First Person Singular: Stories by Haruki MurakamiMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Hooter: A bunch of oddball short stories in first person by Murakami
Not sure how Murakami does it but he makes everyday scenes so philosophical and dream like whilst being grounded in reality - sort of like the camera work of Dev D. A melacholic aloofness, a rhythmic pattern to the chaos around us wonderfully defined around him - the protagonist in all the short stories that follow. A calming pace in each story set in the past as he goes down nostalgia lane and captures a lot of metaphorical statements through his stories. The poetry around his love for baseball probably might be a lot more lyrical in Japanese than the translated works but the rest of the stories are translated wonderfully.
If you haven't had the appetite to jump into Murakami long form, this might be your short cut to some of his distinct style in bite sized stories though I think his true form is in the long novel format and these are just trailers to his style that stop too soon. Though I would highlight his writing is primarily from the 80s and he is misogynistic more often than not and that always leaves a jarring note to his otherwise fluid metaphysical writing.
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