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Title: The Elephant Vanishes : Stories by Haruki Murakami ISBN: 0-679-75053-3 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 28 June, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (28 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: this is Japan: bleak, empty, limping, uninviting
Comment: It is rare to find an author who perfectly encapsulates in art one's perception of a place or time. Murakami does that for me with Japan, where I lived for 2 years. He portrays that strange country as utterly lacking in inspiration, brutally crushing to any spirit of individuality, and full of cruel and meaningless obligations imposed from above. It is, in my view, unerringly accurate and perceptive, while deeply sad as I knew many people like those here but who would never be capable of articulating their ennui. These stories perfectly blend mundane detail with horrific violence and nihilism, in a mother who decides she longer needs to sleep to a man who has quit his job as a legal clerk walking in his backyard. The reality behind these characters and scenes - so black and yet so apparently normal - are believable to anyone who has lived and worked in Japan, though certainly not to tourists or other casual observers. As such, I believe that Murakami has done for modern Japan what Balzac and Zola did for 19th C France: the quality is that high, as is the irony and humor that permeates his work. I loved it, but it takes a strong stomach.
Highly recommended.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Must-Read -- Literature as it should be
Comment: Sometimes you start to read a book but you'e not ready for it. You should scrap it and pick it up again later in life. Any people (I specifically mean negative reviewers) who dislike Murakami should scrap reading him now, put his books carefully on the bookshelf and take one down during the next phase in your life because Murakami's incredible.
His writing is boiled down so far it is like a truffle. The essence carries far more mass than the thing. I saw a review that chastised his stories for having little plot. This to me is like being upset your PC isn't also a telegraph machine. You cannot look for plot in his stories. If you want action-adventure look elsewhere, but to suggest that there is no plot in his work is unfair. There certainly are plots, they are mostly based in emotion rather than action and are even surrealistic at times but they exist and they are riveting. In the story "Barn Burning" plot is nearly impossible to see until you finish the story and think about it -- but I would not dare suggest that this story lacks a point, direction, or entertainment. It's one of the best stories in the book and it only functions completely when you finish. Perhaps, Murakami forces us to reconsider what goes into a plot. They certainly are standard plots but this doesn't make them any less compelling. I think plot is overrated. Whoever thinks this book lacks plot also must think that Seinfeld is really about nothing.
What is most striking about Murakami's writing is how strange, smart, and unique his characters are. There is such style in their meanderings. These characters are 'bored but never boring' reads one piece of praise inside the jacket. This could not be truer. There are many great stories, and sure some may be on a lower level than others, but this should not stop you from reading them. What pulls you into his writing is the deep emotional yet intellectual viewpoint of the characters. Each one is lovable in a zany, almost impossible and certainly improbably, way.
One last point, it is possible that you can learn more about Japanese culture from this book than from reading many history books or other material. This book deals with a range of issues in its bizarre way while never sounding moralistic or at all attacking.
It is a pleasure to read.
Rating: 4
Summary: snippets of Haruki Murakami surreal magic, .. and some duds
Comment: Collections of short stories are often hit-and-miss affairs, and Haruki Murakami's The Elephant Vanishes is no exception. It contains both very memorable and rather forgettable stories. All of them have the Haruki Murakami surreal touch; modern Tokyo on drugs (if you will). Unfortunately the lead character in all his stories seem oddly the same, probably a thinly disguised version of Murakami himself.
Bottom line: no, not as good as his brilliant The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles. But certainly decent. Murakami fans will rejoice.
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Title: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel (Vintage International) by Haruki Murakami ISBN: 0679743464 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 02 March, 1993 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle : A Novel by Haruki Murakami ISBN: 0679775439 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 01 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Dance Dance Dance by Alfred Birnbaum, Haruki Murakami ISBN: 0679753796 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 31 January, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: A Wild Sheep Chase : A Novel by Haruki Murakami ISBN: 037571894X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami ISBN: 0375704027 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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