Book Review

The Elephant Vanishes (Stories)

日本語

Noveliest: Haruki Murakami

With the same deadpan mania and genius for dislocation that he brought to his internationally acclaimed novels A Wild Sheep Chases and Hard-Broiled 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

"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."-The Washington Post Book World

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

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

He was introduced to the magazine" New Yorker" for the first time as a Japanese novelist. Haruki's novels were popular in the 1990's in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea. His popularity has cought on worldwide. His books are especially popular in Russia and China now. The Elephant Vanishes (Japanese version) was published by KNOPF in 1993.

Translated from the Japanese by Alfred Birnbaum and Jay Rubin

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