Review of The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

Murakami’s shortest published work (by a long way) is a fable of sorts that does not provide enough to justify a price tag matching that of his longest novels.

Coming from a long-time Murakami fan (I own every one of his English publications) it feels almost like sacrilege to say it but I was disappointed by The Strange Library. A lot of fuss was made in the media about this book, about the illustrated aspects of it, but most of the illustrations were pages from old reference books that didn’t resonate with me personally on an artistic level. Of course, that could be down to me, but I don’t think anyone could feel that they got their money’s worth with this, a short story that can be finished in less than ten minutes.

When you add into this the fact that this story was translated from a book aimed at children in Japan, it seems that the publishers have put a lot of hype into something that didn’t deserve it. That isn’t to say that The Strange Library isn’t an enjoyable read because every fan of Murakami will enjoy it, and every fan will probably want to add it to their collection like I did. However, while I have re-read all of Murakami’s novels at least once (and some multiple times), I can not imagine myself ever returning to Murakami’s Strange Library in the future.

There you have it. A very short review for a very short story.