the louver’s Reviews > The Elephant Vanishes > Status Update

“Family Affair”: fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. murakami….you are the greatest.

"The Green Little Monster": love how murakami's shortest stories are the ones with the most to say. this one is even weirder than murakami's standard brand of weird, but it works so well.

“Barn Burning”: another banger. probably my favorite story in this collection so far. murakami’s prose is so exquisite.

Lederhosen: i’m afraid i don’t know wtf you’re talking about here, murakami.

“The Fall of the Roman Empire, The 1881 Indian Uprising, Hitler’s Invasion of Poland, The Realm of Raging Winds.” this story rocked.

“Sleep”: just completely blown away by this one. one of murakami’s best portrayal of a woman. also probably one of the best things he has ever written. there’s just so much here. i keep saying this, but it’s really so incredible how much depth his stories have while utilizing such simple prose.

“On Seeing The 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning”: incredible the way murakami is able to pack so much feeling, so many thoughts, into a 4 page story with such simple, sparse prose. wow.

“The Second Bakery Attack”: LOVED, LOVED, LOVED. so weird and surreal and romantic. i feel like murakami’s oddness really helped enhanced the themes here.

“The Wind-Up Bird and Tuesday’s Women”: i hear this is meant as a sort of prologue to one of his novels and you can definitely tell. it doesn’t really go anywhere, but i vibed with the style.