After the Quake

Recommended to me by my fwiend (check out her review too!) I finally decided to give the more popular Murakami a go! Truth be told, I wanted to read his books... during high school even, but something always took precedence. Once I finally got into japanese literature, I preferred female authors, or Mishima (whom I need to get back to...) or even Ryu Murakami, because I bought one of his books a long time ago by pure chance. By this time, Haruki Murakami began to be considered "overrated" or "misogynist" in the circles I dwelled in, so I felt like maybe I wasn't missing out on much anyway. And so, I never gave him a chance.

Thanks to sussuri mentioning she's rereading a couple of his books that she really enjoys, I decided to try After the Quake and I'm glad I did. A collection of 6 short stories tied by one common theme, the earthquake, I found this collection of stories to be unpretentious and down to earth, I don't know why I expected otheriwse... One notable thing is that each protagonist deals with the earthquake in a similar way. Despite the earthquake being the one thing connecting all of the stories, somehow each protagonist chooses to avoid it, and treats it as a thing that happened. Maybe avoid it isn't the best way to put it - but they certainly don't focus on the event too much, even if it's tied to them very closely. It's an ongoing tragedy, but that's that. This is where the irony lies of course, as the physical earthquake presented itself as a turning point in each one of these protagonists lives.

On a less metaphorical note, I guess I can connect this to my experience as someone that was in the epicenter of an earthquake, where it felt like yes, the time may have stopped for me, but for the rest of the country it was just another day. I will be the one dealing with the consequences, but for everyone else it's just a thing that has happened while time kept ticking on.

Three stories are tied as my favourite in this collection, I can't really decide which would "win". UFO in Kushiro has a great premise and a fun and thonk provoking twist in the end. Landscape with Flatiron has a great unconventional cast of characters and a very comfy vibe and setting. Lastly I think Honey Pie is the most "story like" of all of them and as such I feel like it fits well as the last story in the collection. Either way all of the stories offer something of value, and as someone that really enjoys short narratives of ones life at a turning point I think this was a really good collection.

Oh and, I didn't read the collection in my native language but I put this cover here because the fish looks really silly.