The Elephant Vanishes - Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami; I had read the name on my facebook wall one day. Intrigued, I had looked him up. Seemed like an interesting author to start reading. But I had left it there until my last visit to the local Crossword store. I was looking for Neil Gaiman but instead returned with this collection of short stories; the back cover had a compelling teaser. And although I had planned a short break from reading books, I found myself looking at a twenty hour train journey to Chennai. So I packed the book in my backpack and started flipping the pages as the train started it's slow journey.

I like reading short stories. They make for interesting fast paced story telling. The author is not bothered with filling up spaces between episodes and thus spares the reader of potentially drag stretches. Murakami is another case. At times there were no defined episodes to his stories. At times they were taken up rapidly. And most of the times, he danced about the bush to his heart's content. Surprisingly, I liked almost all of them. For very soon it was evident that Murakami is not trying to relay stories. He is trying to communicate thoughts and personalities. Stories were secondary. Rather, this book was a collection of short sketches of people who Murakami drew and detailed with evident pleasure.

There were some stories that stood out for me. The Last Lawn of the Afternoon was probably the best of the lot. Then there were Family Affair and Barn Burning. All these stories (and the others as well) present a very believable narration. At times it is evidently fantastic and strays from the realms of normalcy. But it is still believable : incredibly credible. One could imagine a sibling's hatred for his sister's fiance. One could imagine a quality assurance manager develop a fancy for a complaining customer based on her letter. And a hunger stricken couple holding up a Mc Donald's for burgers? Or a woman divorcing her husband for a pair of shorts? Murakami writes in a way that makes it all a possibility.

I really liked this collection of stories. More for the way they were written than the stories themselves. Murakami will resurface in my reading list soon. I will reserve more comments on his writing till a later date, when I have read more of him. These seventeen short stories were not enough.