A Wild Sheep Chase

My first Haruki Murakami book. I've been reading it off and on since May by recommendation from a trusted friend. I'm not sure why I chose this as my first selection and perhaps something else might have served better as an introduction. Suffice it to say, I was a hair away from giving up when I reached chapter 11. It reads as follows:

"I dreamed about a dairy cow. Rather nice and small this cow, the type that looked like she'd been through a lot. We passed each other on a big bridge. It was a pleasant spring afternoon. The cow was carrying an old electric fan in one hoof, and she asked whether I wouldn't buy it from her cheap.
"I don't have much money," I said. Really, I didn't.
"Well then," said the cow, "I might trade it to you for a pair of pliers."
Not a bad deal. So the cow and I went home together, and I turned the house upside down looking for the pliers. But they were nowhere to be found.
"Odd," I said, "they were here just yesterday."
I had just brought a chair over so I could get up and look on top of the cabinet when the chauffeur tapped me on the shoulder. "We're here," he said succinctly.
The car door opened and the waning light of a summer afternoon fell across my face. Thousands of cicadas were singing at a high pitch like the winding of a clockspring. There was the rich smell of earth.
I got out of the limo, stretched, and took a deep breath. I prayed that there wasn't some kind of symbolism to the dream."

Well now, that's interesting! My curiosity has been peaked. Murakami's writing is very surreal. Very Kafkaesque. There is little logic as far as I can tell and yet I do not question it. I do hope that I can make it further. And I happily confess that chapters 12, 13, and 14 are even more mysterious. Although I find it cold that very few people have names in this book. The main characters so far have been "I" and "Rat". Hmm...