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This title in other editions

eBook editions

The Elephant Vanishes: Stories

by Haruki Murakami

The Elephant Vanishes: Stories Cover

ISBN13: 9780679750536
ISBN10: 0679750533
All Product Details

 

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

With the same deadpan mania and genius for dislocation that he brought to his internationally acclaimed novels A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Haruki Murakami makes this collection of stories a determined assault on the normal. A man sees his favorite elephant vanish into thin air; a newlywed couple suffers attacks of hunger that drive them to hold up a McDonald's in the middle of the night; and a young woman discovers that she has become irresistible to a little green monster who burrows up through her backyard.

By turns haunting and hilarious, The Elephant Vanishes is further proof of Murakami's ability to cross the border between separate realities — and to come back bearing treasure.

Review:

"The narrators in these stories tend to accept what comes, no matter how bizarre, without acting. When a man discovers his wife keeps a shotgun and ski masks in the car, he asks no questions, but shrugs and thinks, 'Married life is weird.' When another man realizes he has just passed 'the 100% perfect girl' for him on the street, he keeps walking, too ruffled to try to track her down. And when another man teaching in a correspondence school visits a married pupil with a crush on him, they simply eat hamburger steaks and exchange pregnant glances. But despite their passivity, these characters speak with a casual profundity, transforming their seemingly banal stories to parables for our time." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)

Review:

"These are beautifully written stories, often funny, always moving." Chicago Tribune

Review:

"These stories...are warm with life, hopelessly — and, I would add, wonderfully — unstable." David Leavitt, The New York Times Book Review

Review:

"A world-class writer who takes big risks....If Murakami is the voice of a generation...then it is the generation of Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo." Washington Post Book World

Review:

"A seamless melding of Japanese cultural nuances with universal themes — in a virtuoso story collection....Remarkable evocations of a postmodernist world, superficially indifferent but transformed by Murakami's talent into a place suffused with a yearning for meaning." Kirkus Reviews

Review:

"Eerie, unsettling....[A] wonderful combination of the bizarre and the mundane." Village Voice Literary Supplement

Review:

"Murakami is one of the great Japanese masters, and his style is sexy, funny, mysterious, and always coolly deadpan." Details

About the Author

Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949 and grew up in Kobe. He is the author of A Wild Sheep Chase; Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World; and Dance, Dance, Dance. He lives with his wife in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:

sharif78, May 20, 2007 (view all comments by sharif78)
The Elephant Vanishes (1993) is a collection of short stories by Haruki Murakami, one of the most popular writers in Japan. I enjoyed it more than After the Quake. I haven't read any of his novels yet.

Murakami's style is very simple with a lighthearted tone yet he could paint a complex picture. While reading, I always expect he would explain certain things, but he never does, leaves the reader in a limbo. But that's his style, not the typical conflict-crisis-resolution format. One of my favorite stories is The Second Bakery Attack, in which a husband and wife hold up a McDonald's and steal 30 hamburgers, grilled for takeout, although the manager offers them money instead. The husband thought he was under a curse, when he robbed a bakery years ago. After they got married, the wife suggested that to get out of the curse he needs to rob another bakery. They could not find a bakery open after 2am, so McDonald's was the closest thing they can find, not a bakery but they have bread. Another one I liked was Lederhosen, very offbeat. Murakami shows how a pair of shorts could lead to the divorce of a long-married Japanese couple.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780679750536
Translated from the Japanese by:
Murakami, Haruki
Author:
Jay Rubin
Author:
Murakami, Haruki
Publisher:
Vintage Books
Location:
New York, NY
Subject:
General
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
Social life and customs
Subject:
Short Stories (single author)
Subject:
Japan
Subject:
Japan Social life and customs Fiction.
Subject:
Translations into english
Subject:
Murakami, Haruki - Translations into English
Subject:
Stories (single author)
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Copyright:
Edition Description:
Trade paper
Series:
Vintage International
Series Volume:
PC-7014
Publication Date:
July 1994
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
336
Dimensions:
8.01x5.21x.73 in. .59 lbs.

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Related Subjects

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The Elephant Vanishes: Stories New Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$15.00 In Stock
Product details 336 pages Vintage Books USA - English 9780679750536 Reviews:
"Review" by , "These are beautifully written stories, often funny, always moving."
"Review" by , "These stories...are warm with life, hopelessly — and, I would add, wonderfully — unstable."
"Review" by , "A world-class writer who takes big risks....If Murakami is the voice of a generation...then it is the generation of Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo."
"Review" by , "A seamless melding of Japanese cultural nuances with universal themes — in a virtuoso story collection....Remarkable evocations of a postmodernist world, superficially indifferent but transformed by Murakami's talent into a place suffused with a yearning for meaning."
"Review" by , "Eerie, unsettling....[A] wonderful combination of the bizarre and the mundane."
"Review" by , "Murakami is one of the great Japanese masters, and his style is sexy, funny, mysterious, and always coolly deadpan."
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