28 Oct 2007

Blind_Willow

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (H. Murakami) is a collection of short stories by Japan’s best-known novelist and one of my favourite authors. I’m not a fan of short stories, hating the fact that by the time you’ve got a feeling for the story it’s already finished. So it’s really Murakami’s beautiful writing and magic realism that kept me going. Some stories were vaguely familiar, being the basis for the Wind-up Bird Chronicles apparently, but that didn’t really matter. I just can’t get enough of the strange, surreal world Murakami creates so vividly that it lingers in my mind for days.

So, like every other book by this author: very much recommended, although I do hope his next book will be a normal novel again.