Pinball by Haruki Murakami
Pinball, published in 1980 by Japanese author Haruki Murakami is the second book in the "Trilogy of the Rat" series. It is preceded by Hear the Wind Sing and followed by A Wild Sheep Chase and is the second novel written by Murakami. The theme continues into Pinball 1973 which takes place three years after Hear the Wind Sing . This virtually plotless book alternates between describing the life of the narrator and that of his friend, The Rat. It tells the tale around the narrator's brief but intense obsession with pinball, his life as a freelance translator, and his later efforts to reunite with the old pinball machine that he used to play with. He works from ten to four in a comfortable office and earns a generous amount of money. Despite this, the narrator seems bored and somewhat dissatisfied with his life. The Rat still doesn’t know what to do with his life. He’s mulled over it and lost sleep at night thinking about it. At the end, still uncertain about what to do but...