[desertblues]

My first impressions after a few stories:
Yes, these 'open endings' are interesting. I've read the first three stories and the endings of the first two made me shiver somewhat and I wondered what would/could happen to the protagonists. From Ufo in Kushuro

Spoiler:

Shimao traced a complicated design on Komura’s chest with her fingertip, as if casting a magic spell.
“But really,” she said, “you’re just at the beginning.'

From Landscape with flatiron

Spoiler:

“Anyhow, let’s wait till the fire burns out,” Miyake said. “We built it, so we ought to keep it company to the end. Once it goes out, and it turns pitch-dark, then we can die.”
“Good,” Junko said. “But how?”
“I’ll think of something.”
“OK.”
Wrapped in the smell of the fire, Junko closed her eyes. Miyake’s arm across her shoulders was rather small for that of a grown man, and strangely bony. I could never live with this man, she thought. I could never get inside his heart. But I might be able to die with him.'

But the ending of the third story 'All God's children can dance" seems to be different, seems to end in harmony with the universe.

Spoiler:

Kneeling on the pitcher’s mound, Yoshiya gave himself up to the flow of time. Somewhere in the distance he heard the faint wail of a siren. A gust of wind set the leaves of grass to dancing and celebrated the grass’s song before it died.
“Oh God,” Yoshiya said aloud."

About the sexuality in the stories. I don't even know whether that contributes anything to it, except to the atmosphere; like wallpaper. Murakami writes about younger people here, and sexuality is a thing that will occupy their mind.

But...... I'll have to think all through.
Also, as Hamlet 53 mentioned Kafka; I can't help thinking whether I can link Murakami to Kafka. On first sight not, perhaps, but Murakami also changes the view, the experience on the 'normal world' in his stories.