Murakami is a master of strangely odd short stories. At times it's difficult to make sense of the plots.. ( )

It's been some time since I read this, and I don't recall any details. ( )

I just don't think short stories are really suited to Murakami's vision of literature. There is too much suspension of belief required of the reader in too short a space of words, and the emotionless characters who are disarming after fifty pages are just flat when only given twenty.

I'd be interested in what real Murakami devotees think of this. I loved the first book of his I read (Dance, Dance, Dance), liked the second (A Wild Sheep Chase) and enjoyed the third (Norwegian Wood). After that, though, the trick got a bit old and I didn't especially enjoy The Wind Up Bird Chronicle and found Kafka on the Shore to be like someone writing a parody of a Murakami story. ( )

No sé, creo que soy más del Murakami de las historias largas, a mi gusto sus universos toman mejor forma. De cualquier forma, ha sido harto interesante encontrar en estos cuentos algunos guiños de las novelas.

Y aunque no sé si me han encantado la compilación completa, sí me quedo con varias historias que me han cautivado, como "La tía pobre" y "Somorgujo." ( )

"Twenty-four short stories are like two dozen cupcakes," I told my friend.

He lit another Hope cigarette, but stopped short of inhaling. "I almost ate two dozen cupcakes one day," he said.

"Um," I acknowledged.

"A vendor delivered them at work, and though I offered them to the whole office, I was the only one eating them. I really don't know why I kept at it. The decorations were very cute, but each one was as bland as the one before. I thought I must have been missing something."

We both looked out the window. "They were just cupcakes," I said.

He took a deep drag on his cigarette.