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On a Stone Pillow
- GenresShort Stories
17 pages, Unknown Binding
20 people want to read
About the author
Haruki Murakami
609 books134k followersHaruki Murakami (村上春樹) is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been best-sellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Gunzo Prize for New Writers, the World Fantasy Award, the Tanizaki Prize, Yomiuri Prize for Literature, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Noma Literary Prize, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Kiriyama Prize for Fiction, the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Fiction, the Jerusalem Prize, and the Princess of Asturias Awards.
Growing up in Ashiya, near Kobe before moving to Tokyo to attend Waseda University, he published his first novel Hear the Wind Sing (1979) after working as the owner of a small jazz bar for seven years. His notable works include the novels Norwegian Wood (1987), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994–95), Kafka on the Shore (2002) and 1Q84 (2009–10); the last was ranked as the best work of Japan's Heisei era (1989–2019) by the national newspaper Asahi Shimbun's survey of literary experts. His work spans genres including science fiction, fantasy, and crime fiction, and has become known for his use of magical realist elements. His official website cites Raymond Chandler, Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan as key inspirations to his work, while Murakami himself has named Kazuo Ishiguro, Cormac McCarthy and Dag Solstad as his favourite currently active writers. Murakami has also published five short story collections, including First Person Singular (2020), and non-fiction works including Underground (1997), an oral history of the Tokyo subway sarin attack, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (2007), a memoir about his experience as a long distance runner.
His fiction has polarized literary critics and the reading public. He has sometimes been criticised by Japan's literary establishment as un-Japanese, leading to Murakami's recalling that he was a "black sheep in the Japanese literary world". Meanwhile, Murakami has been described by Gary Fisketjon, the editor of Murakami's collection The Elephant Vanishes (1993), as a "truly extraordinary writer", while Steven Poole of The Guardian praised Murakami as "among the world's greatest living novelists" for his oeuvre.
Growing up in Ashiya, near Kobe before moving to Tokyo to attend Waseda University, he published his first novel Hear the Wind Sing (1979) after working as the owner of a small jazz bar for seven years. His notable works include the novels Norwegian Wood (1987), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994–95), Kafka on the Shore (2002) and 1Q84 (2009–10); the last was ranked as the best work of Japan's Heisei era (1989–2019) by the national newspaper Asahi Shimbun's survey of literary experts. His work spans genres including science fiction, fantasy, and crime fiction, and has become known for his use of magical realist elements. His official website cites Raymond Chandler, Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan as key inspirations to his work, while Murakami himself has named Kazuo Ishiguro, Cormac McCarthy and Dag Solstad as his favourite currently active writers. Murakami has also published five short story collections, including First Person Singular (2020), and non-fiction works including Underground (1997), an oral history of the Tokyo subway sarin attack, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (2007), a memoir about his experience as a long distance runner.
His fiction has polarized literary critics and the reading public. He has sometimes been criticised by Japan's literary establishment as un-Japanese, leading to Murakami's recalling that he was a "black sheep in the Japanese literary world". Meanwhile, Murakami has been described by Gary Fisketjon, the editor of Murakami's collection The Elephant Vanishes (1993), as a "truly extraordinary writer", while Steven Poole of The Guardian praised Murakami as "among the world's greatest living novelists" for his oeuvre.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 15, 2022
"Whether you cut it off
or someone else cuts it off
if you put your neck on the stone pillow
believe it—you will turn to dust".
or someone else cuts it off
if you put your neck on the stone pillow
believe it—you will turn to dust".
September 24, 2025
“Each and every moment, our bodies are on a one-way journey to collapse and deterioration, unable to turn back the clock. I close my eyes, I open them again, only to realize that in the interim so many things have vanished.”
October 15, 2022
it’s all about, memories
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March 8, 2025"On a Stone Pillow" by Haruki Murakami follows an unnamed man who recalls the experience of one intimate night which he spent with a co-worker and the events which transpired after.
Personally, I think with this story Murakami is trying to depict the complexity of human emotions, memory and the human psyche as a whole. The author cleverly conveys the oddness of human interactions and feeling; he indirectly asks us whether it all makes sense or not- the ever-changing wants and needs which we desire everyday.
Why do we desire these things? Why do our wants and needs change so frequently and without explanation? Why do people love despite the pain?
After reading this short story, I had to go into a repose in order to gather my thoughts and really think about these things.
Personally, I think with this story Murakami is trying to depict the complexity of human emotions, memory and the human psyche as a whole. The author cleverly conveys the oddness of human interactions and feeling; he indirectly asks us whether it all makes sense or not- the ever-changing wants and needs which we desire everyday.
Why do we desire these things? Why do our wants and needs change so frequently and without explanation? Why do people love despite the pain?
After reading this short story, I had to go into a repose in order to gather my thoughts and really think about these things.
April 15, 2024
Memories are not linear. They come and go and ebb and flow. When an experience or moment recalls a memory, we don't recall it like a story from beginning to end. It is the moments and details that stand out. This story recalls those memories like I experience them, which is sporadically.
March 9, 2024
a bit depressing with no mixing of fiction and reality. mostly realistic.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews