In his sci-fi novel Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (2003, ISBN 978-0099-448-785), Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami weaves a cerebral tale of speculative fiction that explores the concept of parallel worlds. In one, a man finds himself tasked with reading the memories of previous residents of a walled town, by drawing out the information stored in animal skulls. For us here at WoWasis, the town is reminiscent of the village inhabited by actor Patrick McGoohan’s character in the old TV series ‘The Prisoner,’ where happiness is virtually guaranteed via the absence of each individual’s mind. This is accomplished by the excision of an individual’s shadow which, as it turns out, is the source of his or her memory.

The other world is a futuristic one in which two opposing political forces vie to control every facet of the life of the protagonist, whose brain has been altered to perform information processing tasks. In keeping with the theme of lost identity, the protagonist in neither world is given a name. A major reason the book carries such momentum is Murakami’s pendulum-like swings between short chapters involving each world, an effective way of keeping the reader involved with the characters in each sphere. 400 pages goes quite quickly in this book.

This book will appeal to readers who wouldn’t otherwise buy a science-fiction book. There are enough stories in today’s daily papers regarding chip implanting, genetic engineering, and governmental intrusion into virtually everyone’s online data, that the futuristic world portrayed in the book isn’t really that far-fetched. In terms of human relationships, Murakami tantalizes us. Their completeness is continually thwarted by the complexity of the technologies the author has so effectively created. In essence, the book is a dual-nightmare in which both main characters seem to be always running through molasses, striving to complete an end-game that eventually pulls these disparate worlds together. The book is riveting, and is a terrific intellectual exercise for readers looking for a well-written and thought-out tale of how life could be in a world where technology has run rampant.

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