Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
by Haruki Murakami
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These stories were translated beautifully by Philip Gabriel and Jay Rubin who have translated many of his other books. Gabriel did the English translation of Kafka on the Shore, for example.
My favorite story is "Chance Traveler...more
So. There was a guy I knew from smoke breaks at RH who happened to be like head of marketing for a bunch of the big imprints. He made me a casual offer one time that if there was any book I needed (in his division), I had to but ask and he would find it for me. First I swooned. Then, tentatively, a few weeks later, I asked him for the new Barrico. And he got it for me! Emboldened, I later reque...more
After that experience, ...more
Let's just say you should not expect too much. I dont like his first novel Norwegian Wood. Don't ask me why, I just don't like it as much as I like Banana Yoshimoto's.
But this book changes my mind. It's a short story compilation and from the first intro Haruki-san wrote in the first pages, I sort of understand how he works. We are ...more
Interestingly, Murakami considers himself a short story writer, and finds it difficult to grind away every day on something cohesive...more
Although I enjoyed many of the stories in Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, I found they came up a bit short of my (very high) expectations.
Perhaps it's because they seem like test strips for his novels, a place for him to practice before he digs into the longer work. He does address this in his (really nice) author's intro: "There was a period when narra...more
Murakami is heavily influenced by the Western culture, and it comes out in his stories. Every musician and writer ment...more
blind willow, sleeping woman:
3 out of 5. excellent writing of course, but frankly, confusing and little to NO explanation.
birthday girl:
4 out of 5. loved it. wish it gave just a bit MORE at the end... but i'm not sure if it would have been as good if it had.
new york mining disaster:
3.5 out of 5. again with the surreal confusion - yet i'm still drawn to it!!!
airplane: or, how he talked to himself as if reciting poetry:
4.5 out of 5. he...more
Not as essential or striking as his novels (a...more
my faves in this collection were: birthday girl, airplane: or how he talked to himself as if reciting poetry, hunting knife, a perfect day for kangaroos, man-eating cats, the year of spaghetti, tony takitani, firefly, hanalei bay, where i'm likely to find it, the kidney-shaped stone that moves every day, and a shinagawa monkey... ahh, that's about half the book. anyway. i liked the other...more
Murakami is a fan of the ambiguous ending or the ending that isn't. In other words, nearly all of the short stories don't have a traditional ending that ties up loose ends or resolves stuff. They just sort of end. Frustrating, but wonderful. It's hard to explain until you read for yourself.
For ...more
That being said, some of the stories (the longer ones) were quite enjoyable. They had a lot of the elements that make Murakami fun to r...more
























