I really loved Strange Library. Many of the themes we have already explored are seen here again, especially the concept of entering and meeting other people from other worlds. We see again that the narrator takes a journey to a far away place, and also does eat when he gets there. I found it interesting for this to be in a central area such as a city library, rather than a removed and rural area as we saw in A Wild Sheep Chase and Norwegian Wood. It seems that A Wild Sheep Chase was published one year before this story first surfaced in 1983, according to Wikipedia, so I wonder why he decided to use a very similar character in this story. I appreciate that we can understand that reference and connect those otherwordly elements across his different works. Another thing I absolutely loved was the physical reading experience of this book. I actually often love the art in children's book in general, but the visual elements in this story in particular are so unique that it added a lot of intrigue to the story for me. I found the collage elements beautiful, and it's interesting since it looks kind of the opposite of a typical informational library book you would find. Yet, the variety of images still have certain symbols and visual images that connect to the narrative of the story. I wonder why Murakami published something like this and if he plans to go back to another work like it.
Kaito
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