“The Wind Up Bird Chronicle” by Haruki Murakami takes its name from an elusive whirring sound the novel's lead character, Toru Okada, hears outside his window every morning.

The subtle meaning of the wind up bird is just out of reach of the reader’s consciousness, circulating every now and then as an omen for what will come and a metaphor for what has happened in the past, or, maybe it is just a bird.

Toru Okada is a low-keyed, Van Halen T-shirt-wearing 30-year-old conflicted about his recent unemployment and his questioned masculinity at having his wife support him. Listening to Bob Dylan, reading Turgenev, eating spaghetti and Dunkin’ Donuts, Toru is a composition of the new, hip Nippon youth on overload with product placement ads. He begins to question reality when his wife’s cat disappears and then his wife turns up missing, too. What happens to him would not happen to a responsible person confined by the frenetic daily grind of an 8-to-5 job within the traditionally male-dominated Japanese work ethic.

In fact, the search for responsibility could be the one constant theme in the novel and meta-novel passing above the reader's head like the twittering wind up bird. Toru’s search for his wife leads him to a netherworld under Tokyo, his quest aided by a strange cast of characters reminiscent of the pilgrims in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales.”

He meets an aging army officer who relates his experience at watching a captured fellow solider skinned alive by the opposing Chinese during the Japanese campaign in Manchuria. He encounters psychic sisters who relate the perverse activities of a malevolent but media-savvy politician. He delves into Japanese culpability for World War II via a healer oddly named Nutmeg Akasaka and her son, Cinnamon.

Through Toru’s descent into purgatory Murakami has crafted a novel which investigates Japanese postmodernism as it confronts traditional oriental values assimilating occidental culture, synthesizing East and West into contemporary Japan. Like a Dante leading the reader through an Inferno of historical Japanese sins, one senses immediately the struggle of a modern nation grappling with atrocities of the past. In this sense, Toru Okada is a Japanese “Everyman” and the broader theme of rectifying historical guilt concerns almost every nation.

If you would enjoy a Kafkaesque mix of punk rock sci-fi, gumshoe detective novel, and social history, this novel is for you. Make sure you have the Jay Rubin translation. Given Murakami's eclectic mix of East meets West, the following menu is in order, based on his self-imposed exile in the Mediterranean. Put on Rossini’s “The Thieving Magpie” and enjoy.

KUKIMO’S COOL AND SPICY CUCUMBER SALAD

2 medium cucumbers
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon white vinegar or rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco
1/2 teaspoon salt

Peel and quarter the cucumbers length-wise.
Remove seeds and slice julienne style.
Combine cucumber with all other ingredients and chill completely.


MR. WIND UP BIRD’S CHICKEN TETRAZZINI
This American dish was actually named for famed Italian opera star Luisa Tetrazzini in 1871.
3 cups cooked chicken
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 jar Alfredo sauce
1 can sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1/4 cup cooking sherry or dry sherry
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Small package thin spaghetti, cooked

Stir together chicken, 1/2 cup Parmesan, and next seven ingredients.
Add pasta and pour into a lightly greased 7x11-inch baking dish.
Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes until heated through and bubbly.
Could not be easier.
Serve with a salad and artichoke garlic bread.


CRETA KANO’S SEDUCTIVE ARTICHOKE GARLIC BREAD

1 loaf French bread
1 brick Jack cheese
12 ounces can artichoke hearts
16 ounces sour cream
2 tablespoons minced garlic (to taste)
Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon butter

Drain and chop the artichoke hearts.
Cut the jack cheese into small cubes.
Mix the hearts, jack cheese and sour cream in a large bowl.
Slice the loaf of French bread down the middle and take out the inside part.
In a large skillet, heat the butter and garlic, then add the extracted bread and brown.
Mix the bread in with the sour cream mixture and scoop into the French bread halves.
Top with Parmesan (or Romano) cheese and bake for 20 to 30 minutes.
From About.com's Southern recipes.


SUSAN’S PEACH AND CHERRY UPSIDE DOWN CAKE
Susan Russo is the author of NPR’s Kitchen Window series and the beautiful Web site FoodBlogga. Her original recipe uses fruits that are in season now.

1/2 cup butter (8 tablespoons)
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup fresh cherries, pitted and halved
3 to 4 small, ripe peaches, pitted and halved
1 cup flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, separated
1 cup granulated sugar
5 tablespoons orange juice
2 teaspoons orange zest
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat to 350 degrees.
Place butter in a 9-inch-round baking pan, and place inside of a warm oven until melted, about 5 minutes.
Remove from oven, and sprinkle brown sugar evenly over the butter.
Add the peach halves, cut side down, then add the cherry halves, filling in all of the nooks and crannies.

In a medium bowl, combine sifted flour, baking powder and salt, and stir.
Using a hand mixer, in a metal or glass bowl, beat egg whites at high speed until fluffy.
Set aside.

In a separate bowl beat egg yolks with sugar at medium speed until creamy.
Add orange juice, orange zest, and vanilla extract, and beat well.
Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, and beat until well combined.
Fold in the egg whites with a rubber spatula.
Pour cake mixture evenly over the fruit, and smooth with the spatula.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until cake is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Place on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes.
Run a blunt knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the cake.
Invert carefully onto a plate.
Serve warm or at room temperature.


KAFKA’S PEARS
Kafka mentions pears in his 1912 diaries. This is an incredibly delicious and easy dessert to wind things up. Serves 4.

1 pint Haagen-Dazs Caramelized Pear and Toasted Pecan ice cream
1 pound cake
Place a slice of pound cake on a dessert dish and top with a scoop of Haagen-Dazs Caramelized Pear and Toasted Almond ice cream.
Sheer delight without heating up the kitchen.