ILLUMINATI

1 star stories: New York Mining Disaster, Airplane, A Perfect Day for Kangaroos, Dabchick. 2 star stories: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, Hunting Knife, A Poor Aunt’s Story, Nausea 1979,  The Year of Spaghetti, The Rise and Fall of Sharpie Cakes, The Ice Man, Crabs, Where I’m Likely To Find It. 3 star stories: Birthday Girl, Mirror, A Folklore for my Generation, Man-Eating Cats, Tony Takitani. 4 star stories: The Seventh Man, Chance Traveler, Hanalei Bay. 5 star stories: Firefly,  The Kidney-Shaped Stone That Moves Every Day, A Shinagawa Monkey. Reading Murakami could be like looking at a painting. Sometimes, it makes perfect sense, sometimes it is frustrating, sometimes it is puzzling. But sometimes, it talks to you. And when it does, it stays in your heart. While Murakami is best known for his surrealistic, dream-like storytelling, I’ve always preferred his stories that are firmly rooted on reality. And that is the reason I tried to read and gave up on Wind-Up bird c