As I’m coming towards the end of this story (should be finished tomorrow) little things are starting to bother me. What’s the good of surrealism if it seems contrived?
As the characters progress on their journeys–which by the way, they seem to take for granted–too much is tied in to try to make it appear to make sense. For me, the magic of magical realism is that it needn’t make any sense at all.
There’s also an overload of philosophical discussion about life, how to behave within it, how dreams and reality are intertwined, how we are part of the whole and the whole is a part of us, but not left simply to metaphor. One or the other of the characters has to present it as a piece of advice to another character, or we’re inside somebody’s head as he ponders it to himself.
Murakami throws out some great theories, and then proceeds to expound upon them. I feel it is presented more in lecture form than a question offered up to the reader.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology