“Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” is often heralded as Murakami’s most ambitious novel but I found “Hard-boiled” to be more nakedly philosophical and hyper surreal due to the science fictional element. All of the film references—John Ford? Who? ;)—added another layer of density for me. Nevertheless I eventually settled in about half-way through and ended it feeling particularly reflective and incredibly impressed. Murakami shows such a range in his works that, in my experience, is not often matched.