In the introduction Murakami said, some of the stories from this short story collection later became the foundation of some of his novels. You can feel that while reading these 24, dream like stories, in the magical narration of Murakami.
Whenever, I read Murakami, two things come to my mind- Dream and Single malt. Yes yes, quite extreme, but still Murakami the Magician can bring these 2 extremes together to create the world, where I as a reader can get lost for days after reading the books.
Murakami's characters have a haunting melancholy around them and probably that is why I love his writing. There is a criminal monkey, a life long grief and then suddenly found salvation, a birthday girl, a phone call midst of making spaghetti, a man having affair with an older and mysterious woman, an ice man, and of course the blind willow and the sleeping woman and everything else, that you won't expect.
Murakami's world, in my opinion, is either a Hit or Miss. You may love it or hate it and those who love it, feel it very difficult to convince others in words, their reason for that love. Henceforth, I won't try that impossible.
I always take time to read Murakami and this last couple weeks, I was in a trance. I loved the surreal world that these stories created.
I could pick "A folklore for my generation" , "The mirror" and "The hunting knife" as my personal favorites from the book. However, if you want to travel into the Murakami Land... don't give this book a miss.
No comments:
Post a Comment