Collection of short stories ranging from the opening chapter of a novel to little snippets of ordinary lives. A lot of these deal with the sense of loneliness that can creep into the everyday life. Well written as ever from the author but short stories are just not my favourite form of prose. ( )

Murakami gives us 17 short stories, published in Japan in, I believe, mostly the 1980s, collected in English translations in 1993, and presented in a very readable paperback.

So these may be some of his first writings that have seen the light of day. They all have his mark of realism mixed with kinds of speculative fictiion.

With 70 reviews already, there is not much I could add, though I don't read other's ideas until I've posted mine. Each story was good in its way, some made me a bit uncomfortable, others entranced me. The final story, the title story, was a well chosen and excellent ending.
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A collection of quick & quirky short stories that feature not only vanishing elephants; but kangaroo comminiques, dancing dwarves, and little green monsters as well. ( )

Sort of strange; not sure I really get it but I did enjoy the stories. The everyday qualities of the characters at home etc reminds me of Raymond Carver. Many of those have a sense of hopelessness that I don’t think these stories have. They are all set in Japan but other than place names the characters don’t seem very foreign to me as a westerner. Very interesting and I plan to check out some of the authors longer works. ( )

More Murakami weirdness! Many outstanding short stories but also a few that didn't really excite me. Here are the best, in my opinion.

The wind-up bird and Tuesday's women (this is basically the first chapter of The Wind-up Bird Chronicles)
The second bakery attack
On seeing the 100% perfect girl one April morning
Sleep
Family affair
Barn burning
The last lawn of the afternoon
A slow boat to China

Other readers may have different opinions. I have to wonder though, how much was lost in translation. I kept getting the sense that there was a very clear message to a Japanese reader that I was just not getting sometimes. Also, he uses the same name for characters in different stories, Noboru Watanabe...why? The stories are not related to each other.

Regardless, an enjoyable collection and worth the read to get to know more about Murakami's writing.
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