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Original Essays | September 17, 2013

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The Elephant Vanishes: Stories

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The Elephant Vanishes: Stories Cover

ISBN13: 9780679750536
ISBN10: 0679750533
Condition: Standard
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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
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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.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
Kyle Kirkley, January 1, 2013 (view all comments by Kyle Kirkley)
Stories that are both haunting and hilarious.
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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:
1993
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

Featured Titles » Literature
Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z

The Elephant Vanishes: Stories Used Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$10.50 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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