Wind/Pinball: Two novels

About

Murakami's first two novels, presented together for the first time. In Hear the Wind Sing, a college student spends a listless summer in his coastal hometown, drinking beer, listening to records, and trying to understand a girl with nine fingers. In Pinball, 1973, the same narrator becomes obsessed with a specific pinball machine, searching Tokyo's warehouses and back rooms for a model that may no longer exist. These early novels are raw, short, and unmistakably Murakami — the deadpan voice, the pop-culture references, the melancholy that hides behind casual observation are all here in embryonic form. They're the sound of a major writer finding his frequency. The origin story of a literary voice — two short novels where everything Murakami would become is already audible, just barely.