'Wild Sheep Chase' was the first book I bought at university - the cool cover design and trip blurb was to be an icon for the new chapter of my life entitled 'student'. The studies are somewhat behind me but in the years since, I have worked my way through Murakami's offerings and this is the latest in my sojourn. 'Underground' is a journalistic catalogue of the personal accounts of the survivors from the Tokyo sarin gas attacks in 1995, perpetrated by the infamous religious cult Aum Shinrikyo. Murakami saw the tragedy as an opportunity for Japan to take a good look at itself - to understand why the attack happened, to review the city's response to such an attack and to prevent it fading from public consciousness without lessons being learnt. The book is in two parts. Part one presents verbatim accounts of the fateful morning from as many victims as would speak to him. The second part of the book uses a similar format but this time Murakami presents accounts of past and present Aum members about how they came to become followers and their thoughts about the attack and the future of their religion.

The book is good but hard going in the sense that the accounts follow the same format and there are many. I don't mean this to trivialise the suffering, just that the repetitive nature can be hard to read in big chunks. The second part however I found to be increasingly interesting - is it bad that I found more in common with the Aum interviewees than the victims?! To explain, the religion is in essence based around an existential disillusionment with 'normal' society and its followers come together and find solace in like-minded individuals who are unable to make relationships with people in the 'real' world who share their beliefs and interests about the impermanence of life and the yearning to cleanse their spirit in preparation for an anticipated afterlife. They are sensitive, thoughtful, some lonely and pained, questioners and philosophers who I can't but help but think show traits that I like in people. To explain further, the religion is also very hierarchical and it is quite apparent from the testimonies that these Aum members were pure in the beliefs stated and not of the mindset of an 'inner-circle' of practitioners led by Shoko Asahara. It was he and his trusted 'masters' that abused and manipulated the original tenets of the religion to justify punishment, shock therapy and sending people to the afterlife (mass murder).

Murakami has created a rich topic of discussion and successfully brings to the fore issues that are prevalent in the modern world: disillusionment, fear, prejudice and a lack of understanding and communication between nations and groups. He deftly illuminates the Japanese psyche being part of the problem - of saving face, brushing things under the carpet, of wanting to forget and pretend things are ok. I was surprised at how few of the victims hated or spoke badly of the aggressors but this in turn spoke volumes about the problem Murakami saw and wants to address. He says that the problem is everyones and needs to be acknowledged to be solved. This isn't a book I'd necessarily recommend but then I think it is very well done and I'm glad I've read it - make of that what you will! ( )

Murakami deviated from his usual fiction diet in a quest to find out the truth behind the gas attack i.e. the stories behind the victims and the perpetrators. Some of the stories were very tragic and it was very brave of the family members and the victims to share with the public. Other than providing insights into the attack, the book is also unwittingly an intimate look into Japan's culture and its people through the reaction of the public to the gas attack on the day itself, and the reasons why members join the cult. ( )

Being a big fan of Haruki Murakami's fiction I opened this book with high expectations but unfortunately, was disappointed with the outcome. The first part of the book consisted of Murakami interviewing victims of the 1995 terrorist attack of the Tokyo subway system by the Japanese religious cult Aum Shinrikyo. Murakami set out to get as many as first hand accounts as he could, and you'd think reading all these accounts would be fascinating. But as insensitive as it may sound , after awhile the accounts started becoming very repetitive and frankly I became bored with them.
The second part of the book was even worse because Murakami wanting to give a fair an even account of the attack, interviewed members of the Aum cult. But the problem was, that in my mind, these people who allowed themselves be brainwashed by this cult, were complete idiots and I had absolutely no interest in reading about their sad pathetic lives. Boring with a capital B. ( )

Finally, read a Haruki Murakami book from beginning to end! Sure, it's non-fiction and made up of entirely from interviews of victims/members from the 1995 Sarin Gas subway gas attack by the by members of the cult movement Aum Shinrikyo. But I am counting this as my Haruki Murakami book, because I find myself agreeing with him, in that the media and these types of books focus entirely too much on the perpetrators of these crimes and not enough on the victims.

Shocking how under prepared Tokyo was for disaster at scale, considering the likelihood of catastrophic events striking Japan. The lack of help or authority during the attack was appalling. You can't help but think that while the number of victims may have remained unchanged, perhaps the severity and health outcomes would have been less serve if the authorities had acted with authority. The refusal of treatment by hospitals is particularly upsetting, and the number of willing bystanders in the face of the something like this is tragic. I hope that lessons learned from this attack will be applied for effect in the next event.

The second half focusing on the cult is interesting. The members and the rationale of their actions before and after the attack is enlightening. Perhaps playing them up as victims too, which sure cults are bad, that doesn't excuse them of individual culpability. I could live without this part. ( )

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