Chloe's post #3

I'm not sure if I was the only one who thought this, but the relationship between the wife and the blind man in "Cathedral" seemed a little too close for comfort. I kept on thinking that the blind man would reveal himself to not be blind at some point, or that he would make a move on the wife, but this never came to fruition. It seemed to me that the narrator was a little resentful of the relationship they shared, since the wife told this man everything about the narrator and their marriage.  But I liked that the story took a turn with the narrator and the blind man bonding and the latter helping the narrator to "open his eyes", so to speak. 

The "Barn Burning" story ended on a slightly creepy note for me (not sure if that's the right adjective). The way the boyfriend described the barn burning and the way he planted that seed in the narrator's head was very deliberate. Upon first reading this, I didn't think that the barn burning translated to murdering women, but now I've realized that I get that same creepy feeling when I think about serial killers methodically targeting victims. It also falls in line with the girl's disappearance, but initially I had just chalked that up an innocent exit. She did seem to be the type of Murakami female that could disappear without a trace, much like the girl with the special ears, but perhaps the reason behind her disappearance was more sinister. I didn't think the boyfriend had that much of a role to play at first, because the way Murakami framed it was that the focus of the story was on the relationship between the girl and Boku. But as with "Cathedral", the focus shifted from that relationship to the one between the two men. My initial impression of the boyfriend in "Barn Burning" was that he was harmless, a kind of colorless guy. But after he smoked with Boku and as he described the barn burning, he appeared to be vaguely menacing to me.