Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman - stories by Haruki Murakami

[grady]

This just came out last week stateside. It's a wide range of short stories from the past two decades or so culled from a variety of published sources ranging from the New Yorker, McSweeney's, Granta, Harper's, The Harvard Review, etc etc.

I've only made it about four stories into the collection thus far. My initial impulse which I've been resisting to quite well is to plow through the collection of stories in one fell swoop one evening. At this point I'm trying to savor each story, letting them resonate for a bit before having them all blur together.

So far they're pretty amusing and there is a pervasive sadness running concurrent through the four stories I've read. I'll probably end up finishing it by the end of the week despite plan to hold onto the book longer.

[winjer]

I nearly doubled over when I saw this in the window of the bookstore.

Unfortunatley consumed it entirely the next two days.

Murakami's style, I've decided, is quite a bit better suited to the short story form... its much easier for him to pull off his open-endedness and metaphysical mysteriousness when it's only a few pages long. Its a little harder to swallow when his 500 page novels remain seemingly devoid of resolution.

Anyway... amazing collection, despite a lot of them already appearing in the New Yorker and such...

[myshkin]

Originally Posted by winjer

I nearly doubled over when I saw this in the window of the bookstore.

Unfortunatley consumed it entirely the next two days.

Murakami's style, I've decided, is quite a bit better suited to the short story form... its much easier for him to pull off his open-endedness and metaphysical mysteriousness when it's only a few pages long. Its a little harder to swallow when his 500 page novels remain seemingly devoid of resolution.

Anyway... amazing collection, despite a lot of them already appearing in the New Yorker and such...

Dunno why or perhaps not bothering to choose to analyse why, but I can't really stomach reading literature except in book form, ie no enthusiasm for reading stories on a computer or, for less easily comprehensible reasons, in a magazine. Which is perhaps a good thing cos I don't buy any magazines. Anyway think I'll check out the collection mentioned. Have ...what is it...........Wind Up Bird Chronicle which I haven't given a look yet. Any opinions on it?

[winjer]

I find Bird Chronicle, along with Kafka on the Shore, to be one of Murakamis least accessible and ultimatley least succesful novels... its really just too damn big for its own good.

I highly reccomend starting your Murakami reading with either 'Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World,' 'Wild Sheep Chase,' or 'Norweigen Wood,' though its not very indicative of his normal style.

[ceramic'cow]

Oh no! I adore The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. It was the first Murakami novel that i read (I started with After the Quake, one of his collections of short stories) so that might have something to do with it, but i wouldn't have said that it had no resolution. I can understand that about Kafka on the Shore, although i still enjoyed that book.

I found Wild Sheep Chase to be very heavy going, and didn't really enjoy it at all, although having read Dance Dance Dance recently I'm almost inclined to go back and take another look at it.

Norwegian Wood is a gorgeous story, rather melancholy but sweet with it, and Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the Word is very good as well, but I think The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is my favourite.

[grady]

I'm on the same page(no pun intended) as winjer regarding The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. That was the last book by Murakami that I read and it felt very long and meandering, not that it's a bad book by any means, and I didn't enjoy it.

I started reading Murakami with A Wild Sheep Chase and then read all of his subsequent books in the order they were published. I'm glad I read his work in the order of publication. You can really see the progression of the writer and the way ideas developed and matured over the years.

Perhaps one my favorite of his novels, perhaps my favorite, is Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I think it's the perfect summation of his style and weird metaphysical writing that is always bordering on sci-fi.

Kafka on the Shore always struck me as another version of Hard Boiled Wonderland... just stretched out and rewritten, but adhering to a similar structure.

For someone new to Murakami I would recommend starting with a collection of short stories like The Elephant Vanishes or the novel Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World followed very closely by A Wild Sheep Chase. Hard Boiled has become my go to gift for people new to Murakami's writing. At this point I've probably given about 15 copies out to people over the past two and half years since I first read it in the Fall of 2004. The most recent copy I sent to B.miller for a birthday present as he and share the same B-day.

[GforGroove]

A friend send this to me and make my day !
I started it last night on the way back home...
Im a bit afraid about having a surprise like iN Kafka of the Shore. So far the least favorite Murakami in my collection. But this are short stories. anyway im all excited.

that anime based in Hard Boiled is going to be my new obsession this weekend... where can i find it?

About the options of Murakami, if you want to read the best book ever !!!
go and grab hardboiled wonderland and the end of the world.

[kid cue]

i haven't read Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, but i'm fairly certain Haibane Renmei isn't explicitly based on it--i love the series though, so i think i'll pick up the book soon

[Kennrr]

Originally Posted by kid cue

i haven't read Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, but i'm fairly certain Haibane Renmei isn't explicitly based on it--i love the series though, so i think i'll pick up the book soon

In an interview in the magazine [COLOR=#0000ff]Animerica[/COLOR], ABe stated that the series was inspired by [COLOR=#0000ff]Haruki Murakami[/COLOR]'s novel [COLOR=#800080]Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World[/COLOR], half of which takes place in a walled city with no apparent outside. Some fans believe the series contains influence from another Murakami novel, [COLOR=#0000ff]The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle[/COLOR], in which the main character spends a large amount of time at the bottom of a well.

take from wikipedia. so yeah, its not based off it but it definetly has a lot of things inspired by it and watching it you'll see a lot of things that were in the book.

[Kennrr]

Originally Posted by kid cue

i haven't read Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World

maybe you should read the book first?