I saw a thread existed for favorite short story, but wanted to add a more detailed one to discuss what you took from the short stories, as they are sometimes vague.
To start, I wanted to bring up the short story "Elephant Vanishes" (The last story in the book of the same title).
ELEPHANT VANISHES
At first I wasn't sure what to take from this story, but I knew I liked it. I thought about how Murakami is a big fan of Raymond Carver, and recalled reading the Carver story "Elephant", thinking there must be some connection.
In Carver's "Elephant", I thought it was about the strong, or father like figure, i.e. something strong and stable that we all look up to in our life.
Now, thinking about The Elephant Vanishes, the man was obsessed with tracking stories about this elephant. To me, that sort of represented something that he looked up to or relied on his life. Then something happened, a balance shifted between the two, and the Elephant (strong figure, presence, or idea in his life) vanished.
In short, I think it subtly brings about emotions in this event that happens to many of us in life, when our perspective shifts and we outgrow or become bigger than the things we once looked up to or held as greater than our own selves. Kind of like when you grow up in a small town, and take some people and things very seriously, i.e. look up to them, then move away to a big city, and when you come back to visit your hometown, you realized a lot of things/people have lost their power or intensity.
To start, I wanted to bring up the short story "Elephant Vanishes" (The last story in the book of the same title).
ELEPHANT VANISHES
At first I wasn't sure what to take from this story, but I knew I liked it. I thought about how Murakami is a big fan of Raymond Carver, and recalled reading the Carver story "Elephant", thinking there must be some connection.
In Carver's "Elephant", I thought it was about the strong, or father like figure, i.e. something strong and stable that we all look up to in our life.
Now, thinking about The Elephant Vanishes, the man was obsessed with tracking stories about this elephant. To me, that sort of represented something that he looked up to or relied on his life. Then something happened, a balance shifted between the two, and the Elephant (strong figure, presence, or idea in his life) vanished.
In short, I think it subtly brings about emotions in this event that happens to many of us in life, when our perspective shifts and we outgrow or become bigger than the things we once looked up to or held as greater than our own selves. Kind of like when you grow up in a small town, and take some people and things very seriously, i.e. look up to them, then move away to a big city, and when you come back to visit your hometown, you realized a lot of things/people have lost their power or intensity.