The Elephant Vanishes: Stories (Vintage International)

Murakami's short stories deal with big themes so precisely and delicately that they barely intrude for the enjoyable first reading and then they flood in on me for the more enjoyable second reading. The third story of the collection is The Kangaroo Communique. It is a second person narrative between a male department store employee who is responding to a letter of complaint from a female customer. This story is followed by another, called On Seeing The 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning, which is a narrative, within a narrative, within a story. They both are love stories Murakami-style, reality and subjective experience communicated simultaneously. My personal favorite of the collection is called The Silence. In it a man recounts his experience of being shunned in high school on the basis of a slanderous lie. He remains undefeated by his tormentors due to the mental lessons he received from the martial art of boxing. Murakami's fiction is informative in so many ways; full of psychological, historical, and cultural facts. Amazingly, this short-fiction may be fuller than his five-hundred plus page novels.

This is the first Murakami book I've read and I would give him five stars if it wasn't for the fact that I found his writing somehow depressing. This depressing touch that he has doesn't make him a bad writer, on the contrary, he's incredible and utterly profound, and his stories are deeply thought provoking. I actually started reading a novel of his, so despite the fact that you won't find a regular 'happy-ending' in his stories, you definitely would go for more. I actually would like to read the book again. His stories are full of symbolism.

One of my favourite Japanese writers. There is no one else who can write about loneliness the way he does. Murakami's collection of stories is simply superb! I was struggling to find a good blip from this book, one that will give a proper sense of Murakami's style and material. It's a problem, because when I pick something out of context, it sounds plain and ordinary. If I pick something from his dream-like sequences it sounds kitschy. This would be messing with the impact of his stories, which aren't even close to being simple or over-cute... Profound is a better description fo Murakami's work, and mystic in an urban, understated kind of way. The Washington Post Book Review says (on the book cover) that Murakami "takes big risks." and one can see why they might say that. My strong impression is that fully half of his stories are drawn from his dreams, and you know how wonky dreams can get. His work often takes a sudden shift, or it stops, without full resolution. But it's okay, dangling bits can add to the richness of a good story. The story titles are quite illustrative: -The Wind-Up Bird and Tuesday's Women -Sleep -The Fall of The Roman Empire, The 1881 Indian Uprising, Hitler's Invasion of Poland, and The Realm of Raging Winds -The Little Green Monster -TV People -The Dancing Dwarf Aside from these dream-like stories he's got more matter-of-fact ones (see more titles below). One of Marukami's strengths is that he can write a story almost as one tells one in conversation, starting with the bit that made you think of it in the first place, mentioning 'real life' asides and in the process including the reader in a subtle and complex experience.

Short stories are not like novels. The art form is different for the writer and the experience is different for the reader. There are authors whose short stories stay in my heart long after I've read them - Flannery O'Connor, Borges, George Saunders - and this collection by Haruki Murakami is among the tops on my heartthrob list. The stories are sneaky good. They make me wish I'd written them. (Alas, I am a nonfiction writer, unable to make up stuff.) But above all they make me want to read them again, which is why I bought a copy on Amazon after giving away a couple of previous. "The Second Bakery Attack" is awesome. Worth the price of admission alone.

I decided to play it safe with this author and stick with his short stories to get a quick snap-shot of his writings. Did it give me a window of Murakami's writing style? Absolutely. Did I thoroughly and consistently enjoy story after story? No. Murakami undoubtedly focuses and shines a light on the human condition, whereupon it draws in readers yearning for such a topic. Each story expeditiously outlines the point of contention in a surrealistically bizarre and intriguingly quirky manner. Some stories offer coherency from start to finish, whereupon other stories neglect to address the elephant in the room (no pun intended) for reasons beyond my comprehension. I'm by no means asking for a thematic platter of understanding, but I am asking for further evaluation of character attitudes (I don't think that is asking too much?). Granted, fans of Murakami embrace this very style that I am questioning. Overall, I do embrace his presentation of human character conflict. He has a unique and subtle way of expressing the protagnoists state of being, forcing the reader to understand, recognize, intuit, and perhaps sympathize the protagonist in question. I don't like over-analyzing books, but I can't help myself when discussing Murakami.

I really don't like reading short stories, because they might be really good, and just leave me wanting more: that IS my case with this book. I have only read about half of the stories in the book, since I am reading a lot of different books at the same time, nevertheless, I enjoy this book the most and keep looking forward to reading it. The "crazy" or rather "Fantastic" intertwines with the real. Also, the stories seem to turn fantastic, right in the point where reality becomes absurd and painful. Such is the case of the story in which the little green monster falls in love with a child-less housewife whose life seems to lack any excitement and joy. Sometimes, I feel that the fantasy becomes an escape valve for the tedious reality some people live, specially when they are at the higher levels of the Maslow hierarchy of needs. (This last statement might be a judgment from a citizen of a third-world country.) I really recommend this book. It is very inspiring and an outstanding work of literature. I think each and every story could be a starting point of a novel.

The quote from Henry David Thoreau goes something like, "Most men live lives of quiet desperation." I thought of that quote a lot when reading this book. This book is a series of short stories. It seemed to me, the recurring theme in these stories is this: The main character gets a glimpse of something extraordinary (sometimes potentially supernatural, sometimes not, but always extraordinary). But, then the pull of the mundane life takes over and they are drawn back into it. The book is full of missed opportunities to experience the extraordinary. As with all of Murakami's books, this one is well written, especially the character development. In some of these short stories, there are hints of his longer works. Such as, one is practically a prologue to The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. This book is worth reading, for sure. The only reason I didn't give it a 5, is that these short stories left me feeling like there should be more. I like his novels better, when he actually gives us more.

I was going on a road trip and needed something to read ... other than Sputnik Sweetheart, I'd already read all of Murakami's work, so I thought I'd give The Elephant Vanishes a shot. Am I ever glad I did! Murakami shows off his trademark humor, wit, and versatility while spinning tales about his favorite topic: humanity. That's the best explanation I can give to someone who wants to know what kind of writer Murakami is: he writes about what it means to be alive. Love, death, life, Murakami deals with the whole spectrum of human existance with amazing skill and grace. Listing my favorite stories in this work without listing the entire table of contents would be a challenge, but I think it would be fair to say that my favorites were "The Silence," "The Wind-up Bird" (from a longer Murakami novel), "The 100% Perfect Girl," and "The Kangaroo Communique." If you haven't read Murakami before, this would be a great book to get your feet wet with. If you're a Murakami fan but haven't read this one yet, what are you waiting for? "The Elephant Vanishes" is Murakami at his best.

muita coisa acontece e vale a pena acompanhar tudo. Leria de novo

Dies ist eines meiner Bücher, das ich am häufigsten verschenkt habe. Immer, wenn ich mir das Buch nachkaufe (jetzt zum 6. Mal), lese ich wieder einige der Stories. Sie zählen für mich zum Allerbesten, was Murakami je veröffentlicht hat. Sehr zu empfehlen.

I used to love reading as a child, but entering adulthood, I stopped reading for leisure. I've been meaning to start reading again, but nothing really captured my interest, till THIS. Love Murakami's style of writing and am excited to read more from him.

Received as advertised.

Good condition