Original language:
Japanese Translated from: Japanese
Authors: Murakami, Haruki
Translated by: Polonskaitė, Jurgita
Full translated source bibliographical description:
Murakami, Haruki. Zō no shōmetsu. Vilnius: Baltos lankos, 2014.
ISBN: 978-9955-23-796-9
Published in: Vilnius
Published on: 2014
Publisher: Baltos lankos
This book should be read by readers that are already familiar with this writer’s work/books. Precisely because in most cases, consciously or unconsciously these short stories refers to it’s main prose. It is not worth to start reading from these short stories, if you want to fully understand the meaning of it, if previously haven’t been acquainted with Murakami prose. For the ones, who already had a chance to read anything of Murakami’s work, especially this book should leave the most powerful impression. Because in this book, there is everything what you can expect from Murakami – hyperbolic images that are on the border between reality and illusion, philosophy and everything else for what we admire him. Only he can describe the daily routine in a way that makes even wonder whether is a reality, whether it’s actors dreams, a parallel universe or even something more mysterious?
The second story in the book “The second bakery attack” tells about escape from responsibility. Describes one of these adventures, almost psychotic events, when courage and adrenaline overwhelms the mind. Rage, rebellion, courage, humor – all this in somewhat comic story.
Another story “Window” by far the most impressive of all the stories in this book. Although the shortest, but it hides the most powerful idea. The main character is a young man who is hired to read and edit letters of women who wants to become a better writers. Most exciting, perhaps even a bit hurtful story.
The overall theme that connects all the stories, is almost impossible to find. Each story touches different situations, and maybe that is what makes, this book so fascinating.
Haruki Murakami (b. 1949) – Japanese writer and translator. His fiction and non-fiction works has earned critical acclaim, received the sixth Kafka Prize for his novel “Kafka on the shore”. Murakami is considered as an important personality of postmodern literature, and newspaper “The Guardian” Murakami named one of the “world’s greatest living writers“.