Marthia
I read this a few months ago and am thinking about it again because I picked up Wild Sheep Chase from the library (haven't started it yet) and this is the only Murakami book I've read so far. I'm still not really sure how I feel about it, because while I generally liked the individual stories, the collection as a whole left me underwhelmed. The stories all end rather vague and inconclusively, which I understand to be a trademark of Murakami, and I don't see this as a criticism for the individual stories. But reading the tenth story in a row, the vagueness and lack of an overarching theme (at least one that I could identify) aside from the randomness of everyday life and its tragedies was wearing thin for me.
I read this a few months ago and am thinking about it again because I picked up Wild Sheep Chase from the library (haven't started it yet) and this is the only Murakami book I've read so far. I'm still not really sure how I feel about it, because while I generally liked the individual stories, the collection as a whole left me underwhelmed. The stories all end rather vague and inconclusively, which I understand to be a trademark of Murakami, and I don't see this as a criticism for the individual stories. But reading the tenth story in a row, the vagueness and lack of an overarching theme (at least one that I could identify) aside from the randomness of everyday life and its tragedies was wearing thin for me.