One thing I noticed was the continuous appearances of coincidences throughout the book. Two very obvious ones: 1) When Toru finds out from Malta that he will receive an important call from "O", he immediately eliminates the liquor store, and that ends up being the call he receives. Although the meaning of this phone call (one of the motifs) is not revealed yet, it is interesting that the person that calls him is the one that Toru was 100% sure that it couldn't be. 2) After Toru comes out of the well in Book 2, and finds out that Creta also has been missing for a while, the first person he sees when he walks out is Creta. Further coincidences involving Creta include the one where she is the woman that shows up naked in bed (also the one he had wet dreams about).
Perhaps the coincidences are Murakami's way of placing emphasis on fate, other than Mr. Honda and the Kano sisters, who seem to have a grasp on fate and the future that surpasses the one of a normal human being, and also to intertwine the characters even more. All the characters seem to have bonds to Toru Okada, but none have direct links between each other, or none that we can see in the book. This is interesting as in centralizes the story even more around the main character and therefore allows for multiple story lines.
What do you think the coincidences are for? Are they casual or deliberate? Do they have a deeper meaning?
Some of the connections we don't work out until much later, but there is definitely a suggestion that incidents and events are fated. It is as though Toru is like one of those characters on a 'quest' who must find the answers to puzzles and negotiate obstacles, all the time testing his character and resilience. Actually, the characters are interlinked in many ways, and sometimes recur in a different form or guise. I felt often that I was in a labyrinth too. Wanting to solve the puzzle, and understand the coincidences and connections, is one reason we keep reading. (Also btw, in a novel like this, realism seems to me, a side issue.)
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