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  novels vs short stories

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  i had read or heard murakami on an interview saying that often people like his novels but not his short stories or vice versa
  when i felt disappointed with his short stories i thought, well, he was right
  i wonder how others feel about that statement?
  

  teobesta started this discussion 5 years ago. ( reply | permalink )

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  erthian 

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  Are any of them online (legally)? What books are they in? I would love to give them a try.
  
  I find I am disappointed when an author tries to hard to change styles... there will always be some one out there who likes it thought...
  
  It can be done though. My close-to-idol William Gibson has quite changed his style while managing to keep the same feel and quality about him. Its impressive really, but often it just ends up not working.
  
  On the other hand Murakami is an impressive author... I am really really curious to see what he has.

  posted 5 years ago. ( permalink )

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    Phige 

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    Erthian, I think in a website www.murakami.ch, some of his short stories are available. You can check that out.
    
    Murakami, according to the book Jay Rubin wrote on the author, thinks of his short stories as novels waiting to be written. Hence, some of the characters or scenes in his novels are present in his short stories. And, Ms. Rose is right to say that he is experimenting. He likes to try things out and knows that not every one of it would be successful. According to the book mentioned above, if i'm not mistaken, Murakami likes to try things out until he is able to write a book that is layered like that of Dostoyevsky.
    
    If he can't write a novel yet, he would write short stories. Also, Murakami says in an interview that he doesn't really sit down and say: "i will write this." His novels/stories reveal themselves to him. Its good to read the book by Jay Rubin on the author, gives readers a glimpse of Murakami's way of writing and life.
    
    

    posted 5 years ago. ( permalink )

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  ms. rose 

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  i've liked most of murakami's novels and a lot of his short stories (the ones in 'the elephant vanishes' in particular). but i guess the experience of reading a novel differs greatly from reading a short story, so could this be the reason people tend to prefer one genre over the other?
  
  in terms of style, i do agree with erthian that murakami tends to change styles in his short fiction, but i think it might be a case of experimenting rather than trying too hard. and, overall, i think that he remains true to his voice..
  
  

  posted 5 years ago. ( permalink )

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    teobesta 

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    ms rose
    well, i do like short stories
    just not murkami's for some reason
    maybe i just like the slow pace of his other books
    when i first started reading his books, i dreaded getting to the end
    i never wanted the book to end
    and the more i read a given book, the more i enjoyed it
    maybe if i had been able to mix the books (read a short story then a novel, etc) it would have worked better
    i had gone on a trip to thailand with all his books i hadn't read yet
    (reading was i did for those 2 weeks at the beach)
    it just so happened that they were all the short stories
    and i was done in 2 days and the only reason i kept reading them was because i kept hoping that i would somehow find in them the same emotions as i had in his novels
    i think i would have dropped them if they had been written by somebody else
    then i remembered what he had said
    
    erthian
    i don't know much about books on line
    i usually get a hard copy (if that's what you mean)
    as for his books that have short stories (not always only his) that i know of:
    the elephant vanishes
    blind willow, sleeping woman
    after the quake
    birthday stories
    give them a try, you might enjoy them

    posted 5 years ago. ( permalink )

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  ms. rose 

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  i think you made an excellent point there: the emotional response to his short stories is definitely different than to his novels, for me too. i agree with you on the pace as well. so i can imagine you were disappointed on your trip to thailand --aargh, nothing worse than realizing you've packed the wrong books! ^^

  posted 5 years ago. ( permalink )

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  Mamzelle 

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  I think Murakami's short stories are incredibly uneven. Of the three books of short stories that I have read by him, only "After the Quake" has any cohesive power. But in "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman" and "The Elephant Vanishes" - - - well, I'd say a bunch of the stories in those books make me cringe. Of course there are one or two absolute gems in both of those books (and I do recommend "After the Quake" pretty much cover-to-cover).
  I'm more forgiving about the novels, and I'd say that "Norwegian Wood", and "A Wild Sheep Chase" are two of my all-time favorite books. And so different from one another. "Wind Up Bird" and "Kafka" are kind of two variations on the same novel, I felt, but I love them both, too.
  I suppose the issue about the novels vs. stories is this: Murakami is so much about rhythm, and the short story format just doesn't allow for enough space for that to get going.

  posted 5 years ago. ( permalink )

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    teobesta 

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    maybe that's just it
    the rythm
    well, i read bday stories first and then blind willow, then the elephant and by the time i got to after the quake i was just no longer in the mood
    it didn't help that all that happened in the space of two days
    maybe i should reread after the quake again now that it's been almost a year and see how i feel

    posted 5 years ago. ( permalink )

• MikePhilbin 

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  I really prefer Murakami's shorter works ... there was a very revealing comment in Sputnik Sweetheart, I think it was, where his fated female writer talks about her starting books and getting nowhere with them. His style works a lot better in his more anecdotal non-3-act-narrative shorts. I do love his books though in that he's (somehow) able to extend that anecdotal feel to these longer works.

  posted 5 years ago. ( permalink )

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