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Book Review : Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami

 Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman 

By Haruki Murakami 

(A Collection of Short Stories)


Published Year: 2007(by Vintage) 

Page Count: 435 pages 

Medium Used: Paperback 

Genre: Mixed, Short Stories, 2024-read. 

Rating : 4/5



This book took me longer to read than expected .. perhaps because I was juggling it with other books as well. I wanted to read something by Murakami and went for this one because it only recently arrived in my mail box. Some of these stories .. which are magical, containing supernatural .. made me think and ponder a lot. For instance, a woman suddenly starts forgetting her name and how is it resolved without the help of western, omnipresent meds. A woman can't stop shoping for new clothes and what happens when her husband puts a stop to her unnatural addiction? And so on..


This book is a collection of selected short stories by Murakami. Some of them are small, some are big. Some have a twist .. in the form of an unexpected monkey or they are just explained away with acceptance of the supernatural. Some of them are very engrossing.. some just give a feel good reading experience. Each story is its own genre.. either contemporary or horror or magical realism or just literary fiction. 


I began to really appreciate these small pieces of ideas as the book was driving towards the end. The last few stories made the book unputdownable! I wish some of these ideas are extended into larger novels!! 


Cheers! 

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