One of the most well-known Japanese writers both in and outside of Japan, Haruki Murakami is the author of a unique voice, creating worlds which are at once overly familiar and everyday, and yet so different they leave the reader feeling the rug has been pulled out from under their feet. Each of his novels represents a unique vision designed to haunt the reader long after finishing, and at the same time holds a core of writing style, characters and settings which are clearly Haruki Murakami's and his alone.

The Elephant Vanishes is a selection of Haruki Murakami's short stories. Each one represents a social commentary made by Haruki Murakami on the difficulties of Japanese society and contemporary life as he knows them. Some stories are of the fantastic, fairytale-like, spinning worlds of dwarves, revolutions, kings, and factories for the manufacture of living elephants. Others are set very much in the world as we know it, of McDonald's, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, spaghetti and newspapers, but with startlingly inconsistencies in what we would assume to be everyday life, designed to draw the reader's attention to a particular problem. Each can be read satisfactorily on a surface level, as an interesting story in itself, and a fine example of Haruki Murakami's style. But the real fun lies in discovering what he is trying to tell us through his works.

PhD student Gitte Marianne Hansen has interpreted one story as being a critical view of the abuse Japanese women put their bodies through in order to attain an ideal version of themselves. A woman alone at home one day finds her very ordinary world invaded by a small green monster, which she recognises as being a part of herself, but not an attractive one, nor one she wants to be associated with. Despite the monster's protestations that it means her no harm and that it is very much a part of the woman herself, the woman takes a cruel pleasure in torturing the monster in various ways until it completely disappears. Thus Haruki Murakami shows how a woman can cruelly torture the parts of herself she does not like, whether through the latest fad diet, over-exercising, or plastic surgery - until they disappear, leaving her only with those parts of herself she approves of.

Another story is a heartbreaking tale of two lovers '100% perfect for one another'. Instead of taking the opportunity when they first meet to form a relationship, they decide to test what they have by parting ways, to see if they will meet again in the future, supposedly then proving they are supposed to be together. When they finally do meet again, each has lost the memory of their previous meeting and of the other person, and each one walks by the other, never to meet again. Haruki Murakami here demonstrates that real life is no fairytale, although he shows a touching belief in the possibility of true love and having a perfect partner somewhere. He criticises those who choose to test what they have been blessed with, calling us not to underestimate the value of love, and having someone 'perfect' for you, but to take hold of something special the minute it comes your way.

As with all his books there are consistencies in character types, environments and surroundings. The same names for characters are used repeatedly (a 'Noboru Watanabe' appears in more than one short story), and most of the protagonists show a love for spaghetti, playing music on record players, coffee, late-night brandies, cats, and a solitary, independent lifestyle which is familiar in all his works. Perhaps this is Haruki Murakami drawing on his own personality in order to create characters he can be most familiar with, or perhaps he sees little value in fleshing out his characters beyond what is necessary, preferring to focus on varying other aspects of his story-writing instead. Although this can be repetitive, it also creates in the reader a sense of familiarity with a character even at the very start of a story, a sense of knowing the sort of person they are, and the way they are likely to react to events or other characters. This allows for a story to have more depth immediately - easier for the reader to relate to. It creates a comfortable core to every tale, no matter how unusual or fantastical it then becomes. As an example of Haruki Murakami's writing style, and a fascinating set of stories in and of themselves, The Elephant Vanishes is an excellent introduction to his writing, or a continuation of his works already read.

END

Ellen Andersen 26 March 2010

NOTES - reviewed (c) Ellen Andersen Saturday 1 Aug 09 Newcastle Upon Tyne. The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami (b 1949); 'The stories were written between 1983 and 1990, and the collection's first English publication was in 1993' (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elephant_Vanishes). In print and available from eg Amazon. A current edition is ISBN - 978-0099448754, publisher - Vintage, paperback, 336 pages, date of publication 08 February 2001.

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