His noble, Don Quixote-like, struggle against big business and faceless power is in the past: capitalism has arrived and conquered. Toru’s new quest takes him on a ride through a world which seems to have changed immensely in a few short years. Of course, this can only go on for so long, and, with cries from a lost friend echoing through his head, he decides to return to the eerie Dolphin Hotel in Sapporo. After a six-month mourning period, ‘Toru’ has tried to slip back into his monotonous daily life, writing excellent, but ultimately pointless, restaurant reviews for women’s magazines and generally coasting through life without casting a shadow. The story takes up events four-and-a-half years on from the end of ‘A Wild Sheep Chase’. In these three books (the two novellas ‘Hear the Wind Sing’ and ‘Pinball, 1973’, plus Murakami’s first full-length novel, ‘A Wild Sheep Chase’), we learn about our nameless hero (let’s call him Toru…) and meet some of the characters discussed in ‘Dance, Dance, Dance’ – including the enigmatic Sheep Man… Technically speaking, ‘Dance, Dance, Dance’ is not part of ‘The Trilogy of the Rat’ realistically, however, to get the most out of this novel, it helps to have read the trilogy first. Yes, the Sheep Man is back, and so is Murakami’s first (anti) hero.
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