Following the best-selling triumph of Kafka on the Shore-"daringly original," wrote Steven Moore in The Washington Post Book World, "and compulsively readable"-comes a collection that generously expresses Murakami's mastery. From the surreal to the mundane, these stories exhibit his ability to transform the full range of human experience in ways that are instructive, surprising, and relentlessly entertaining. As Richard Eder has written in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, "He addresses the fantastic and the natural, each with the same mix of gravity and lightness." Here are animated crows, a criminal monkey, and an iceman, as well as the dreams that shape us and the things we might wish for. Whether during a chance reunion in Italy, a romantic exile in Greece, a holiday in Hawaii, or in the grip of everyday life, Murakami's characters confront grievous loss, or sexuality, or the glow of a firefly, or the impossible distances between those who ought to be the closest of all. "While anyone can tell a story that resembles a dream," Laura Miller wrote in The New York Times Book Review, "it's the rare artist, like this one, who can make us feel that we are dreaming it ourselves"-a feat performed anew twenty-four times in this career-spanning book.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Born in Kobe in 1949, Haruki Murakami studied Greek drama before managing a jazz bar in Tokyo from 1974 to 1981. His third novel, A Wild Sheep Chase, earned the Noma Literary Award for New Writers and ended his career at the jazz bar. His next novel, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, won the prestigious Tanizaki Prize. In 1996, Murakami received the Yomiuri Literary Award for Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. In addition to being a prolific writer of novels and short stories, he is also known as a skillful translator of Scott Fitzgerald, Raymond Carver, John Irving, Paul Theroux, and other American contemporary authors. His work has been translated into thirty-eight languages, and he has taught at Princeton and Tufts Universities. An AudioFile Earphones Award winner and Audie Award finalist, Patrick Lawlor is also an accomplished stage actor, director, and combat choreographer. His recent audio includes the New York Times bestseller The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell (Tantor). "Lawlor is masterful." ---The Philadelphia Inquirer Ellen Archer is an acclaimed audiobook narrator and winner of a coveted Audie Award for For the Love of a Dog (available from Tantor). Her recent audiobooks include the New York Times bestseller Smashed by Koren Zailckas, Unhooked by Laura Sessions Stepp, and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami. Producers and publishers describe Ellen as versatile, warm, intimate, fresh, fun, intelligent and sultry. She easily covers the spectrum between familiar and conversational and more authoritative and aggressive deliveries.
From AudioFile
These 24 short stories were written over a number of years by the author of the novel KAFKA ON THE SHORE. Most have elements that border on the surreal, and few can be parsed without recourse to otherworldly explanations. Patrick Lawlor reads the stories narrated by men, which is most of them; Ellen Archer reads those that are told by women. While they each do a fine job, Archer's voice seems more compatible with the material. Almost all the stories are set in Tokyo, and while the narration is necessarily in English, Archer's reading seems more Japanese in pitch and rhythm. Whichever narrator is reading, though, most listeners will enjoy these strange tales, even if they don't completely understand them. R.E.K. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
--This text refers to the
Audio CD
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Don't listen to this!,
By
This review is from: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: 24 Stories (Audio CD)
Terribly poor choice of voice actors, please don't listen this as I strong believe it will negatively affect your opinion of Murikami's stories if you are not already well familiar with his work.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman:24 Stories by Haruki Murakami,
By
This review is from: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: 24 Stories (Audio CD)
I've fallen in love with Murakami's works. I've read Kafka by the Shore and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles--now these short stories. Murakami's mind is wide open and unbelievable. I believe he's searching for the difference between reality and fantasy--if there is a difference. Things become what they weren't before. Impossible people and animals talk about and do things that noone else could imagine. I think you just have to jump into his brain and go where he leads you. You might not understand everything, but you'll love the mystery. His works are not to be confused with science fiction or fantasy genres, they are completely another cat.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Flat,
This review is from: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: 24 Stories (Audio CD)
Rather than any cohesive work, this is a collection of rambling essays and incomplete stories. Like a book published post-humously based on random notes and experimental scribblings of a famous writer. I am a Murakami fan (also known as a 'Harukisto'), but this is a waste of time reading.
The audio version is also cursed with two narrators who have horrendous pronounciation of Japanese place names, and a generally flat presentation. More experienced voice actors might have been able to make it a bit more interesting, but even the best presentation could only do so much. I am surprised that a writer of Mr. Murakamis' stature would allow this drivle to see the light of day.
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