Readers may be curious about Haruki Murakami due to the rave reviews of his full-length novels (ex: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 1Q84, Kafka on the Shore), and their popularity in translation throughout the world. Those who may have resisted the call to undertake his lengthy and fantastic works might be encouraged by starting with Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, a collection of 24 short stories. With varying lengths and levels of inscrutability, the stories contained in the book are an excellent and accessible introduction to Murakami’s magical realism. The book could be described as a sampler of his gorgeous symbolism and elusive but incisive reflections on universal experience. Each story contains a provoking vision of the human condition, including such themes as: predestination; haunting choices and consequences; yearning for individual meaning; withstanding loss of love and identity; loneliness and isolation. The joys of Murakami’s prose justify the praise he has received, and any effort to decipher the layers within the tales Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman will encourage new fans to his other works. Once experienced in small bites, many will be lured into his novels-thereby immersing themselves more deeply and lingering longer in his beautifully rendered worlds.

 

Good for: Readers new and old to Murakami; those looking for International Fiction in translation; highly rated award-winners; fans of fully formed but linked short story collections; psychological and symbolic works of fiction.

 

You may like this book if you like: Kazuo Ishiguro, David Mitchell, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jorge Luis Borges and Vladimir Nabokov.

1 star stories: New York Mining Disaster, Airplane, A Perfect Day for Kangaroos, Dabchick.

2 star stories: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, Hunting Knife, A Poor Aunt’s Story, Nausea 1979,  The Year of Spaghetti, The Rise and Fall of Sharpie Cakes, The Ice Man, Crabs, Where I’m Likely To Find It.

3 star stories: Birthday Girl, Mirror, A Folklore for my Generation, Man-Eating Cats, Tony Takitani.

4 star stories: The Seventh Man, Chance Traveler, Hanalei Bay.

5 star stories: Firefly,  The Kidney-Shaped Stone That Moves Every Day, A Shinagawa Monkey.



Reading Murakami could be like looking at a painting. Sometimes, it makes perfect sense, sometimes it is frustrating, sometimes it is puzzling. But sometimes, it talks to you. And when it is does, it stays in your heart. While Murakami is best known for his surrealistic, dream-like storytelling, I’ve always preferred his stories that are firmly rooted on reality. And that is the reason I gave up on Wind-Up bird chronicles. It wasn’t the fault of the story but of its reader. As I’ve mentioned before, reading Murakami is like looking at a painting and whatever that you grasp, is completely reflective of you.


“Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” contains of 24 short stories which range from philosophical to plain out wacky, or should I say, dream-like. There are a few stories that are great, few that are thought-provoking and the rest are puzzling.

“Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman”, is a story of reflection and of stagnation of a young man.

“Birthday Girl” is about a girl being granted a wish on her 20th birthday and having it actually come true. The wish in itself is never elaborated, but is hardly the point. This is more of a what would you do story while trying to make a point on individuality.

"A Poor Aunt’s Story" could be an allusion of depression or any other sad emotion for that matter, if not about writing.

"The Rise and Fall of Sharpie Cakes", while puzzling and pointless at first, seems funny after having the prelude where Murakami reveals that it's about the literary world and what his opinion of it is.

"The Ice Man", again, was puzzling at first. While it seemed like a story about loneliness, change and marriage, it was clearly apparent that it was more than that. Then, I had the chance of reading that the "Ice Man" indicates a "gaijin" and from then on, the story seems horribly xenophobic. But then again, not knowing if it is indeed true, I'd like take it on it's face value, as hard that is now.

"Mirror" is a nice little spooky story that raises a question of individuality.

"A Folklore for my Generation" is (as much as I can recall) a nice little story that talks about love, sex and the relationship between the two.

"Man-Eating Cats", which was later developed into "Sputnik Sweetheart" is a nice story about life, the choices one makes and how your decisions can change you or devour you.

"Tony Takitani" is a story about loneliness, but I had the feeling that it was under-developed. There's a brilliant tale underneath that can be great if told right but the actual story felt as if it fell short.

"The Seventh Man", one of the better stories in this collection that talks about fear, letting go and facing your fear, getting strong and attaining peace.

"Hanalei Bay", again is a story of an old lady forming a motherly bond with two teenagers albeit having had a failed relationship with her dead son. It is about letting go, moving on and of realization.

"Firefly", later to be developed as the novel "Norwegian Wood", is one of the best stories, if not the best. The story is about teenage love, angst, letting go and of maturity. The allegory of Firefly is quiet apt and beautiful. Almost all of it present in Norwegian Wood, but it was much more realized, melancholic and better, not to mention its central theme of Life vs death being better handled than the theme of this one, maturity.

"The Kidney-Shaped Stone That Moves Every Day" comes right next to "Firefly" as the best of the lot. A deep psychological story about relationships and love, this one too, has a very nice allegory of a stone.

"A Shinagawa Monkey", a poignant tale of a monkey that steals names and about living life as you would wanna live it and taking the good and the bad on its stride.

1 star stories: New York Mining Disaster, Airplane, A Perfect Day for Kangaroos, Dabchick.

2 star stories: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, Hunting Knife, A Poor Aunt’s Story, Nausea 1979, The Year of Spaghetti, The Rise and Fall of Sharpie Cakes, The Ice Man, Crabs, Where I’m Likely To Find It.

3 star stories: Birthday Girl, Mirror, A Folklore for my Generation, Man-Eating Cats, Tony Takitani.

4 star stories: The Seventh Man, Chance Traveler, Hanalei Bay.

5 star stories: Firefly, The Kidney-Shaped Stone That Moves Every Day, A Shinagawa Monkey.



Reading Murakami could be like looking at a painting. Sometimes, it is easily understandable, sometimes it is frustrating, sometimes it is puzzling. But sometimes, it talks to you. And when it is does, it stays in your heart.

While Murakami is best known for his surrealistic, dream-like storytelling, I’ve always preferred his stories that are firmly rooted on reality. And that is the reason I gave up on Wind-Up bird chronicles. It wasn’t the fault of the story but of its reader. As I’ve mentioned before, reading Murakami is like looking at a painting. Whatever that you grasp, is completely reflective of you.


“Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” contains of 24 short stories which range from philosophical to plain out wacky, or should I say, dream-like. There are a few stories that are great, few that are thought-provoking and the rest are puzzling.

“Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman”, is a story of reflection and of stagnation of a young man.

“Birthday Girl” is about a girl being granted a wish on her 20th birthday and having it actually come true. The wish in itself is never elaborated, but is hardly the point. This is more of a what would you do story while trying to make a point on individuality.

"A Poor Aunt’s Story" could be an allusion of depression or any other sad emotion for that matter, if not about writing.

"The Rise and Fall of Sharpie Cakes", while puzzling and pointless at first, seems funny after having the prelude where Murakami reveals that it's about the literary world and what his opinion of it is.

"The Ice Man", again, was puzzling at first. While it seemed like a story about loneliness, change and marriage, it was clearly apparent that it was more than that. Then, I had the chance of reading that the "Ice Man" indicates a "gaijin" and from then on, the story seems horribly xenophobic. But then again, not knowing if it is indeed true, I'd like take it on it's face value, as hard that is now.

"Mirror" is a nice little spooky story that raises a question of individuality.

"A Folklore for my Generation" is (as much as I can recall) a nice little story that talks about love, sex and the relationship between the two.

"Man-Eating Cats", which was later developed into "Sputnik Sweetheart" is a nice story about life, the choices one makes and how your decisions can change you or devour you.

"Tony Takitani" is a story about loneliness, but I had the feeling that it was under-developed. There's a brilliant tale underneath that can be great if told right but the actual story felt as if it fell short.

"The Seventh Man", one of the better stories in this collection that talks about fear, letting go and facing your fear, getting strong and attaining peace.

"Hanalei Bay", again is a story of an old lady forming a motherly bond with two teenagers albeit having had a failed relationship with her dead son. It is about letting go, moving on and of realization.

"Firefly", later to be developed as the novel "Norwegian Wood", is one of the best stories, if not the best. The story is about teenage love, angst, letting go and of maturity. The allegory of Firefly is quiet apt and beautiful. Almost all of it present in Norwegian Wood, but it was much more realized, melancholic and better, not to mention its central theme of Life vs death being better handled than the theme of this one, maturity.

"The Kidney-Shaped Stone That Moves Every Day" comes right next to "Firefly" as the best of the lot. A deep psychological story about relationships and love, this one too, has a very nice allegory of a stone.

"A Shinagawa Monkey", a poignant tale of a monkey that steals names and about living life as you would wanna live it and taking the good and the bad on its stride.

So I recently took advantage of a huge discount with Tantor...between the sale prices and the discount, major score (just over $100)...here is what I have so far:

 

• Riley Jenson Series - All the books in CD's and MP3's, (I feel a series binge coming on)
• Perdition
• The Others Series - filled in the gaps with 3 I did not already have with audible
• Psy-Changling series - Picked up 3 I did not already have
• Animal Attraction
• Midnight Secrets
• The Morcai Battalion
• Lord of the Changing Winds
• Allie Beckstrom - picked up 3 of the books in the series
• Blind Woman, Sleeping Willow
• On The Hunt
• Hollows - Picked up books  4, 5  & 6
• Elder Races - Books 4-6 (1/2 way through 6 now)
• And picked up 6 other books as gifts.....

 

 

I just love a good sale with a bonus discount....... now I just need to figure out what to listen to next

 

Tokyo, Sunday 3 November 2013, 1944 local time

I'll borrow a page from the Penketron playbook, and put out a longish entry on a short and sweet book. but wait, BLIND WILLOW, SLEEPING WOMAN isn't actually a short book. it's twenty four short stories by that master of hyper-contemporary Japanese literature, Haruki Murakami, some 360+ printed pages of text or presumably in excess of 70,000 words+. so why does the adjective phrase "short and sweet" apply so easily to HM's output? possibly for the same exact reason that Murakami was resisted by the famous "Japanese literary establishment" in his first decade of writing 1979-1989, for his neo-contemporary, sweet without seeming substance, word-play without historical sweep, even 'superficial without profundity' surrealism and confection-like style. love or hate, though, Murakami remains the touchstone of 1990s-2010s Japanese letters, and if he lands the Nobel or if he doesn't he is still the number one name to discuss before you turn to talk of other J-greats, Ryu Murakami, Miyuki Miyabe, Natsuo Kirino, et al. do you like the neon-swept high-definition television screen lit up weekend paradises of Shibuya, Shinjuku and Roppongi? or is Japan to you its forgotten islands and wind-swept valleys deep in forgotten seaside prefectures? is your taste in dessert honey-dripping cinnamon apple goodness or do you think coffee should be black and bitter?

in a twist worthy of the surreal style of HM himself, a short work like this conversely inspired far more examination than a 1000 page tome on WW1. what can a reviewer say about an academic work filled with accurate statistics and day-by-day coverage of the micro-changes on the Western Front, when after all the 24 stories of BWSW offer a dozen possibilities or more of critical reading?

for example, just starting, I might point out
* Birthday Girl's double inclusion in this and After Dark (?) to inspire separate effects in each collection
* 'How He talked to Himself as if Reciting Poetry's' intertextual reference to Raymond Carver's most storied story
* Hunting Knife and hidden revelation about J feelings on the US
* 'A Perfect Day' being Salinger redux
* Nausea 1979 on a friend who might be the nauseating
* Sharpie Cakes' allegory being revealed in the preface
* ice Man's verbal similarity to 'Gaijin'
* Crabs and the Sinic English speakers?
etc. etc. etc.

Rather than dwelling on each piece, or rather, before dwelling on each piece, I guess the most intelligent thing to point out is that, possibly in the year 2050, some scientific/CS/IT analytical solution of human minds will point out that the fact that a CD album and a novel or short story collection are not coincidentally about 2 MB or data each (up to 4, depending on resolution). in other words, a year's output as a single, discreet artistic object are in some bizarre coincidence, almost exactly the same amount of binary data. well, most pop music is actually a collaborative output, but then, so to speak, writers exist in a unseen team of agents, publishers, marketers,, and critics. do were merely conclude that 2 - 4 MB of data is just enough coverage to examine in whole, race, sexuality, culture, and philosophy? and if so, does BWSW cover all those bases, in particularly with reference to Takitani, Hanalei Bay, Dabchick, and NY Mining Disaster? and is the last a dream dreamt of by asphyxiating miners or are the miners dreamt of by the modern Tokyo twenty-somethings?

I think any Haruki Murakami work has to include the simple fact that surrealism and strange imagery, strange juxtaposition does of course carry its own charm and possibly even its own message. perversely, the more Murakami seems to in this work communicate nausea or uneasiness about the foreign, the more spectacularly well-liked his work is by the foreign audience. one of the things about HM, of course, is that he is actually a pro-foreign writer in a way Mishima certainly was not, and that probably Kawabata will never be thought of as. even Soseki's outside country characters don't seem spectacularly front and center, this is possibly the challenge of J-lit and it's source of appeal. what is meant to be said is that simply exclusion is its own justification.

in any case, this review is probably reaching its justifiable length regardless of prior attitude or commitment. if you are unsure whether to commit to the time and effort of this work, do HANALEI BAY, do the title piece, and maybe TONY TAKITANI, and if none of the three strike a chord, probably the collection as a whole will be a loss. however, if you are a Murakami fanatic and Norwegian Wood seems written "just for you," of course plenty of discussion inspired ascertaining exactly whether Murakami is a limousine liberal of the upper-middle class, a channeler of the sentiments that exist in the Friday night kitchens of Aoyama, or whether his work is going to spectacularly endure for three centuries as the first J-writer to escape the weight of pre-war Japanese tradition. 

in any case, this is perhaps the classical Murakami short story collection. surrealism meets actual narration, and exceeds AFTER DARK in its sweep of the human life, history both personal and national, as well as possibly the most elegant case study of juxtaposition ever written, NY MINING DISASTER.