The second book in the "Trilogy of the Rat" series, it is preceded by Hear the Wind Sing (1979) and followed by A Wild Sheep Chase (1982), and is the second novel written by Murakami.
An omnibus English edition of Murakami's first two novels (Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973), under the title Wind/Pinball, with translations by Prof. Ted Goossen of York University, was released in the United States in August, 2015.
He describes living with a pair of identical unnamed female twins, who mysteriously appear in his apartment one morning, and disappear at the end of the book.
Wells, which are mentioned often in Murakami's novels and play a prominent role in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, occur several times in Pinball.
J the bartender - J is a 45 year old Chinese man and he owns a bar where the protagonist and the Rat used to go frequently during their university days.
Pinball 1973, as well as the Rat Trilogy in general, introduces themes known today as classic Murakami tropes such as the appearance of the uncanny into the mundane.
The novel also hints vaguely at supernatural occurrences (which often appear in Murakami's fiction), for instance with the anthropomorphic presence of the three-flipper Spaceship pinball machine.
However, the protagonist's calmness appears to be a protection against the loss he went through in the first novel of the trilogy, which explains his attitude of detachment.
"[3] Likewise, Karl Williams in The Michigan Daily said that "One can see the scaffold upon which Murakami would build his illustrious career.
"[5] Steve Erickson, for The New York Times, wrote that the Pinball half of the two was stronger: "With its more assured voice, its greater mastery of tone and the confidence of a sharper and more mature whimsy, 'Pinball, 1973' demonstrates the extent to which the author was already progressing in leaps.
"[6] For Chicago Tribune, Nick Romeo said: "Both books are powerful, unsettling, mature novels, replete with many of the same distinctive traits that characterize his later fiction: jazz, beer, a gentle surrealism, a tendency to treat the strange and the mysterious as mundane facts of life and characters haunted by an ineffable, pervasive melancholy, a kind of metaphysical perplexity that arises from the basic nature of being human.
"[7] In The Guardian, Ian Sansom wrote that the novellas lacked story, though "What keeps the reader engaged are the Murakamian swerves, the long shots, the non sequiturs and the odd adjacencies.
"[8] Another review in The Guardian, written by Hannah Beckerman, noted that "For newcomers, these early works are an excellent introduction to a writer who has since become one of the most influential novelists of his generation.
"[9] Chris Corker, reviewing the novellas for The Japan Society, said: "Murakami fans will find enough familiar elements here to feel at home, yet this is also this collection’s weakness.