Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: 24 Stories Book

Reading the books of Haruki Murakami (born 1949) is like watching the films of Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998). The two are the most notable world-known artists in Japan.

In particular, reading the 24 stories included in this collection Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman is like watching Kurosawa's 1990 film, Dreams three times. The 8 stories in the film are said to be based on the actual dreams of Kurosawa. In Murakami's Introduction to the English Edition of this book, he said that Ice Man, one of the 24, is based on a dream his wife had (p. xi). Also, one of Kurosawa's 8 dreams is entitled "Crows" while one of Murakami's short story The Rise and Fall of Sharpie Cakes is about crows that know how to distinguish genuine and fake sharpie cakes. With Kurosawa gaining tremendous popularity worldwide because of his earlier films Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Red Beard, etc when Murakami was still a struggling novelist, Kurosawa's influence to Murakami is not a far-fetched possibility.

Kafka on the Shore. The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. Sputnik Sweetheart. After Dark. I read four of his novels before delving into his second collection of short stories, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. Wrong move. I guess I was in a hurry to finish the first two novels since they are included in the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. I ignored the explanation of my friend prior to my reading Kafka on Shore that Murakami is first and foremost a short story writer. The plot, scenes, characters, conflicts, quirkiness, etc in these stories are also in his novels. The list is almost endless: the mysterious cats, man cooking pasta, the woman by the shore, people and animals disappearing for no reason, a couple going on vacation to Greece, compulsive eating, jazz lovers, incestuous relationship, gay love, visit to a zoo, etc. The typical stories that do not make any sense. Pointless. Implausible plots. Waste of time. Grrr. The execution is excellent though. The fluidity of narration. The precise exact words. Mundane yet familiar everyday-like setting. Imagination at its best. So you hold on. You read on until the last page even if not everything makes any logic.

Like life. When things are not going right. When things are hard to explain. There are things that are happening around us that sometimes we cannot understand, right?

Like dreams. Almost always, they do not make sense. Yet they are sometimes so vivid as if real. While in them, we find ourselves crying, laughing, wanting, disappointed, scared, sad, aroused... The plethora of emotions in our dreams. The same plethora you will feel when you read Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

After all, we all dream, right?

Life. Dreams. Read on. Live on.

Murakami is one of the nominees in this year's Nobel Prize for Literature. Announcement today, October 7.
Ganbatte, Murakami-san!


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Update (10/8/2010): Haruki Murakami lost to Mario Vargas Llosa (born 1936) a Peruvian. Maybe I should try reading Llosa's Time of the Hero (1966) or The Feast of the Goat (2002) and see if he indeed deserves to win over Murakami.