Author: Haruki Murakami
Translator: Alfred Birnbaum and Jay Rubin
Publisher: Vintage
Publication Year: 1994
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 336
In these stories, a man sees his favorite elephant vanish into thin air; a newlywed couple suffers attacks of hunger that drive them to hold up a McDonald’s in the middle of the night; and a young woman discovers that she has become irresistible to a little green monster who burrows up through her backyard. By turns haunting and hilarious, in The Elephant Vanishes Murakami crosses the border between separate realities—and comes back bearing remarkable treasures
-----------------------
The
Elephant Vanishes is a short story collection by Haruki Murakami. It collects 17
short stories and one of them is titled the Elephant Vanishes. I’ve actually
read some stories in this book such as the Second Bakery Attack and On Seeing
the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning. Reading these stories the
second time (third or fourth time for the Second Bakery Attack), I like these
stories even more. Aside of that, of the 17 stories, my favorites are the
Wind-Up Bird and Tuesday’s Women, Sleep, and the Last Lawn of the Afternoon.
The
Wind-Up Bird and Tuesday’s Women is the first story presented in this book. I
found out later on that this short is a variation of the first chapter of
Murakami’s book, the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I haven’t read the book, but when I
read the title my mind immediately went to that book. I suspected that this
short story somehow has a connection to that book. What I like about this story
is that it does not have something spectacular happening in it. It’s the mundanity of
the story (mundane by Murakami’s standard of course). If you’ve read Murakami’s
writing before, you’d know how weird his stories are. In this story, I feel like
I was following an absurd day in a life of Murakami’s character. Although it
seems like a normal day, the absurdity gives a nice little surprise here and
there and I enjoy it.
Another story that I like is Sleep. I was quite
surprised when I read it because it’s almost like Murakami was reading my mind
when writing this story. Sleep is about a woman who suddenly has insomnia. It’s
not the usual insomnia though, she just stop needing sleep. It’s funny because I
always feel like I’m running out of time and I wonder what if we don’t have to
sleep so our time which spent on sleep could be used to do anything else we
want. This short story answers that. While I’m aware that it’s unhealthy, still,
what if we’re biologically built to not needing sleep. Through this story I
realize how much our time is spent for others or being a ‘responsible adult’.
It’s exhausting and it could be mind-numbing at times. I envy the narrator who
gets this time window spent for herself. Regardless of the sinister ending, I
like this story the most.
While the Last Lawn of the Afternoon is the kind
of story that makes you feel nostalgic. Again, the premise is so simple. It’s
about a male student who works part-time as a lawn mower. He decided to quit the
job because he didn’t really need the money anymore. This story follows the last
lawn mowing job that he had to finish before he quit. I love the setting and the
atmosphere of this story. It’s calming and melancholic at the same time. Both
characters in this story are dealing with broken heart and grief. Each in their
own way. I like how such a mundane activity as lawn mowing is what connecting
these two and kind of distract them from their grief. I just love the vibe that
this story gives.
Even though the stories I mentioned sound ‘normal’, there
are also stories that are weird. For example in TV People, the narrator lives in
a world where there are people who randomly put TVs in people’s houses and
everyone else seem oblivious to them except for the narrator. Then there’s the
story about a green monster who’ll physically melt down every time you send out
negative thoughts to it. Also of course the stories about the elephant. What I
admire from Murakami’s writing is, even with all the absurdity, he manages to
normalize it in his books. When I read the book, there are times when I raised
my eyebrow and questioned what was going on but after several sentences, I’d be
okay with it. It’s so easy to acknowledge that I was entering this surreal world
that Murakami build and I just had to accept it and enjoy the ride.
Beneath
all the weird things he wrote, he often analyzes human’s nature and tendencies
through his characters which cause me to analyze my own life. In most of his
stories in this book, the narrators have no name. They are often meek and living
an ordinary quiet live. They’re like your everyman character. Yet, they are good
observers. This is how he dissects human characteristics in his stories.
Another
thing I love about this book is it’s funny. I get the humor in this book. In
some stories, although the characters don’t have names, they have similar
characteristics and description. I don’t know if they’re the same character.
Characters in several stories also seem like connected. Also not sure about
that. Maybe they live in the same universe, maybe it’s coincidental. One name
pops out though, Noboru Watanabe. It’s not confirmed if the Noboru mentioned in
the stories refer to the same character but every time this name comes out, I
chuckled and thought, you again! It becomes some sort of an inside joke and I
love that.
All in all, I love the Elephant Vanishes. Usually with short
story collection, there are stories that I enjoy, there are stories that I
don’t. With this one, I like them all. True, it’s not for everyone. The writing
can be vulgar so it’s not kid friendly. The stories can go over your head if you
don’t know what to expect. Still, if you like surreal fiction and feel
comfortable with a lot of weirdness thrown in, I highly recommend this book.
No comments :
Post a Comment