The first story, ufo in kushiro, was so similar to Wind-Up Bird that my initial reaction to the collection was a tired disappointment. However, as the other stories opened up, I was happy to see that Murakami does clearly have creativity beyond one story line and has a talent for evoking wonder with mysterious fantasy-like scenarios.
It's hard not to think of the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami in 2015 while reading about lives affected by a large scale disaster in Japan. You don't really think about how such an event affects people who are indirectly tied to it, and Murakami does this in a crafty way that makes you think. None of his characters have suffered the loss of a loved one by the earthquake, but all of their buried pasts are brought to the surface in haunting ways.
I think part of the strangeness in Murakami's writing is that all of his characters never seem fundamentally Japanese. Any references to brand names, literature, and culture is always reflective of Western culture. Even the food that they eat is European/American (why is it always spaghetti??). I'd be interested to read it in the original language to see if it translates differently, although unfortunately my skills with Japanese text are not so advanced.
In relation to that, one thing that bothers me is the use of the phrase "don't let it bother you too much" that gets used constantly in Jay Rubin's translations of the female characters in Murakami's books. I don't know what the original Japanese term was from which it came, but this particular choice of words bothers me. It seems to cold and unapologetic, something that I can't imagine creeping in to Japanese speech as often as it does in these stories. But then again, I guess women are cold enough in Murakami's world to constantly be disappearing/leaving in. I wonder if it reflects on his personal life.
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