داستان‌های جشن تولد

by Haruki Murakami, اسدالله امرایی (Translator)

داستان‌های جشن تولد؛

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Japan, Japanese Literature, Contemporary, Anthologies, Literature

175 pages

First published January 8, 2004

About the author

Haruki Murakami (村上春樹) is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been best-sellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Gunzo Prize for New Writers, the World Fantasy Award, the Tanizaki Prize, Yomiuri Prize for Literature, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Noma Literary Prize, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Kiriyama Prize for Fiction, the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Fiction, the Jerusalem Prize, and the Princess of Asturias Awards.
Growing up in Ashiya, near Kobe before moving to Tokyo to attend Waseda University, he published his first novel Hear the Wind Sing (1979) after working as the owner of a small jazz bar for seven years. His notable works include the novels Norwegian Wood (1987), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994–95), Kafka on the Shore (2002) and 1Q84 (2009–10); the last was ranked as the best work of Japan's Heisei era (1989–2019) by the national newspaper Asahi Shimbun's survey of literary experts. His work spans genres including science fiction, fantasy, and crime fiction, and has become known for his use of magical realist elements. His official website cites Raymond Chandler, Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan as key inspirations to his work, while Murakami himself has named Kazuo Ishiguro, Cormac McCarthy and Dag Solstad as his favourite currently active writers. Murakami has also published five short story collections, including First Person Singular (2020), and non-fiction works including Underground (1997), an oral history of the Tokyo subway sarin attack, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (2007), a memoir about his experience as a long distance runner.
His fiction has polarized literary critics and the reading public. He has sometimes been criticised by Japan's literary establishment as un-Japanese, leading to Murakami's recalling that he was a "black sheep in the Japanese literary world". Meanwhile, Murakami has been described by Gary Fisketjon, the editor of Murakami's collection The Elephant Vanishes (1993), as a "truly extraordinary writer", while Steven Poole of The Guardian praised Murakami as "among the world's greatest living novelists" for his oeuvre.

Reviews

[sAmAnE · Rating 3 out of 5]

در این کتاب موراکامی ، داستان‌های کوتاهی از نویسندگان مختلف را جمع‌آوری کرده است که هرکدام در مورد جشن‌های تولد و حس افراد به این روز خاص رانشان می‌دهد، بعضی خوشحال بعضی غمگین، بعضی تنها...

[Zsa Zsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the genre of short story but mostly in Farsi. English short stories usually don’t appeal to me, but as a true Fan of Murakami, I knew he wouldn’t let me down and he didn’t, reading them as the girl who has her birthday tomorrow, made me think and i liked the different writing styles, so basically everyone should read these around their birthday

[Reading_ Tamishly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thirteen short stories each story with a twisted birthday story and characters you wouldn't want to meet. A few stories fell flat while most of them are quite entertaining.

The short stories:

1. Russell Banks: The Moor
4 🌟
*Secrets and kindness

2. Denis Johnson: Dundun
3 🌟
A accident which went quite wrong for the birthday boy
(I wish the story was a bit longer with a proper story)

3. William Trevor: Timothy's Birthday
4 🌟
An unlikely birthday celebration of a son by two elderly parents and the unexpected guest

4. Daniel Lyons: The Birthday Cake
4 🌟
Racism
Is your ego worth everything?

5. Lynda Sexton: Turning
3 🌟
A story and another story

6. David Foster Wallace: Forever Overhead
4 🌟
Coming of age
Dreamlike and real

7. Ethan Canin: Angel of Mercy, Angel of Wrath
5 🌟
What could go wrong on your 81st birthday?
Well...

8. Andrea Lee: The Birthday Present
2 🌟
Messed up marriages, infidelity, and the gift idea sucks
Least favourite in the collection

9. Raymond Carver: The Bath
4 🌟
Seriously, that open ending isn't the best for such stories. A proper closure would have been better.
Sickness and uncertainties of life

10. Paul Theroux: A Game of Dice
3 🌟
Men and gambling

11. Claire Keegan: Close to the Water's Edge
4 🌟
What family means

12. Lewis Robinson: Ride
4 🌟
A father and a son and a secret for life

13. Haruki Murakami: Birthday Girl
3 🌟
A girl's weird birthday story

[Fiona MacDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange selection of stories. As with most short story collections, some are great and others are instantly forgettable. The first few I enjoyed a lot, then the odd one here or there jumped out at me. And there were others I found exceedingly dull. Overall an interesting reading experience.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Birthday Stories' is an interesting collection of stories, some that I enjoyed and some that I did not enjoy, my favourite stories were 'Turning' by Lynda Sexson, the story of a young boy being told a story by his three elderly ladies, a different kind of story to tell a young man but there was a message behind it which I really liked. 'Angel of Mercy, Angel of Wrath', the story of Eleanor Black who on her 71st birthday has crows flying into her apartment, which initially frightens up but leads to something that changes her outlook on life, 'The Bath' by Raymond Carver, was the sad tale of a young boy called Scotty who slips into a coma on his birthday, and how his parents wait for him to wake, 'Birthday Girl' by Haruki Murakami, which I read before and always liked, a story of a girl on her twentieth birthday, who is given the opportunity of a wish on her birthday, I love this quote from the story ~ 'No matter what they wish for, no matter how far they go, people can never be anything but themselves ~ that's all.'

The introduction by Haruki Murakami is great to read too, what can I say, I love that man's words.

The only downside of for me was the stories I did not really 'get' but I am glad I read them and the stories I enjoyed, have introduced me to authors I will be looking out for.

[Hossein Sarafraz · Rating 1 out of 5]

لطفا ترجمه‌ی اقای اسدالله امرایی رو نخوانید. ایشون هم تعدادی از داستان‌های نسخه‌ی اصلی رو حذف کرده و خودشون با داستان‌های دیگر جایگزین کرده‌اند. و مهم‌ترین اینکه ضعیف‌ترین ترجمه‌ای بود که تا بحال خوانده بودم. افتضاح بود ترجمه. مجبور شدم نسخه‌ی انگلیسی را بخوانم.

[Raha · Rating 2 out of 5]

اصلا نمی تونم بفهمم چرا یه نفر باید بدترین داستان های جشن تولدی که تا به حال نوشته شده رو تو یه کتاب جمع کنه ؟!!؟

[Mehrdad Mozafari · Rating 3 out of 5]

دو تا نکته داره
اول اینکه جالبه که چطور یک نویسنده میتونه با شنیدن "جشن تولد" به یاد لحظه های عموما تلخ بیافته
و دوم اینکه چه ذوقی در موراکامی وجود داره که این مجموعه رو جمع کنه؟
امتیازی که دادم به خاطر قلم نویسنده ها بود که عموما به نظرم یک نوشتار معمولی بود؟
اما در کل از ایده هاشون خوشم اومد

[JimZ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haruki Murakami first published this short story collection in 2002 in Japan; first English translation was in 2004 (Harvill Press). He provides an Introduction, explaining why he decided to collect some recent stories published prior to short stories on the topic of birthdays. He gives brief descriptions of the stories in the Introduction, and before each of the 13 short stories is a couple of paragraphs about the author. Those paragraphs are not merely a recitation of what the author has published but rather typically includes mention of the writer’s style according to Murakami. You can get knowledge of what the authors have written by googling the authors’ names – Murakami’s two -paragraph intros you can only get from him, and I found them to enhance the reading of the impending short story.

This was a delight to read. I have not read a lot of Murakami but from what I have heard some of his works are difficult to get through. So I guess I approached this book with a little bit of trepidation, although when I ordered it I was intrigued by the list of authors and the concept of having a short story collection based on a theme – birthdays.

I immensely liked the short stories because with rare exception they all “hit the spot” for me. Most of these authors you will recognize…and so you won’t be surprised that one would think highly of their work…but some authors you may know less about or have not read their works. There were 13 short stories and I include them below with my ratings, and below that is a review from The Independent (UK) on this short story collection.

Introduction, by Haruki Murakami, 4 stars [added to English ed. only)]
1. The Moor , by Russell Banks, 4 stars
2. Dundun, by Denis Johnson, 3 stars
3. Timothy’s Birthday, by William Trevor, 3.5 stars
4. The Birthday Cake, by Daniel Lyons, 5 stars (if I could give it more I would)
5. Turning, by Lynda Sexson, 3 stars
6. Forever Overhead, by David Foster Wallace, 4 stars
7. Angel of Mercy, Angel of Wrath, by Ethan Canin, 4 stars
8. The Birthday Present, by Andrea Lee, 2 stars
9. The Bath, by Raymond Carver, 5 stars
10. A Game of Dice, by Paul Theroux, 3 stars
11. Close to the Water’s Edge, by Claire Keegan, 4 stars [added to 2004 English hardback edition, 2006 Japanese edition and 2006 English paperback edition.]
12. Ride, by Lewis Robinson, 3.5 stars [added to 2006 Japanese edition and English paperback only]
13. Birthday Girl, by Haruki Murakami, 5 stars

Review: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...

[Shaimaa Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was Murakami's plan to collect some short stories that their main theme is about birthdays to translate them to Japanese. I have read this beautiful anthology in my birthday & I've enjoyed Murakami's selection a lot. Not to mention that as expected, his short story"Birthday Girl" outweigh all the others .. But he introduced me to new, contemporary writers that I would have never heard about ..
I truly liked "the Moor: Russel Banks", "The Birthday Cake: Daniel Lyons", " Angel of Mercy, Angel of Wrath: Ethan Canin" , "The Birthday Present: Andrea Lee" , "The Bath: Raymond Carver"
Maybe next year I'll give them a second read as he already suggested:
--------------------------------
" I hope you find at least one story in the thirteen contained in this volume, whether happy or not, that gives you real pleasure and makes you want to spend part of your next birthday re-reading it. As long as this earth of ours continues to circle around the sun, your birthday will come around once a year and, whether or not it gets reported on the radio, for you it will be a special day."

[Mehrnaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

سه و نیم از پنج
داستانی که خود موراکامی نوشته بود رو از همه بیشتر دوست داشتم

[Maedeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

این کتاب مجموعه ای از ۱۳ داستان کوتاه با موضوع روز تولده که هاروکی موراکامی جمع آوری کرده و با نوشتن مقدمه ای به نام "تولد من، تولد شما" آن را منتشر کرده است.

بیشتر داستان های کتاب یک روز تولد غمگین رو توصیف میکنن؛ مثل مادری که فرزندش روز تولدش رو فراموش کرده و این روز رو باید به تنهایی سپری کنه یا کسی که دقیقا روز تولدش مرتکب قتل شده و اتفاقات تلخ و عجیب دیگه ای از این دست.

البته من به غیر از آخرین داستان که نوشته خود موراکامیه بقیه داستان ها رو خیلی دوست نداشتم و صرفا چون این کتاب رو در روز تولدم میخوندم برام جذاب بود.

داستان آخر رو نه تنها به خاطر سبک جذاب نویسندگی موراکامی، بلکه به خاطر حس همزادپنداری که با دختر داستان در روز تولدش داشتم، دوست دارم.
تا همین ۲ یا ۳ سال پیش روز تولدم مهمترین و جذاب ترین روز سال برام بود و با اینکه من متولد خردادم و اکثرا روزای تولدم امتحان داشتم سعی میکردم تا جایی که امکان داره این روز رو با انجام دادن کارهایی که دوست دارم بگذرونم ولی سال های اخیر حسم خیلی متفاوته، تو بی حسی کامل به سر میبرم؛ مثلا همین امسال با اینکه دورکار بودم و به راحتی میتونستم کارهام رو به ساعت دیگه ای موکول کنم ولی تقریبا کل روز رو مشغول کار بودم و به غیر از خوندن این کتاب و خوردن کیک و شام با خانوادم کار دیگه ای انجام ندادم. غمگین نیستم ولی به طرز عجیبی بی تفاوتم دایره آدم های دورم محدود شده به خانوادم و تعدادی دوست و آشنا با ارتباط حداقلی و مجازی. دوست دارم از این وضعیت بیرون بیام ولی انگار استعداد ارتباط داشتن با آدم ها رو از دست دادم، دیگه توان اون ذوق و شادی سالهای پیش رو هم ندارم.

خب بگذریم، اگه بخوام کتاب پیشنهاد کنم فقط داستان موراکامی و مقدمه ابتدا کتاب توصیه میکنم.

[Suad Shamma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this to be quite a strange collection of "birthday" stories. Some were highly enjoyable, others were just a little bizarre. I cannot honestly say that any of them stood out as a favourite of mine, but I did like ones better than others.

Murakami's story at the end, "Birthday Girl", about a waitress who gets to make a wish on her 20th birthday was one of the stories that I enjoyed. A wish that is never revealed to us, which of course annoyed me to no end because I am an incredible curious being, however the message behind the story is that no matter what you wish for, your life will go on as normal.

I won't really delve into the other stories and what they were about, except to say that the theme of this book is dark and thought provoking. I did thoroughly enjoy reading Murakami's intro to the book. It was very interesting to see his process of writing a book and have a unique glimpse inside his head and into his thoughts. I especially liked his little radio anecdote.

I am definitely a fan of Murakami's work, and will continue to look forward to his books.

[Laleh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do not like Murakami's prose. That being said, I appreciate that he has an incredibly imaginative mind. But, just like in fashion or in an art gallery, appreciating that something is a work of art doesn't mean that I would like to wear it, or that I would hang it on my wall. Murakami is a fantastic writer, but who isn't really my type. As for this compilation of short stories; they're...different, to say the least. I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't expect a collection of soppy, fairytale type stories.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Out of the 13 birthday stories, including one by Murakami himself, I enjoyed more than half of them, whereas the rest were just meh, or too bizarre for me. I did love the different writing styles of all the authors, but none of the stories had a “happy” birthday feel about them. Most of them just dealt with the sadness of another year passing by. It was a little depressing... But Murakami’s short story “Birthday Girl” at the end managed to lift up my spirits a little.

My favorite story would have to be "Ride" by Lewis Robinson, which was quite funny but tinged with deep emotion as well.

All in all, It’s worth a one-time read.

[hans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this making me emotionally numb and bitter. You won't get a happy 'happy birthday' in here, it was more to the other side of it-- secretive and strange, quite unpleasant unlike the happiest jolly you would expect from a birthday celebration. Weird how Murakami could find few others so-alike 'Murakami' and collected them together in a spine. Still having that unsettled wandering feeling after reading Birthday Girl (Murakami)-- I've read this one before in his other book. Some stories were quite thrilling and noir. My favorite would be The Birthday Present (Andrea Lee), The Bath (Raymond Carver) and Angel of Mercy, Angel of Wrath (Ethan Canin) cause of the enthralling plot and gripping characters they all have, quite fascinating (although with open ending). Few narratives making me realised spending a birthday with someone you love is not as happy as you would think. The diversity was great regardless of the much alike vibe and style, still get that different sensation/impression after finished reading each of them. It was okay, not that I enjoyed it a lot but very much acceptable for its different view of a happy birthday.

[MUKUL RAJ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too boring for a murakami novel...

[Kunjila Mascillamani · Rating 2 out of 5]

My ex roommate's ex boyfriend had gifted this book to her on one of her birthdays. When they broke up she left it here for me. It's much later that i realized that it was a collection edited by Murakami and not completely written by him. There are some good stories in the collection.

'Dundun' by Denis Johnson is one i liked. I plan to look the author up and read more by him. Some style that i liked which seemed cinematic to me, in the way words were put,
'You'd think the sky didn't have any air in it, and the earth was made of paper. Rather than moving, we were just getting smaller and smaller'

'Turning' by Lynda Sexson was another story i found cinematic throughout.
'They looked like a motion picture of three swans gliding and bobbing on a pale lake, but caught in a faulty, haulting projector that was chewing up the frames of their finale', she writes.
Another description i liked,
'They turned their heads from side to side examining the boy, like birds who have an eye to each hemisphere'. See how meticulously she is following the comparison of the old women with swans/birds that she had made earlier.

'Forever Overhead' by David Foster Wallace is a thriller, in my opinion. Look at this description of the boy's ascent to the diving board.
'There's wind. It's windier the higher you get. The wind is thin; through the shadow it's cold on your wet skin. On the ladder in the shadow your skin looks very white. The wind makes a thin whistle in your ears. Four more rungs to the top of the tower. The rungs hurt your feet. They are thin and let you know just how much you weigh. You have real weight on the ladder. The ground wants you back'.
This is just one instance where he has successfully excited the readers as though in a crime thriller.

'Angel of Mercy, Angel of Wrath' by Ethan Canin is the story i loved the most in the collection. I was particularly drawn to the author when i realized he was a doctor by profession. May be that is why he is clinical in his storytelling. The bitterness of the old woman and the big black birds in her kitchen is an amazing combination he has employed in his craft.

I did not like Andrea Lee's story at all. What i didn't like more than that was the way she was introduced by Murakami. Why this sort of distinction for a female author? Murakami writes,

'The quick outline of Lee's career itself is itself enough to elicit a sigh, but in addition she is a woman of remarkable beauty. I myself was fortunate enough to meet her...found her to be slim and elegant, with an air of sophisticated intelligence. I think i can understand why one critic has written, "She may be one of the only writers whose actual life might be more interesting than the fictional ones she creates for her characters".
This is just pathetic. Murakami really needs to grow up and understand that women writers are not exotic creatures but people like himself.

'A Game of Dice' by Paul Theroux is an excerpt from his novel and is the story of which the content i found more disgusting than that of Lee's.

'Close to the water's Edge' by Claire Keegan is an amateur story which is sexist as well. It has the same theme of the 'helplessness of the educated boy who doesn't understand his mother's love for money'. I find such themes really boring.

Daniel Lyons' 'The Birthday Cake' features in the collection in its shorter version. I had read the longer version earlier and on comparison find that better. Both the stories are great reads though.

To wind up, i did not like Murakami's 'Birthday Girl'. Too contrived for my taste.
The book is not a great collection either.

[Hákon Gunnarsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haruki Murakami is the editor, and the author of one of the thirteen stories in this book, and I picked it up because him. I thought the idea behind it was interesting enough, all stories that somehow are about birthdays. It is not all "Happy birthday" though. Most of the stories have a more serious undertone than that.

I think I can safely say that I really like about half of the stories. I had actually read, and liked two of them before I came across this book, the stories by Murakami and Raymond Carver. A lot of the other writers I hadn't even heard of before, but that is the interesting thing about books like this, one can find authors that one might not have found otherwise. I had not read anything by Russell Banks, Daniel Lyons, Lynda Sexson, Ethan Canin and Lewis Robinson but found their stories very good, some of them are a little weird, but very good anyway.

Like always with collections like this there are stories that I didn't like so much. Tastes differ, and stories I don't like someone else might think are the greatest of the collection. But on the whole I would say this collection is above average, and well worth the read. A solid four star collection.

[Jyotsna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4 stars
Net Promoter Score: 10 (Promoter)

No matter what they wish for, no matter how far they go, people can never be anything but themselves.

A collection of short stories of various characters on their birthdays, this is a well curated list by Murakami.

My fav stories in the book were (in the order of my liking, most liked on top) -

Angel of Mercy, Angel of Wrath
The Birthday Cake
The Bath
Timothy's Birthday
The Birthday Present
Birthday Girl
The Moor

Recommended for a quick read.

P.S: For more on my new rating system, please read my bio.

[Anel Mušanović · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neke priča iz ove kolekcije su bile doista divne, ali je knjiga kao cjelina ostavila neki običan utisak na mene. Murakamijeve riječi su i dalje osvježavajuće za mene, a pronašao sam neke autore koje želim čitati još u budućnosti.

[Ian Laird · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection curated by the Japanese master, Haruki Murakami, who contributes a story himself Birthday Girl. It’s one of the best collections I’ve read for the quality of the writing, the eminence of the contributors, among them William Trevor, David Foster Wallace, Paul Theroux and Raymond Carver (with a particularly sad story The Bath), and the focus on a singular theme.

All the stories take place on a birthday. Like Christmas, birthdays are rarely completely happy, with the joys and tensions of families celebrating together, subject to the impact of the past and the passage of time. These are stories of celebration, loneliness, especially of old people, fragile relationships and changing values. In Daniel Lyons The Birthday Cake, an old woman neglected by her children insists on taking the baker’s last cake(her weekly order), despite a young woman’s pleas for her young daughter. The cake goes to waste, like it does every week. A life in decay. The challenges of childhood are the core of David Foster Wallace’s piece, Forever Overhead about a boy trying to build the courage to dive from the high tower at the pool. In his struggle, the boy goes through the heightened emotions peculiar to early youth. I found myself willing him to be able to take the leap in the high bright sun.

There are several stories about deteriorating, perhaps even disintegrating relationships. Paul Theroux’s protagonist in The Game of Diceis gambling away his wife’s favours, which gives it a rather a Dahlesque unsavoury flavour, Claire Keegan’s Close to the Water’s Edge has a woman who wants to see the sea but after the hour allocated for the experience, literally, her husband starts to drive away without her.

Andrea Lee has a slightly different take in The Birthday Present: a sophisticated American woman rents two hookers for her Italians husband’s birthday. What does that says about the relationship?

Lee is a new author for me as is Russell Banks who provides my favourite in the collection The Moor. A middle aged man runs into his former lover, now 80. They share a kiss - just because you are old doesn’t mean you lose your sexuality. Something is still there for him, but it is primarily the remembrance of an initiation. Banks also invites comparison between what we were and what we have become. In my experience, such as it is, I think it is probably better not to run into former lovers unless you have had the good fortune to subsequently become friends.

Murakami rounds out the collection with Birthday Girl. A young waitress at a restaurant delivers the evening meal to the secretive elderly owner on an upper floor of the building. She gets a wish and ends up with a husband, kids and an Audi. Is this what she wished for? A puzzling tale which leaves you uncertain what happened, but it lingers in the memory.

A splendid collection, highly recommended.

[Owen Townend · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though the idea of an anthology of short stories about birthdays at first seemed a little gimmicky, as soon as I saw Murakami had compiled this book I was intrigued.

His choices are surprisingly Western. I found it comforting that he included Raymond Carver and was excited to be able to sample the likes of Paul Theroux and David Foster Wallace.

All in all Murakami provides a very extensive range of short fiction styles though, again, I struggle to see why Murakami doesn't include at least one other Japanese or Eastern writer.

I realise that part of his intention was to introduce Western literature to Murakami's Japanese readership but it would make more sense to go a bit more diverse than American, Irish and Canadian writers. Then again I do realise now how difficult it was to find stories specifically about birthdays.

Nevertheless it was a pleasure to be introduced to a wide array of writers which remains the main reason for the collection. In that way I would definitely deem it an enjoyable gathering of sample reads.

Notable Stories

• The Moor by Russell Banks - this has the feel of a gruff manly man writer turning his hand to sentiment.

• The Birthday Cake by Daniel Lyons - a crafty yet deceptively simple story about selfishness and delusions.

• Turning by Lynda Sexon - I love these grannies and their mad retelling of The Emperor's New Clothes.

[Ye Lin Aung · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the introduction of the book, the editor (and in one case, the author), Murakami, himself, mentioned that he hoped the reader to find at least one of the stories in the book, gives you real pleasure and makes the reader to spend part of his/her next birthday re-reading it.
I dare say it hit the spot. I am going to re-read some of the stories, if not the whole book, on my next ( 17th, if you believe me :p ) birthday.
Honestly, I enjoy only some of the stories and I don't quite understand some. However, the last story, Birthday Girl by Murakami totally strike me hard. I have read the story before in his other collections of short stories and really liked it. This time, as I read it, I just like it more and more. It gives me the feelings and thoughts I cannot grasp and describe in words and leave me in awe, as always.
( Thanks to AKMA for buying it and bring it back for me too!)

[Sonaksha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I began reading this last year, but I just had to keep it to savour on my birthday, earlier this year. Not sure why I haven’t written this review earlier, but here we go:

What a strange, lovely collection of stories selected by Murakami. People usually tend to force happiness down your throat on birthdays, but I often find that absurd and unnecessary. I loved how the collection was a potpourri of emotions and feelings. While some stories left a melancholic after taste, some were haunting, and some even made me smile.

[Nas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this one up cuz it’s Murakami, but turned out that it was a short stories anthology compiled by him; of his favourite birthday stories from Western authors.

Surprisingly, I enjoyed this anthology though some of the stories were incomprehensible. But it was a nice read since I craved for stories that carved in complex structures and sentences, in a literary sense.

[Krishna Sruthi Srivalsan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of stories, selected by Haruki Murakami, each one of them revolving around birthdays. Knowing the theme of the anthology, you would expect this to be a cheery, feel-good read. But nope. Almost all the stories have a certain melancholy about them, a feeling of loss, and loneliness, leading you to deeply contemplate. Some of them leave you feeling strangely haunted.

I don't think this book will be enjoyed by everyone. But it did appeal to my introverted self, and I found myself eagerly devouring the stories. I lost a bit of patience reading Denis Johnson's Dundun , David Foster Wallace's Forever Overhead , and Lewis Robinson's Ride . Indeed, those were the stories I least enjoyed.

My favorites from this collection would be Timothy's Birthday by William Trevor, The Birthday Cake by Daniel Lyons, and Ethan Canin's Angel of Mercy, Angel of Wrath . As Murakami stated in his introduction, the world created by William Trevor is often an exact reflection of his native Ireland's overcast skies- dark, leaden, and doomed. And that's exactly how I found Timothy's Birthday. It's the story of a young man who simply won't go home for his birthday lunch. I could picture his old parents, Odo and Charlotte, waiting for him at their dining table, the special birthday lunch spread on the table, counting the hours go by and wondering when Timothy would finally arrive. Hauntingly beautiful.

Daniel Lyons' The Birthday Cake is the story of a grumpy old woman who will not allow another lady to buy the last cake at the bakery for her daughter's birthday. As I read the story, I fumed, wondering how someone could be so cold-hearted and selfish. And then I reached the end, where the reason for her selfishness is revealed. It almost broke my heart.

I really wish I could read more of William Trevor and Daniel Lyons.

I also enjoyed Claire Keegan's Close to the Water's Edge and Murakami's own addition to the collection, Birthday Girl . Here's a line from the latter which I particularly liked:

No matter what they wish for, no matter how far they go, people can never be anything but themselves.

[Ranee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of the Murakami book I have read. It is not really his own book,he just introduced it. A bunch of great writers happened to have a short story made with a theme on birthdays and they sort of wanted to compile it. Though this is not wholly authored by Murakami,this was the book that made me so curious to find him and read him and it all too funny, it wasn't my birthday when I bought this book, at least not for the next 10 months!


So what about birthdays? What makes them special? If you find yourself in a dilemma regarding the true meaning of birthdays especially your own, I recommend that you go ask your parents or better find a cosmic link using a numerology chart of some sort. However, if you seriously would want to have a good read and want to have an adventure with the absurd, sometimes hilarious with the right amount of sarcasm and pride, this book might give you that. Enjoy!

[Samar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a gift from my best friend on my 31th birthday. The poem by Paul Simon made me fall in love with the book. The introduction was very interesting. Also the brief introduction to each author by Murakami was very informative. I liked some of the stories very much and didn't enjoy some much. The Moor, Angel of Mercy,Angel of Wrath were really enjoyable. Close to the Water's Edge touched me deeply, and I also liked its style. The ending of Ride is etched in my head. Timothy's Birthday and The birthday cake were sad and touching too. I liked Murakami's story a lot as well. In general this book was a pleasant experience especially near my birthday and although it has a somber tone to it, it also makes you think deeper about life and perhaps figure out what your birthday story is.

[Morvarid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some people take their birthdays very seriously, and some also take other people's birthdays so seriously. All these occasions and reactions, plans, etc can tell us a great deal.
The book contains 13 short stories, selected by Murakami from contemporary American writers mostly and the last one he's written himself. An interesting theme for an anthology, birthday stories. I loved "The Moor", "The Birthday Present" and "Birthday Girl".