Reflections

The Dolphin Hotel

2008-02-29T12:42:00.002Z

The narrator finds himself completely in love with Yumiyoshi (the receptionists) and believes that she is the only thing that can tie him down to the real world. If he doesn't get this relationship he will join the ghosts in the death-chamber, because there is still one more skeleton left.

They sleep together for the first time and it seems to be the final step to bring him back to reality.

"I've made it back to reality-that's the important thing. I've come full circle, and I'm still on my feet dancing."

That night he has his final dream of the Dolphin Hotel. Finds himself in the blackness with Yumiyoshi and they go in-search of the Sheep Man's room. When they find it he is nowhere to be found.

"We were at the edge of the world. That is, what the ancients considered the edge of the world, where everything spilled over into nothingness. We were there, the two of us, alone. And all around us, a cold, vast void. We held each other's hand more tightly."

When they eventually let eachother's hand go Yumiyoshi passes through the wall and says the same thing that Kiki told him in the Honolulu room, "Really simple. You can pass right through the wall."

He eventually wakes from this dream, but it does leave me thinking that Yumiyoshi is the sixth skeleton in the death chamber, and that in the end she is an illusion just like Kiki, June, and Mei. Of course, I can't know for sure because the novel ends without tying up all of the still lose connections, but that is my guess. There is something about the narrator that one just knows he isn't going to live happily-ever-after, and that Yuki was right when she said that his connection to the world is through death.

Kiki's Last Visit

2008-02-29T12:41:00.004Z

The narrator has his final dream and is able to put all of the pieces together (well most of the pieces).

"I had a dream about Kiki. I guess it was a dream. Either that or some act akin to dreaming. Wat, you may ask, is an "act akin to dreaming"? I don't know either. But it seems it does exist. Like so many other things we have no name for, existing in that limbo beyond the fringes of consciousness."

In the dream the narrator finds himself back in the Honolulu death-chamber, and Kiki is waiting for him. She tells him that the skeletons are apart of him and that the room belongs to him just like the room in the Dolphin Hotel. We also find out that she is only his shadow and that he guided himself to all of these places and to all of these people using her as a projection of himself. Kiki tells him that she is crying for all of the things that he never could cry for.

Gotanda didn't kill Kiki. Well, in his mind he killed Kiki, but she just disappeared. She doesn't belong to their world, just as the Sheep Man doesn't belong but can appear in order to assist with things that mortal humans have found themselves incapable of dealing with.

Once the dream is over the narrator is able to come fully back to reality and have a relationship with a woman again. So he sets off for the Dolphin Hotel to find Yumiyoshi.

Gotanda Sinks Deeper and Deeper

2008-02-29T12:41:00.003Z

The narrator rushes back to Tokyo to ask Gotanda if he killed Yuki. The two go out for a beer and pizza and he breaks the news.

Surprisingly Gotanda admits to killing her, but then he says he is not sure if he did it or didn't do it. Gotanda says he thinks he did, but then says that Kiki asked him too, and that he feels as if he dreamed the entire thing.

"I strangled her. But I wasn't strangling her, I was strangling my own shadow. I remember thinking, if only I could choke my shadow off, I'd get some health. Except it wasn't my shadow it was Kiki. It all took place in that dark world. You know what I'm talking about? Not here in this one. And it was Kiki who led me there. Choke me, Kiki told me."

The more Gotanda thinks about it the more he says that it didn't feel real, but that he can still sense the killing on his hands. He is confused about what happened, and doesn't understand. Neither does the narrator. He tells Gotanda that they should just forget everything and go to Hawaii. Gotanda agrees and then asks for another beer. As the narrator gets up to get it Gotanda sneaks out the back and drives his Maserati into the ocean.

I'm still left not knowing whether Gotanda actually killed Kiki. He swears that he didn't strangle Mei, but thinks that she died on account of him. So now we are left with 3 prostitutes that have either died or somehow disappeared, and only one person admitting to the killing of one, but he can't really be sure if he did it in reality. He is not sure why he did it, and swears that Kiki asked him to.

I tend to believe that the act these prostitutes play, the act of an illusion for men goes deeper then the narrator thinks. That the illusion is just that an illusion. The women don't truly exist in this plane. They show up when called, but then can just as easily disappear into walls and other realities. They help the men find what they need by leading the way, but the women are not what the men really need they are just an illusion to pass the time, and point them in the right direction.

Unrequited Love: Part Two

2008-02-29T12:39:00.002Z

Yuki and Narrator are driving around one day when the decide they want to see a movie. He tells Yuki that his friend stars in the movie Unrequited love, and Yuki decides that she has got to see it no matter how terrible.

When the scene comes up that features Kiki and Gotanda having sex, Yuki falls ill from experiencing one of her psychic episodes. They leave the theatre and she breaks the news.

"It's the first time that I have ever seen anything clearly like this. He strangled her, the woman in the movie. And he put the body in the car and drove a long, long way...loaded her off somewhere in that car, and buried her. That's all. But-and this is the truly strange part-the whole thing didn't seem vicious or horrible or anything. It didn't even seem like a crime. It was more like a ceremony. It was a quiet thing, between the killer and the victim. But a very strange quiet. Like it was out on the edge of the earth or something."

In this scene I finally see why Murakami connected the young girl and the middle-aged man. At first it really doesn't make any sense, and in some ways it seem pretty sick like a pedophile thing, but she was the key in unlocking what happened to Kiki. The fact that Yuki can feel energy and see into the future seems odd and not something that you would use in a murder mystery, but this is a murder mystery like no other. However, the funny thing is when you are immersed in the novel Yuki's power doesnt seem that absurd. I credit that to Murakami's genius.

This next excerpt sums up the entire novel. The absurdities mixing with reality and not knowing what is real and what is imagined.

"So another person joined the group in that most bizarre chamber of my world. Four down, two to go. Sooner or later, bleached white bones ferried to that room via some impossible architecture. Death's waiting room in downtown Honolulu, connected to the dark chill lair of the Sheep Man in a Sapporo hotel, connected to the Sunday morning bedroom where Gotanda lay with Kiki. Was I losing my mind? Rea events, under imaginary circumstances, filtering back, wild, distorted, bizarre. Was there nothing absolute? Was there no reality?"

Middle-Aged Men, Kiki's Ears, and Dick North's Death

2008-02-29T12:21:00.003Z

When the narrator gets back to Japan he begins meeting with Gotanda every couple of days. Although, the two live different lifestyles they are two peas in a pod. They both seem to be going through a mid-life crisis, and their therapy consists of drinking together and complaining about how they've made a mess of things and just want to be loved. It's a bit pathetic the way the two carry on. Constantly complaining and never doing. However, I think it is the reality Murakami is trying to show through these men. It is something that many people can identify with when they reach their mid-thirties and have had the experience of a failed marriage.

Gotanda seems to be a bit of his rocker. A lot more then our main character. He talks about having no hope and having no way out. That his only true love is his ex-wife but he knows that they could never live a normal life together. However, the continue to have an affair in love motels. Because of this, Gotanda asks to borrow the narrator's car because it is less conspicuous.

Through these talks we finally get the story on Kiki. How they met and what type of relationship they had.

The narrator met her because he was writing the copy for an advertisement which featured Kiki's ears. He became obsessed by their perfection and asked to meet the model in person. Once they met they made a connection, and shortly after began living with one another.

"Her ears had special power. They were like some great whirlpool of fate sucking me in. And they could lead people to the right place."

Upon Yuki's family returning from Hawaii Dick North is accidentally hit by a truck when exiting a super-market. When this happens the protagonist knows for sure that the skeletons he saw in the room must belong to 6 people that he knows.

Kiki and the Secret Room in Honolulu

2008-02-29T11:55:00.002Z

Kiki is spotted finally. It takes about 250 pages, but we get introduced the to person that is the foundation for the entire story. It's not the best encounter since the narrator doesn't get to speak to her, but it did give me a feeling of satisfaction for the first time since picking up the book.

Yuki and our main chap are driving through a rough area in Honolulu taking about ET when the spotting takes place. He jumps out of the car and chases after Kiki. He is never able to catch her, but she leads him to a room.

Now we have two rooms. One in the Dolphin and the other in Honolulu. Neither of them exists in reality, but our located in some other dimension where he is suppose to find all the right connections.

"Then came the sound. A clicking of heels, high heels. Echoing eerily off the ceiling, bearing a weight...the dry weight of the old memories. All of the sudden, I was wandering through the labyrinthine viscera of a large organism. Long-dead cracked, eroded. By something beyond reality, beyond human rationality, I had slipped through a fault in time and entered this thing."

In this room he finds 6 skeletons, one of which has only one arm and he thinks it could be Dick North. Kiki disappears before he can speak to her, and all he is left with is a business card with a phone number on it, which he recognizes as June's (the Hawaii prostitute) number. He tries ringing it, but no answer.

After this encounter he tells Yuki that he must go back to Japan, and sort some thing out.

"Death is always beside me, I don't know why. And given the slightest opening it shows itself."
"Maybe that is your key. Maybe death is your connection to the world," Yuki said.

He leaves Hawaii knowing that the skeletons must belong to people that he knows, but he is still left in a state of confusion.

At this point I'm in a state on confusion as well. With Kiki on the scene I'm not sure what to think. How does she disappear like that? Is she dead or has she always been some sort of being that can pass between worlds? And what about June, how does she have to same number?

There are many unanswered questions, and the way that Murakami writes I'm afraid the novel will end with a few. However, that is what I love most about books. One where there are things left unanswered that way when it comes time to put it back on the shelf it is able to stay alive in your memory because it allows you to put your own spin on things. To think about what really happened to some of the characters, and what their purpose is.

Murder Allegations and Babysitting

2008-02-29T11:15:00.002Z

The novel makes a big jump in chapter 21. The Narrator is just settling back into his apartment and routine in Tokyo when two police men arrive at his door.

He is questioned about the murder of Mei, a prostitute that he slept with at Gotanda's house. He had given the girl his business card, and it was the only identification found on her. He is questioned by the officers for three days, but denies knowing the woman because he doesn't want to give up Gotanda's name.

This jump seems very illogical at first. For me it is one of the most absurd turns in the book. I know he has met and slept with this woman, but I don't see the connection in her dying. However, the entire novel is about making connections, so one has to read on and see where it comes into play. For me, this death never makes sense to the very end.

The next connection made is with 13-year-old Yuki. He met her at the Dolphin and escorted her back to Tokyo because her mother forgot her. They become good friends, and begin to hang-out a few days a week.

Yuki is a special girl. She is beautiful and possess this talent that allows her to see things in other people. For instance, she knew about the encounter with the Sheep Man.

Yuki's Explanation of her Power:
"A strong thought, but not only that. There was something behind it. Something powerful. Like energy that was creating the thinking. I could just feel that it was out there. They were like vibes that I could see. But not like a dream. Like and empty dream."

Yuki's parents are divorced and they both live a famous artists lifestyle, which means that there is no time for Yuki. She is on her own, and has trouble getting along with others because of her unique personality. She takes a liking to the protagonist, and her dad asks him if he will look after Yuki.

The narrator is a bit non-committal about the entire thing. However, he does like being around Yuki because she is able to connect him with the things he has lost, and he feels sorry for her. She becomes one of the essential elements in connecting all of the dots.

This babysitting job takes him on a trip to Hawaii where he meets Yuki's mother and her one-armed boyfriend, Dick North.

The introduction of these characters seems a bit odd as well. The cast seems impossible to intertwine because they are all so unique and impossible, when the narrator is really an ordinary man in what seems to be a mid-life crisis. He is running all over the globe, has nothing to hold him down, and says that he is just waiting for something to happen. In the mean time he "dances" and attempts to put together the characters.

"All you have to do is wait. Sit tight and wait for the right moment. Not try to change anything by force, just watch the drift of things. Make an effort to cast a fair eye on everything. If you do that, you just naturally know what to do. But everyone is always too busy. They're too talented, their schedules are too full. They're too interested in themselves to think about what's fair."

A couple nights into their Hawaii vacation a prostitute comes to his door in the middle of the night. She says that a man in Japan paid for her, which turns out to be Yuki's father. He turns her down at first, but eventually gives in.

She gives him a card with her phone number, which turns out to make a connection later.

The novel begins to revolves more and more around a high-class prostitution ring. A special club that only superstars and men with money and power can be apart of. After his night with the Hawaii prostitute, June, this is the third woman he has had sex with from this club, and the third to just disappear.

"But how did I get to this spot? It started with me looking for Kiki, except that I didn't know that was her name at the time. I'd retraced my steps to Sapporo, and ever since there's been one weird character after another. And now, look at me, lying in the shade of a coconut palm, tropical drink in hand, listening to Kalapana."

First Clue: Unrequited Love

2008-02-27T13:25:00.002Z

The Narrator's first connection is made when he sees a movie starring one of his old classmates. The movie is pretty cheesy, but the he is surprised to find that Kiki is in one of the scenes. After, viewing the film numerous times he heads back to Tokyo to find his classmate.

Before leaving the Dolphin his receptionist friend asks if he can escort a 13-year-old guest (Yuki) back to Tokyo because he eccentric photographer mother forgot her. He reluctantly agrees, but eventually finds a useful yet unusual friendship in the young girl.

"Aside from that one cameo, Kik appeared in no other scene. Forget the dumb plot, I was all eyes at the screen, and I know she wasn't anywhere. She was destined to be a one-night stand, witness to one fleeting scene in Gotanda's life, before vanishing forever. That was her role. The same as with me. Suddenly she's there, she sees what there is to see, then she's gone."

"This is real. There is no mistake. We are connected."

When he arrives in Tokyo the narrator meets up with his old classmate Gotanda. They have a great night out on the town where the protagonists learns Gotanda met Kiki through a private prostitution club, but she disappeared and he hadn't seen her since.

After the encounter with Gotanda and Kiki's former colleague (the men call prostitutes to their home for a night cap) we are at a bit of a dead-end because no one seems to have any information on Kiki's whereabouts. She seems to have vanished into thin air. However, now that connections are being made the plot thickens with new characters and a unique encounter with his young friend Yuki.

Yuki tells the narrator that she knows he saw the Sheep Man, but she doesn't explain herself as of yet.

At this point I can't put the book down. Right when the mystery seems to be unfolding Murakami writes in another spin and changes the direction of the novel. Although the protagonist is quite normal and almost pathetic on the surface, the deeper Murakami allows the reader into his psyche the more I feel for him, and can identify with his emotions.

"My awareness for things around me has sharpened. I was moving forward intently, one step at a time. I had focus, a goal. Which somehow, quite naturally, lightened my step, almost gave me soft-shoe footwork. This was a good sign. Dance. Keep in step, light but steady. Freshen up, maintain the rhythm, keep things going. I had to pay careful attention where this was leading me to next. Had to make sure I stayed in this world."

Sheep Man's Advice

2008-02-27T12:35:00.004Z

The main character finds that he belongs to the mystery room on the 15th floor of the Dolphin Hotel. That it is his switchboard that connects his past with his future. That his beginning and ending happens in this place that serves as a portal between two worlds and the Sheep Man that he meets there hold the key to unlocking his past and finding all of the things which he lost.

When the protagonists meets the Sheep Man he is able to begin the journey in unraveling his past. He tells the narrator that all he can do is Dance in order to make the right connections and to find the things he has lost.

The Sheep Man's advice:

"You got to dance. As long as the music plays. You got to dance. Don't even think why. Start to think, your feet stop. Your feet stop, we get stuck. We get stuck, you're stuck. So don't pay any mind, no matter how dumb. You got to keep the step. You got to limber up. You got to loose what you bolted down. You got to use all you got. We know you are tired, tired and scared. Happens to everyone, okay? Just don't let your feet stop."

If he can seek out the past then the Sheep Man will make all the connections and hopefully it will lead him to Kiki.

"No matter how out of focus the picture, I had to unravel each strand patiently . Unravel, then bind all together. I had to recover my world."

This is where the story starts to come together for me. I'm finally able to find out what the Sheep Man and the Dolphin Hotel are all about, and I'm pulled into this time-warp where a talking half-man half-sheep has the key.

I love the way Murakami allows this scene to play out. He writes it in a manner that blurs the line between the worlds, but I'm left knowing that they are separate and distinct.

Dance Dance Dance

2008-02-20T21:29:00.005Z

The story begins with the main character awakening from a persistent dream. A dream that he blurs with reality. In it he is being drawn to a hotel where he once stayed with a nameless hooker. She is crying out from him, and he is desperate to help, but is not sure if he is ready for the journey.

"All indications are that I belong to this dream continually."

"She is definitely calling for me. From somewhere in the Dolphin Hotel. And apparently somewhere in my own mind, the Dolphin Hotel is what I seek as well. To be taken into that scene to become part of that weirdly fateful venue."

The protagonist knows that he must go back to the Hotel, but he fears that when he does the simple life he has created for himself will vanish. He decides to go (somewhat against his will) because he feels it is the only way to escape the feeling of emptiness that enveloped him, and to reconnect with his past.

When Murakami writes about the main characters actions in getting to the hotel, his work, and basically all the matters that obtain to his 'real life,' his writing style is one of simplicity. He writes very matter of fact, short sentences that makes you feel the systematics of one's daily routine.

However, when he changes to the protagonist Internal Point of View Murakami gets quite flirty with his writing. It's unique and beautiful. This tends to make me get caught up in the characters hyperactive imagination; more then what is suppose to be the reality that he lives in. This writing style carries the story and adds to it's genius.

When the main character arrives at the revamped hotel the mystery begins. He starts a relationship with a receptionist, and she tells him of a strange encounter that happened to her at the hotel.

"But this wasn't a dream. You know dreams sort of fade after awhile? Not this thing. No way. It's always stayed the same. It's real, right there before my eyes."

"Where the hell was I? I wasn't here at the Dolphin Hotel, that's for sure. I had crossed a line and entered this world in Limbo."

I am constantly immersed in the characters inner perspective, which becomes my perspective since the novel is written in first person. I get get lost and forget what is reality and what is the characters imagination. That's why I love Murakami. The line between this world and the next is almost unseen.