Book Review: Blind Willow,Sleeping Woman
I believe this is my personal favorite Murakami book so far! A lot of the stories deal with lonliness and identity. I almost hate to take it back to the library!
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman-“What can be seen by anybody isn’t all that important.” That’s the whole point of this story. It’s beautiful!
Birthday Girl
New York Mining Disaster- It was morbidly my style all the way; I just couldn’t connect the ending to the rest of the story when I first read it. It made sense the second time around.
Airplane: Or, How He Talked to Himself as If Reciting Poetry- I related to this story more than I wanted to. That’s not saying it was a bad story. It actually read pretty well. “I sometimes think that people’s hearts are deep like wells. Nobody knows what’s at the bottom. All you can do is imagine by what comes floating to the surface every once and a while.”
The Mirror- This one teaches us that the thing we should fear most above all else is ourselves. I don’t necessarily disagree with that.
A Folklore for My Generation: A Pre-History of Late-Stage Capitalism- This story was a little depressing, but it had a lot of meaning to me. It really did.
Hunting Knife
A Perfect Day for Kangaroos
Dabchick- I didn’t get this one. I honestly didn’t understand it in the least… completely over my head!
Man-Eating Cats- I really felt this man’s pain in this one. He basically commits mental suicide; leaving every piece of his life behind to go live with his lover on a small island in Greece. I mourned his loss of self identity right beside him.
A “Poor Aunt” Story- I related to this one all too well. I feel like I’m a Poor Aunt.
Nausea- Not much to say about this one other than I really enjoyed it.
The Seventh Man- This one was really, really sad! It had a good message though.
The Year of Spaghetti- What a clever way to display loneliness. I loved this.
Tony Takitani- This was so incredibly sad. One of the points it made- if all you’ve ever known is loneliness, then you can be contempt with it; but once you experience companionship, if only for a breath of your life, loneliness will take on a whole new form.
The Rise and Fall of Sharpie Cakes- this reminded me of the stupidity found in large groups of people. The people in this story base their decisions about sharpie cake on how a flock of crows react to it. It doesn’t matter if they know it’s a great cake or one that tastes horrible, if the birds approve or disapprove, that’s the final word.
The Ice Man- This was deep!!! It depressed me severely. Great story!
Crabs
Firefly- This deals with how we look at death.
Chance Traveler- This is about the power of crazy coincidence. I thought it was interesting.
Hanalei Bay- This is a rather sad story. It’s one of those stories to reflect on for awhile. Murakami is a master at these kinds of stories.
Where I’m Likely to Find It
The Kidney-Shaped Stone That Moves Every Day
A Shinagawa Monkey- This was a really good story dealing with identity and how one copes with who they are.