A mental exploration of the subconscious mind with spurts of outlandish concepts and dreamlike surrealism.Reading Murakami's short stories felt like having a box of chocolates in front of you, but you'll never know what you're going to get. And yep, there's unabashed sex here too. If you prefer your stories to be logical and realistic, then you need to veer away from this, but if you appreciate something bizarre with a lot of allegorical representation, by all means, sink your teeth into it and

Some authors excel at writing novels. Others excel at the short form. A few are equally adept at writing novels and short stories. From my reading of The Elephant Vanishes, Haruki Murakami is not one of those people. Here’s why:Murakami’s novels are lush affairs. By that I mean that his proto-typically lazy character has time. Time to develop interests, time to contemplate deeply, time to be affected, to become . . . something. The short form, by its very nature, does not allow the same luxuries...

"One impossible day, of an impossible month, of an impossible year.""All I wanted was to get back to my book.""In my own way, I'd like to believe I've got my own morals."A collection from the writer which I found quite good with the kind of writing that would hook the reader until the last page. A good collection of honest writing, genuine characters, relatable stories and lines I feel I would never get tired of reading a book by the author.*Contents:1. The Wind-up Bird and Tuesday's Women3 🌟*Wi...

There were some good stories, but overall I don't think Murakami is someone I would go to for short stories. He is terrible at conclusions for them, and only 1 or 2 stories left me wanting more. He is very very hit or miss with me and I'm finding a lot of misses with him lately. He has a very distinct style that shines through every novel he writes, but weirdly, I only like it sometimes.

apatheticEvery protagonist in Murakami's books (though, I've only read this and 'Norwegian Wood') are apathetic. They just float through their lives, never really caring about what is happening, or if there is anything they can do to fix it.I think to some readers this could be quite tedious, but there is something real about these characters because of their apathy. Through the bizarre situations the characters face, the reader can relate on some level.The first few stories did annoy me, as man...

One cloudy night in April, in a habitual relay of stalking the profiles of strangers on GR, I found The 100% Perfect Girl.To be truthful, she wasn't especially beautiful in her profile picture. Nor did any particular part of her profile jump out at me. Her bookshelves were all over the place, and she didn't seem to be that active on GR any more. She hadn't written many reviews either. However, the moment I clicked on 'Compare Books', I knew. She is The 100% Perfect Girl for me. When I saw that o...

Not only was the book amazing (I truly believe he can do no wrong), but one of my best friends and I saw an actual play of it several years ago at Lincoln Center. We had seats in the very front row. The play (as required, I'm sure) was balls-out crazy, all in Japanese, with a ticker doing subtitles at the the top of the stage. My memory sucks, but I think I recall a bunch of people with static-spewing TVs for heads, and some crazy shit with sideways sleeping people. Probably I should reread the

3.8The wind-up bird and Tuesday's women: ****The second bakery attack: *****The kangaroo communique: ***On seeing the 100% perfect girl one April morning: *****Sleep: *****The fall of the roman empire, the 1881 Indian Uprising, Hitler's invasion of Poland, and the realm of raging winds: **Lederhosen: ***Barn burning: ****The little green monster: ****Family affair: ***A window: ***TV people: *****A slow boat to China: ****The dancing dwarf: ****The last lawn of the afternoon: ***Silence: ***The

This is my third Haruki Murakami read and by far my least favorite. After Norwegian Wood and After Dark, I felt this author could do no wrong. Those two novels were vastly different from each other - one a simplistic-yet-moving coming-of-age story and the other a mindtrip into the streets and characters of nocturnal Japan - and I was hoping some of that mastery of story would show up in each one of these tales. I was sorely mistaken. My rating is based solely on the fact that I only liked 7 out

To Murakami's fans, I must apologize, because although I liked this collection of stories, I didn't love it. And from what I've heard, to read Murakami is to fall in love with him. However, if his novels mirror the dazzling, freakish, and surprising plot of Sleep,or have the tension that builds when you must follow outlandish characters, like the ones in The Second Bakery Attack, I'll read a Murakami novel again and again. Yet while I do admire the fragmentary poignancy of the narratives in this...

What can I say about Haruki Murakami? He is famous, both in Japan and abroad, although in the States those who know him tend to be Literary Hipsters who are interested in Asia. He writes novels and short stories, although his novels tend to be a bit disjointed and episodic, hinged like a Jacob's ladder. His short stories will always employ a simile at the top of the second page which may seem at times deep and yet simple. When I started reading The Elephant Vanishes, I wasn't really sure what I

Weird. No point in trying to understand why of a story. Just read and go with it.

This collection of 17 short stories are all geniusly written. They captivated me instantly from the TV guys who consistently make a haunting appearance in ‘TV People’ to the housewife who no longer needs shut eye in ‘Sleep’, with ‘The Elephant Vanishes’ concluding the chain of whimsical happenings ever-so vividly illustrated. I’ve always felt a bit daunted going into short stories because reading them requires a certain type of reader. One who is able to remain completely absorbed by the story,

Like the secretive, quiet fall of rain, they steal into the gloom... They say that surrealist author Haruki Murakami captures the 'common ache' of the 'contemporary heart and mind'. I thought this was a pretty spot-on description of some of his best short stories. I began reading Murakami in 2007, and he was a writer whose work and style resonated so strongly for me at that time where I'm confronted with the ambiguities of daily existence. He will always hold a special place in my heart as on

The Elephant Vanishes (TEV) is a compilation of 17 short stories which largely features loneliness, isolation and the act of breaking off the chains of conformity to modern Japanese highly expectant culture. Out of 17 stories here, 13 stories were a hit and the rest were okayish/pleasant enough.TOP 5 favourites in The Elephant Vanishes:1. Sleep"This is my seventeenth straight day without a sleep."God, I really really really loved Sleep. It's raw, honest and invigoratingly refreshing. It tells a

It ended up giving me serious déjà vu. When I was a kid, my father bought me a translated collection of world-famous fairy tales, and this one feels like a culmination of the sinister ones from that book, involving psychological monster metaphors and everything.But I’m currently at a loss at what the elephant factory meant. I’m taking a guess it’s magical realism, but somehow it felt like they were making up robotic elephants.