A Wild Sheep Chase book review

 A Wild Sheep Chase is a very profound novel, I thought it would be an Asian horror novel before I started reading this book. However, I was confused from the first chapter. The writer’s approach to writing is quite different from the novels in Europe or North America. For example, the novel does not have a specific idea that the author wants to convey, everyone can get different thoughts and feelings. The narrative approach is very implicit, has distinctive oriental characteristic.

The main story line is looking for a sheep with the brown star stripes on its back. In my opinion, the sheep symbolizes the root of militarism, the evil in the human heart. According to my history knowledge, Japanese imperialism in Japan's modern war of aggression is actually the logic of colonial imperialism internalized in Europe and America. This is the logic attached to this sheep, the secretary believe the sheep gave his boss power and he desired to get the same power and succeed in his career. Therefore, he led the main character to search for the sheep.

When the sheep parasitized on the body of “rat”, he refused. He doesn't want to be a zombie. He loves his boring and cowardly life. Even if you can't live as you want, you must live as you want, even if this life is full of boredom and cowardice. The “rat” tells us that a boring life is not the most terrible, because almost everyone is, the most terrible is not to live their own. Therefore, “rat” committed suicide in the end, killed himself with the sheep. “rat” is not only fragile, but also brave, he knew he could not resist the "sheep", so he ended his life to declare everything. But those who dare to face death will not be weak. Perish together is also the value in east Asia culture. After his death, he set a trap to kill the secretary, completely wiped out the dark forces. Here shows the relationship between individual and community: Individuals always have responsibility to the society in Asian culture.

Man should transcend nation, race, nation, and be an independent being. Any racist killing in the name of a country, in the name of religion, is unjust and despicable. So the sheep had to be killed, and the secretary had to be killed. Such a thing should not lead Japan astray and breed Militarism again.

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