A married couple and 4 co-conspirators were arrested and convicted with arson and insurance fraud after a string of home, business, and warehouse fires which took place between 2014 and 2018 were exposed as acts of arson. Using chicken left in boiling frying oil,

3807-466: The city in her Civic . Ultimately, her insomnia takes her to a nearly deserted parking lot, where danger awaits. A man writes his diary, prompted by unique phrases to remind him of the day's events. A woman tells of her mother's divorce, prompted by a trip to buy some lederhosen in Germany as a souvenir for her husband who has remained at home in Tokyo. The shop refuses to sell her any as her husband

3888-426: The company's trademark communal storytelling and demanding physical performance style. The eponymous elephant, for example, was represented at one time by a magnified eye on a video screen, and at another time by four live actors bent over office chairs. This combination of technical wizardry and compelling human narrative received high praise from critics, who also cited the play's humor, realism, and dreamlike motion,

3969-413: The computer conversation between Toru and Noboru Wataya (Book 3 Chapter 26) and Toru's encounter with Ushikawa at the train station are also omitted. In addition to reducing the word count, some chapters were moved ahead of others, taking them out of the context of the original order. At the start of Book 3 the chapters have been rearranged. Rubin combined two chapters called "May Kasahara's POV" and moved

4050-481: The convicted criminals would make fire seem like a cooking accident. Then, the group committed insurance fraud by filing insurance claims for the cost of the building, as well as, smoke-damaged goods to claim fire damages for insurance payouts. The group's scheme claimed a reported $ 4 million and ended when authorities were tipped off as to where the location of the next planned incident would take place. Police then performed an investigation dubbed Operation Firebird with

4131-521: The couple meet with an elderly man, Mr. Honda, for consultations on a regular basis, which they did for some time. (Instead of giving advice, he spends most of their sessions retelling the same story of his experience in the Kwantung Army in the lost tank battle with the Russians at Nomonhan on the Manchukuo -Russian border during World War II.) Toru meets the mysterious Malta Kano at a busy hotel restaurant, and she tasks her sister Creta Kano to further

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4212-454: The degree of the crime according to the criminal intent of the accused. Some US states use other degrees of arson, such as "fourth" and "fifth" degree, while some states do not categorize arson by any degree. For example, in the state of Tennessee , arson is categorized as "arson" and "aggravated arson." A common motive for arson is to commit insurance fraud . In such cases, a person destroys their own property by burning it and then lies about

4293-474: The demolition of the Miyawaki house. Later in the chapter Toru is swimming at the ward pool where he dreams in the pool about floating at the bottom of the well, presented in earlier chapters, and hearing horses dying during an eclipse. This leads him to the realization that the mysterious woman on the phone was actually his wife. Ending book 2 with this cliff hanger . Upon release, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

4374-607: The destruction is by fire, the offence is charged as arson; s.4 of the Act provides a maximum penalty of life imprisonment for conviction under s.1 whether or not the offence is charged as arson. In Hong Kong, the common law offence was abolished by s 67 of the Crimes Ordinance 1971 (Part VIII of which, as amended by Crimes (Amendment) Ordinance 1972, mirrored the English Criminal Damage Act 1971). Like

4455-554: The fire. The DA of California considered arson charges for the family members as they were deemed negligent with regard to fire safety. In English law , arson was a common law offence (except for the offence of arson in royal dockyards ) dealing with the criminal destruction of buildings by fire. The common law offence was abolished by s.11(1) of the Criminal Damage Act 1971 . The 1971 Act makes no distinction as to mode of destruction except that s.1(3) requires that if

4536-557: The first chapter translated by Alfred Birnbaum was published in the collection The Elephant Vanishes under the title "The Wind-up Bird and Tuesday's Women". In addition, the character name Noboru Wataya appears in the short story "Family Affair" in The Elephant Vanishes . While having a similar personality and background, the character is not related to the one in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle of

4617-466: The heart of a beautiful girl at the factory dance. Proud of his work, a man decides to give up his job mowing lawns as having split up from his girlfriend he no longer needs the money. He tells of his last assignment near Yomiuri Land .(1987) While waiting for a flight to Niigata , an unnamed narrator asks his friend Ozawa, an amateur boxer, if the pugilist has ever punched another person over an argument; Ozawa responds by saying that he did once, during

4698-403: The incident, Aoki showed much contempt and Ozawa retaliated by punching him in the jaw; the two do not talk for years even when they are in high school. During the final year of high school, Matsumoto, a classmate of both boys, committed suicide by jumping in front of a train. When the police investigated the tragedy, they learned that he was bullied by classmates, but are not sure of who gave him

4779-414: The infobooks, he gives his business card to the colleague before they go their separate ways. The story ends with the narrator reminiscing on his idiosyncratic relationship with Chinese people. A man working at a factory manufacturing elephants dreams of a dancing dwarf, then hears the dwarf existed and danced for the king prior to the revolution. In a subsequent dream he makes a pact with the dwarf to win

4860-474: The man asks why and how he does this. The boyfriend replies that he feels morally obligated to do so and that he picks the barns that he will burn based on their condition. After the woman wakes up, she and the boyfriend leave the man's place, leaving the man very curious about barn burning. He plans his next few days around scouting possible barns nearby that the boyfriend might burn. He narrows it down to five barns, and passes by all of them on his morning run for

4941-425: The men get a chance to interact with each other talking about plans after the wedding. The bachelor then leaves to go out for a drink. He meets a woman at a bar; they talk about baseball and proceed to have sex at her apartment after a few more drinks. When he returns home, he and his sister have a talk about their sex lives, where they learn the number of partners they each slept with; the bachelor says twenty-six while

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5022-520: The missing positions during the war. Although there were few attempts to burn U.S. forests, it continued to be a big concern due to the potential detrimental effects. This concern for arson attempts led to the rise of Smokey Bear who was the face of fire prevention and fire safety measures. Although the intention of Smokey Bear's persona is to encourage fire safety , Smokey shares a message of fire prevention which includes accidental fires that can sometimes be legally charged as arson. In New York, arson

5103-465: The most severe punishment for arson, is punishable by 10 years to life in state prison. A well-known example of arson which took place in California is the Esperanza Fire . Raymond Lee Oyler was ultimately convicted of murder and sentenced to death for a 2006 fire in southern California that led to the deaths of five U.S. Forest Service firefighters; he was the first U.S. citizen to receive such

5184-443: The next train to the last station to reunite with her. After admitting his mistake and the woman confessing her insecurities, he says that he will call her tomorrow before she takes the next train back home. The following morning, he realizes that he threw away the matchbook on which her phone number was written. Despite that gaffe, he tries multiple alternatives to obtaining her number but is unsuccessful; he never sees her again. As

5265-537: The novel was carried out by Jay Rubin . In addition to notable differences between the Japanese and English versions, there are also differences between the original Japanese hardcover and paperback editions. Further differences exist between the American and British editions, but these are much more superficial. The German translation by Giovanni and Ditte Bandini is based on the English translation, not on

5346-517: The novel was created by Stephen Earnhart, a live production of it premiered in 2011 at the Edinburgh International Festival. Arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property . Although the act of arson typically involves buildings , the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles , watercraft , or forests . The crime

5427-480: The restaurant and drive until they find an empty parking lot; they then eat four to six Big Macs each until they are full. The man feels calm after this experience. A man working in the product-control section of a department store received a letter from a woman who wrote to complain that she had mistakenly bought Mahler instead of Brahms . The man is captivated by the woman's letter of complaint and so decides to make personal contact with her after seeing Kangaroos at

5508-543: The saga of a gentle man forced to trade the familiar for the utterly unknown" and "a fully mature, engrossing tale of individual and national destinies entwined" that would be "hard to surpass." Michiko Kakutani , in The New York Times , regarded the novel as "a wildly ambitious book that not only recapitulates the themes, motifs and preoccupations of his earlier work, but also aspires to invest that material with weighty mythic and historical significance" though

5589-664: The same name. Noboru Wataya is also used in Jay Rubin's translation of the title short story in The Elephant Vanishes . In May 2010, Harvill Secker published the Limited Centenary Edition of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle to celebrate the publisher's hundredth year of operation. It was limited to 2,500 copies. The first part, "The Thieving Magpie", begins with the narrator, Toru Okada, a low-key and unemployed lawyer's assistant, being tasked by his wife, Kumiko, to find their missing cat. Kumiko suggests looking in

5670-562: The silence until the end of the school year. Ozawa tells the narrator that he has an idiosyncratic admiration for people like Aoki who cunningly seize opportunity. Ozawa then expresses disappointment in humanity that so many are willing to believe lies and follow without question people like Aoki. The two men decide to get a beer as they continue to wait for their flight. Main Article: The Elephant Vanishes An elderly elephant and its keeper disappear without

5751-653: The sister says two before she met Noboru. After, they proceed to their separate rooms for the night. A graduate spends a year working at "The Pen Society" where he is employed to reply to letters from members, grading and making constructive comments on their prose. When he leaves he makes personal contact with one of his correspondents, a childless, married woman. They spend an evening at her place eating dinner and discussing their interests, particularly regarding arts and letters, before he leaves. When he passes by her neighborhood ten years later, he thinks fondly of that afternoon he spent with her. 20–30% smaller than normal people,

5832-451: The situation: talking and taking up work with May Kasahara, hiding at the bottom of the well, and loitering around the city looking at people. Work with May involves tallying up people with some degree of baldness at a subway line for a wig company. While at the bottom of the well (of the abandoned house), Toru reminisces about earlier times with Kumiko, including their first date to an aquarium where they looked at jellyfish. He also experiences

5913-492: The spell. It is revealed in this reality that Noboru has been beaten into a coma by a bat, with the assailant described to look just like Toru. An unknown man enters the hotel room and attacks Toru, the intruder, with a knife. Toru fights back with the bat and kills the man, before escaping back to the well. In the well, bruised and unable to move, Toru passes out after the well fills with water. Cinnamon saves him, and some days later Nutmeg notifies him that in this reality Noboru had

5994-535: The stories in Murakami's collection ("Sleep," "The Second Bakery Attack," and the title story). Directed by Simon McBurney and starring a Japanese cast, the play opened in May, 2003, in Tokyo before touring internationally in limited festival runs. The performance was in Japanese with English supertitles . The show incorporated a great deal of multimedia, which Complicite had traditionally eschewed, but married it with

6075-419: The third, final, and lengthiest part, ties up most loose ends while introducing a few new characters. The well-dressed woman Toru met while people-watching is revealed to be Nutmeg, whom he sees again when he reverts to people-watching. She hires him to relieve clients, middle-aged or older women, of some kind of inner turmoil that develops inside of them. The blue mark is involved in this somehow, though its power

6156-413: The verb ardēre , "to burn." "Malicious burning of property," 1670s, from Anglo-French arsoun (late 13c.), Old French arsion, from Late Latin arsionem (nominative arsio) "a burning," noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin ardere "to burn" (from PIE root *as- "to burn, glow"). The Old English term was bærnet , lit. "burning"; and Edward Coke has indictment of burning (1640). Arsonist

6237-405: The woman and her boyfriend ask if they can visit the man's home; because his wife is away visiting relatives, he agrees to the gathering. The three drink carelessly and smoke marijuana in the man's living room; the woman needs to be helped to bed after smoking one joint. Back in the living room, the boyfriend tells him about his idiosyncratic need to burn a barn about every two months. Interested,

6318-621: The work. Both sisters wear unusual clothing: Malta a large red hat and Creta unstylish 1960s clothing. Creta meets Toru at his home and begins to tell him the story of her past, involving being raped by Noboru, but abruptly leaves. Toru notices Kumiko is wearing perfume that has been gifted to her by some unknown person. The cat remains missing. Toru is contacted by Lieutenant Mamiya, who informs Toru that Mamiya's old war friend corporal Honda has died and that Mamiya wishes to visit Toru to drop off an item that Honda had bequeathed to him. The first section ends with Lieutenant Mamiya arriving and telling Toru

6399-503: Was "only intermittently successful." While she finds that the novel succeeds in articulating that the world is "a mysterious place", that same confusion also "seems so messy that its refusal of closure feels less like an artistic choice than simple laziness". Many regard The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle as Murakami's masterpiece, and it appeared in The Telegraph 's 2014 list of the 10 all-time greatest Asian novels. An adaptation of

6480-471: Was convicted with two counts of insurance fraud in Santa Clara county. In the United States , the common law elements of arson are often varied in different jurisdictions. For example, the element of "dwelling" is no longer required in most states, and arson occurs by the burning of any real property without consent or with unlawful intent. Arson is prosecuted with attention to degree of severity in

6561-399: Was generally well-received. Globally, Complete Review saying on the consensus "All find points to praise, but there is no consensus on the book as a whole. Some believe it is a successful, well-rounded piece, others that it has too many loose end[s]". Kirkus Reviews wrote that the novel was "a major work bringing signature themes of alienation, dislocation, and nameless fears through

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