Rating: 
Summary: Gentle stories that are slightly "off". Highly recommended.
Review: I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I've given it to five different people so far and each person has liked it. Murakami is a Japanese author and his stories are ... unique. He's got a way of making the incredible seem possible. His style is very relaxed, very easy going, yet the stories he tells will make you question the world around you. This book of short stories is both humorous and touching
Rating:
Summary: 'Mr. Murakami, do you understand PEOPLE?'
Review: I envision a wide-eyed Japanese kid, one wearing a Yu-Gi-Oh T-shirt, asking Haruki Murakami this question. I envision Haruki Murakami narrowing his eyes, and saying something like, 'Not really.'A person who I consider a trusted mentor even though she probably doesn't remember my name is a woman named Sumie Jones. She's an old woman -- I won't guess her age, out of utter respect -- and she happened to teach a feminist literature class at Indiana University when I was a junior there. This woman once told a room of female comparative literature majors, 'I used to be a feminist, kind of. Then, I gave it up. It was just too much work.' One day, a student called her out. She called her a 'faker.' 'You're not a feminist,' the girl said. She was a sorority girl, sweater and all. 'Am I supposed to be?' Sumie Jones said. Sumie Jones could turn every lecture around to the topic of sex. We were talking about Yuko Tsushima, and, somehow, Sumie Jones managed to mention, 'I was talking to my friend last week, in Korea [Sumie Jones gets around] -- she's a PORNOGRAPHIC NOVELIST . . .' Sumie Jones read some of my unpolished short stories. She told me, in confidence, 'They're good, really good. However.' 'However what?' I asked her. 'You need to quit trying to understand people.' She went on to explain that there are two kinds of writers: those who don't understand people and think they should, and those who understand people and don't bother to try. She was the first person to suggest Murakami's 'The Elephant Vanishes' to me. Reading Murakami's 'The Elephant Vanishes,' I started to think: what would happen if, one day, I awoke, fully understanding people? I'd be frightened out of my mind. I'm sure Murakami agrees with me. Don't you, Mr. Murakami? Close to a year after reading Murakami, I form my new philosophy of writing, one to counter the 'show, don't tell' plague: Look, don't show. I copyrighted that. Don't steal it. I base this theory on my childhood questioning of my father's habit -- going to the mall, buying a cup of coffee, sitting at the food court, and 'watching people.' Now, I find myself repeating this habit, with Orange Julius in place of coffee. I don't get nearly as bored as you might think. I don't even have to bring a book anymore. In 'The Kangaroo Communique,' Murakami LOOKS at a crazy man leaving a letter/tape for a woman who wrote the complaints section of a department store about her purchase of the wrong album. The narrator tells the woman that he found her commas 'interesting.' In 'The Second Bakery Attack,' Murakami LOOKS at a man's wife, who helps him in a slightly wacky way after he tells her of his curse of intense hunger inflicted by a bakery owner years before. Perhaps it's the Fitzgeraldian influence on Murakami that leads his characters (a la 'Nick' in THE GREAT GATSBY) to tell a story by LOOKing at another character. Or maybe it's something else. On the average, Murakami's narrators are complete people, shaped sometimes by the people around them. (Stepping out of line for a second: 'You have an interesting way of talking.' People keep saying that to the narrator of NORWEGIAN WOOD. Really, would we find his way of talking interesting if everyone didn't keep saying so?) With the exception of 'On meeting the 100% perfect girl . . .' 'The Dancing Dwarf,' and 'TV People,' Murakami's stories in this collection are surprisingly readable despite their narrative fragility. (The latter two tried to say too much too unspecifically about society, and fell kind of flat with me.) 'A Family Affair' resembles harder Banana Yoshimoto in a pleasnt, 'I-novel' kind of way. 'Barn Burning' looks, rather puzzledly, at a weird girl and the even weird part-time arsonist gets involved with. 'A Slow Boat to China,' a beautiful essay (and the title piece of a collection of Murakami's essays I've just finished reading in Japanese) looks, with the widest scope one man can provide, at China. The final line of the title piece, after reading all the stories in order in one sitting, made me cry for reasons I really don't understand. 'The elephant and keeper have vanished completely. They will never be coming back.' Murakami really hits something in that story. The very fact that I can't pinpoint what it is -- well, that's what makes me read this collection again and again. I am proud to say I don't really gain any more 'understanding' of people with each reading. I'm sure Mr. Murakami wants it that way. Here's to not understanding people.
Rating:
Summary: A touch of the senses.
Review: I really enjoyed this book. Mainly because of the various feelings u get when reading. U'll just have to read it. I also like how the stories are very condense, it doesnt get boring. Im personally a big fan of Haruki Murakami. And i have read Norwegian Wood
Wind up Bird (have at least some 60 pages left, very long novel)
South of the Border
Sputnik Wood (only few chapters because it was bore to read) *****A person asked why Notobu Watanabe is used two times in the stories. This is because the author is describing the life of one of his characters found in Wind Up Bird, also named Notobu Watanabe. And i find it very good that he included the same character in Elephant Vanishes. In 'Wind up Bird' Notobu was portrayed as a dull but evil person. hahhahahha--it was very funny that he was in the Elephant Vanish short story. I will prefer u read Wind up bird before Ele vanish...because some of the stories will have much stronger effect. I started out with Norwegian Wood. And im not 12 years old. kenchi1983
Rating:
Summary: A touch of the senses.
Review: I was going on a road trip and needed something to read ... other than Sputnik Sweetheart, I'd already read all of Murakami's work, so I thought I'd give The Elephant Vanishes a shot. Am I ever glad I did! Murakami shows off his trademark humor, wit, and versatility while spinning tales about his favorite topic: humanity. That's the best explanation I can give to someone who wants to know what kind of writer Murakami is: he writes about what it means to be alive. Love, death, life, Murakami deals with the whole spectrum of human existance with amazing skill and grace. Listing my favorite stories in this work without listing the entire table of contents would be a challenge, but I think it would be fair to say that my favorites were "The Silence," "The Wind-up Bird" (from a longer Murakami novel), "The 100% Perfect Girl," and "The Kangaroo Communique." If you haven't read Murakami before, this would be a great book to get your feet wet with. If you're a Murakami fan but haven't read this one yet, what are you waiting for? "The Elephant Vanishes" is Murakami at his best.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing! Murakami at his best
Review: I was going on a road trip and needed something to read ... other than Sputnik Sweetheart, I'd already read all of Murakami's work, so I thought I'd give The Elephant Vanishes a shot. Am I ever glad I did! Murakami shows off his trademark humor, wit, and versatility while spinning tales about his favorite topic: humanity. That's the best explanation I can give to someone who wants to know what kind of writer Murakami is: he writes about what it means to be alive. Love, death, life, Murakami deals with the whole spectrum of human existance with amazing skill and grace. Listing my favorite stories in this work without listing the entire table of contents would be a challenge, but I think it would be fair to say that my favorites were "The Silence," "The Wind-up Bird" (from a longer Murakami novel), "The 100% Perfect Girl," and "The Kangaroo Communique." If you haven't read Murakami before, this would be a great book to get your feet wet with. If you're a Murakami fan but haven't read this one yet, what are you waiting for? "The Elephant Vanishes" is Murakami at his best.
Rating:
Summary: Bizzare and obscure, so what!?
Review: I'm a big fan of Murakami's, but I love his short stories much better than his novels. it is the book you have to read to feel great to live on this planet with Murakami.some people say he is too American and his stories dont make any sense. why does a story have to make a sense? this life doesnt make any sense sometimes. I think his cute, little but deep and touching stories can touch your soul.They are strange, but beatiful. In some stories it is impossible to happen in your life time. but we can dream and imagine whatever we want. Call him a dreamer, and sentimentalist, but so are you.
Rating:
Summary: this is Japan: bleak, empty, limping, uninviting
Review: It is rare to find an author who perfectly encapsulates in art one's perception of a place or time. Murakami does that for me with Japan, where I lived for 2 years. He portrays that strange country as utterly lacking in inspiration, brutally crushing to any spirit of individuality, and full of cruel and meaningless obligations imposed from above. It is, in my view, unerringly accurate and perceptive, while deeply sad as I knew many people like those here but who would never be capable of articulating their ennui. These stories perfectly blend mundane detail with horrific violence and nihilism, in a mother who decides she longer needs to sleep to a man who has quit his job as a legal clerk walking in his backyard. The reality behind these characters and scenes - so black and yet so apparently normal - are believable to anyone who has lived and worked in Japan, though certainly not to tourists or other casual observers. As such, I believe that Murakami has done for modern Japan what Balzac and Zola did for 19th C France: the quality is that high, as is the irony and humor that permeates his work. I loved it, but it takes a strong stomach. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: this is Japan: bleak, empty, limping, uninviting
Review: It is rare to find an author who perfectly encapsulates in art one's perception of a place or time. Murakami does that for me with Japan, where I lived for 2 years. He portrays that strange country as utterly lacking in inspiration, brutally crushing to any spirit of individuality, and full of cruel and meaningless obligations imposed from above. It is, in my view, unerringly accurate and perceptive, while deeply sad as I knew many people like those here but who would never be capable of articulating their ennui. These stories perfectly blend mundane detail with horrific violence and nihilism, in a mother who decides she longer needs to sleep to a man who has quit his job as a legal clerk walking in his backyard. The reality behind these characters and scenes - so black and yet so apparently normal - are believable to anyone who has lived and worked in Japan, though certainly not to tourists or other casual observers. As such, I believe that Murakami has done for modern Japan what Balzac and Zola did for 19th C France: the quality is that high, as is the irony and humor that permeates his work. I loved it, but it takes a strong stomach. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Surrealist postmodern short stories reminiscent of Gogol
Review: Murakami is obsessed with things western: spaghetti, opera, marlboro, incorporating a sense of global ennui into his wickedly perceptive yet oddly simple short stories. I liked some, disliked others. Several are beautiful, one specifically about "100% perfect love" (this story suffers a littel in translation though), and another about the factory where they make elephants. Reminds me of Gogol (The Overcoat, The Nose, etc...). Not a great work of literature, but entertaining and with enough depth to make you think
Rating: 
Summary: Translator's View
Review: No, I'm not the author, but I am one of the two translators. When the book came out, I was fascinated to see that reviewers tended to mention either stories that I had translated or stories that Alfred Birnbaum had translated, but not both. This seemed to reflect the process of selection, for which there was no rationale other than personal taste. I translated stories I liked, and Alfred, whom I had never met, translated stories that appealed to him, and in NO case was there any overlap. Then the Knopf editor, Gary Fisketjon, chose from what we had submitted, going strictly by his own personal preference. I can't help but feel that this was a particularly fitting way to assemble a book of stories representing an author who so prizes the irrational and unconscious. The bifurcated tastes of reviewers and readers seem to echo whatever dynamic was involved. The hard thing to explain is how one writer could appeal to two such different groups of readers
| 
