Quote:
Originally Posted by desertblues
Yes, I see what you mean. I find it more obvious though in his "Kafka on the shore"(where fish rains from the sky), than in the stories of 'After the quake".
Murakami has a way of weaving the surreal into the real without the reader realizing that it is so; in the beginning that is. In most of his novels he is rather subtle about it.
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Well surely
Super-frog Saves Tokyo is surreal enough for anyone.
This is the second collection of short stories by Murakami that I have read, the other being
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. I thought that the latter collection contained a more consistent and stronger set of stories than did
After the Quake. This opinion may also have been influenced by the greater number of stories in
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (24) relative to only six in
After the Quake. One tends to remember good stories and forget others.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fantasyfan
The fourth story. "Thailand" is by far the best I've read so far. How the final two will be I don't know, but "Thailand" is superb--worthy to stand with the short stories of Joyce, Bowen and Frank O'Connor. The other three were interesting but this one moved me. Whatever the quality of the last two, the book is worth this one jewel.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by desertblues
Yes, I like this story as well. It is tender, elegant and mystical.
As in some of the other stories, dreams are important. They seem to form a bridge, a portal to the important things of life.
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I also thought that
Thailand was an excellent story, the best of the lot. I also really enjoyed
UFO in Kushiro and
Landscape with Flatiron. Personally I found
Honey Pie to be the weakest of the lot, though I can imagine it would the the most accessible story to some readers.
Returning to
Thailand, Murakami seems to often make use of a symbolic stone in his stories. He did it in
The Kidney-shaped Stone That Moves Every Day (from
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman) and in the novel
Kafka on the Shore.