The Strange Library - Haruki Murakami

Author: Haruki Murakami
Translator: Ted Goosen
Publisher: Knopf
Publ. Date: 12/2014
96 pages
ISBN: 978-0-385-354301

Book Blurb:
A lonely boy, a mysterious girl, and a tormented sheep man plot their escape from the nightmarish library of internationally acclaimed, best-selling Haruki Murakami's wild imagination.

MY THOUGHTS:
If you've never read Haruki Murakami you're in for a wild adventure.  Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer who's work has been translated into 50 languages and has sold millions of books.  His works are often described as "Kafkaesque" which often has themes of loneliness and alienation.  I was first introduced to him when I read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.  I was confused, intrigued, sad, scared, disgusted and engaged all at the same time.  The Strange Library evoked similar feelings.  

Although The Strange Library comes across as uncomplicated: boy goes to library to return books, wants to check out more books but is sent to a room he's never been before, he finds himself a prisoner by a scary old man who will not set him free unless he memorizes the three books he wanted or else his brains will be eaten, he's guarded by a sheep man and a mysterious girl who talks with her hands and throughout all this he's concerned his mother will worry because he hasn't returned home and she won't remember to feed his pet starling.  Sounds simple and interesting, right?  The storyline comes across as easy enough that a 10 year old can read and find it intriguing but I wonder if within the simplicity there are other dynamics that are taking place.  Yes, you can read this story at face value and find it interesting, scary and a sad story, or you can try to delve deeper into what it means.  

"Did they really exist?"
~Boy~

w/some spoilers
With that said this is my take on the story.
I definitely don't believe the boy went down into a labyrinth underneath the library.  I don't believe he even experienced or encountered any of the things he did at the library.  It may either be a dream he had one night or a way for him to escape his life.  In part he did have a traumatic experience when he got bit by a dog when he was younger and he noticed how concerned his mother was about him but overall I think all of this was to escape the reality that his mother was sick and somehow he knew that.  I believe the young girl represented his mother who was sick but didn't tell the boy.  This might've been displayed to the boy when he noticed the girl "had lost her color and had grown transparent."  As far as the sheep man, I'm not really sure.  The sheep man comes across as someone who is caring but can't do anything to protect him from the Old Man.  The story doesn't mention if there are siblings or where his father is in the story.  Could the sheep man represent a sibling or someone who cared for him?  Does the Old Man represent his father?  Or does the Old Man represent the illness that the boy's mother has?  With so many questions, so many emotions and so many ways to look at this story this is what always makes Murakami's story so fascinating to read.

Have you read The Strange Library?  Would you read it?  If you did, what did you think?  Do you think the boy really wanted to help the sheep man open a shop?  What and who do you think the characters in the story represent?  Do you think this is just a story?  Did you find this story compelling or peculiar?  Have you read anything by Haruki Murakami before?  What do you think of Murakami's books? Style of writing? 

"If you don't know something, go to the library and look it up."​
~Boy's Mother~