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Murakami's great really. This is a book of short stories, and I think it's his most recent work to be translated into English. The thing that links all the stories, pretty tenuously, is the earthquake in Kobe, which I suppose must have been in about 1997. Hang on, I'll check. I beg your pardon, it was 1995, who knows where the time goes. So, yes, short stories. For me, this suffers in a way that a lot of short stories do, in that you just start getting in to the story and the characters, and then it finishes. Apart from that though it was quite good. My favourites were 'Super Frog Saves Tokyo' (in which, well, a super frog saves Tokyo) and the first one, whose name escapes me. It was about a guy who's wife leaves him, so he goes on holiday for nothing, because he's delivering a package for his workmate. The package is a metaphor for something or other, I never really worked out what, though. I suppose his soul or something. It's typical Murakami, in its quirkiness, 27 degrees to the rest of the world outlook, laid back thoughtful protagonist and spaghetti cooking. Still, if I was to recommend work by Murakami to anyone, there's no way I would mention this one. If you've never read any of his books before, go for 'Wild Sheep Chase' for the spaciness, 'South of the Border, West of the Sun' for the heartache and 'Wind Up Bird Chronicle' for the sheer, incomparable brilliance.
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