Vintage The Elephant Vanishes: Stories

One of my favourite Japanese writers. There is no one else who can write about loneliness the way he does. Murakami's collection of stories is simply superb! I was struggling to find a good blip from this book, one that will give a proper sense of Murakami's style and material. It's a problem, because when I pick something out of context, it sounds plain and ordinary. If I pick something from his dream-like sequences it sounds kitschy. This would be messing with the impact of his stories, which aren't even close to being simple or over-cute... Profound is a better description fo Murakami's work, and mystic in an urban, understated kind of way. The Washington Post Book Review says (on the book cover) that Murakami "takes big risks." and one can see why they might say that. My strong impression is that fully half of his stories are drawn from his dreams, and you know how wonky dreams can get. His work often takes a sudden shift, or it stops, without full resolution. But it's okay, dangling bits can add to the richness of a good story. The story titles are quite illustrative: -The Wind-Up Bird and Tuesday's Women -Sleep -The Fall of The Roman Empire, The 1881 Indian Uprising, Hitler's Invasion of Poland, and The Realm of Raging Winds -The Little Green Monster -TV People -The Dancing Dwarf Aside from these dream-like stories he's got more matter-of-fact ones (see more titles below). One of Marukami's strengths is that he can write a story almost as one tells one in conversation, starting with the bit that made you think of it in the first place, mentioning 'real life' asides and in the process including the reader in a subtle and complex experience.

Received as advertised.

Llegó en buen estado. Es para un regalo.

Excellent Shipping time! The first story in the book was extremely intriguing! A great book so far!Haruki Murakami is a great writer indeed!

I first read this collection of short stories many years ago, really enjoyed them, and decided to buy them on audio CD as I like to listen to stories, either at home or while traveling. My only bugbear with this Naxos CD collection is that it does not come with a booklet, - it's just the 8 CDs, no details at all about what's on them. So if you want to know which track/cd corresponds with which story you need to go onto the Naxos website and download and print the 20-page booklet out yourself. Considering this CD isn't cheap (£20-30) I would have thought they could at least have provided the information booklet with it!! Hence me giving the product 4 stars instead of 5.