The narrator briefly reminds the reader of that story, which saw his girlfriend disappear after they had stayed at a run-down hotel in Hokkaido called the Dolphin.
In March 1983, the unnamed narrator travels back to Hokkaido in search of closure over the events of his past, from which he still suffers some trauma.
In great detail, she tells him that she got in the staff elevator but that it stopped at a non-existent floor, where she was temporarily trapped in a cold, dark, damp-smelling hallway.
He says that his job is to connect things and tells the narrator “Yougottadance.” (In the English translation, the Sheep Man’s words run together without spacing and only minimal punctuation.)
The narrator decides suddenly to return to Tokyo and is asked to chaperone a thirteen-year-old girl called Yuki, whose mother has forgotten her.
When he is released with the help of Yuki, who has called her father for legal assistance, the narrator goes to meet the girl and she tells him that she has psychic powers, which is how she knew of the Sheep Man.
Other common Murakami themes this novel includes are technology, alienation, absurdity, and the ultimate discovery of a human connection.
When someone asks the narrator his name, he replies, “Winnie the Pooh.” The supernatural character known as the Sheep Man speaks differently between the two versions.
The character speaks normal Japanese in the original work, but in the English translations, his speech is written without any spaces between words.
[2] Kirkus Reviews said that "Despite intentions and effects that are sometimes too strained", the novel was "a sobering descent into a contemporary hell—with a guide who's made it brilliantly his own dark literary domain.
"[4] Helen Birch, in The Independent lauded the book for its "Surprising, fresh images" and "an entertaining adventure that takes us to the frozen north of Japan, to Hawaii and to the dark, damp corners of the imagination" with "a downbeat commentary on consumerism and the Japanese work ethic, and to a smattering of pretty good jokes.
"[5] Herbert Mitgang, in The New York Times, appreciated Alfred Birnbaum's "hopping" translation which "valiantly interprets the author's numerous references to American music, books and movies."
He further noted the clash between east and west in Murakami's work, stating that "His rapid-fire style and American tastes seem deliberately designed to break any possible connection to traditional novelists from his own country like Kōbō Abe, Yukio Mishima or Yasunari Kawabata, Japan's only Nobel laureate in literature.
"[6] In the Los Angeles Times, Michael Harris said that the novel demonstrated "Murakami’s colloquial, wisecracking style, ably translated by Alfred Birnbaum" and "successfully mixes genres—the philosophical quest, the topical satire, the whodunit" while the characters "are vividly drawn, no matter how unlikely the situations they encounter."
Although he found that "The narrative voice ... pulls like a diesel", he also noted that "Loose ends dangle from the novel" and questions are left unanswered.