Murakami

I'm trying to remember when I first got into Haruki Murakami.  At some point I was wandering around a bookshop, trying to find something to make up a 3 for 2 offer probably, when I picked up The Wind-up Bird Chronicle.

Oh     my      goodness.

That book!  I can't even begin to describe the story, and the way it made me feel. I remember there was a lot about cats, wells, searching, isolation, and possibly the most horrible scene I have ever read in a book.  Anyway, of course I started on all his other books, both the novels and the short stories.  I probably prefer his novels to his short stories because I can deal better with his sense of surrealism that has a tendency to run just a little wild in his short stories - giant frog anyone?  

I think Murakami, for me, keeps the link I feel with Japan, the fondness I have for the country and most of all, replicates the baffled feelings I had while I lived there.   And I too appreciate a good ear lobe.

Right now, I'm reading Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, his latest collection of short stories.  One reviewer on Amazon wrote that Murakami's works are best 'felt' rather than 'analysed' and I would agree.  They are like fleeting moments in people's lives.  You glimpse the moment, you react, you move on to the next moment.