Rereading has become a major part of my reading life. Giving a novel a second read allows me, as a reader, to see why I enjoyed a work of fiction from my initial reading. There are things about the story I didn’t notice before that I’m now seeing. I consider most of the books I’ve reread to be favorites (worthy of a second reading), and I’ve had positive experiences returning to those fictional worlds. However, nothing in life is one hundred percent positive, and I was bound to have a rereading experience that would be negative.

This is the case with my reread of A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami. Ironically, reading it for the first time in 2016 made me a Haruki Murakami fan, and I immediately declared it one of my all-time favorites. Change is inevitable, as the old saying goes.

I will share the basics of the story from my initial review in 2016:

A Wild Sheep Chase tells the story of an unnamed protagonist who receives a postcard for an insurance ad. However, the ad includes an image of a sheep with a star on its back. The postcard draws the attention of a shadowy figure who demands the unnamed protagonist go find this unusual sheep or suffer the consequences. The protagonist begins a journey that takes him to the remotest part of Japan to find this sheep. What he discovers is something that shakes him to his core and reveals an identity he had not realized.

I confess to using an analogy, where I likened the protagonist’s journey to the parable of the Good Shepherd (Luke 15), where Jesus leaves the ninety-nine to save the one lost sheep.

Why did my opinion change after rereading it? I did not have any connection to the protagonist. He seemed to be someone who was drifting through life and did not have any sense of his true self. Admittedly, I thought it can have been a cultural difference (American vs Japanese) as well. However, my fundamental problem with this reread of A Wild Sheep Chase was that I found the protagonist thoroughly unlikeable; his actions and motivations felt flat and uninspiring. To be invested in a story, I, as a reader, have to find some aspect of the protagonist that is sympathetic or engaging.

Writing the last paragraph was challenging because A Wild Sheep Chase used to be one of my all-time favorite novels, but not anymore. Also, I have learned that where you are in life can totally change your perspective on a work of fiction. Nine years had passed since I first read A Wild Sheep Chase, and a lot has happened in my life. My perspective, in my fifties, differs from that of the thirty-something protagonist.

In short, A Wild Sheep Chase remains an excellent novel, artistically, and it’s easy to see why it propelled its author to international acclaim. I’m glad I reread the book, and it has given one of my best lessons in my reading life.