I picked this up from the local library after a friend of mine briefly mentioned they liked one of the authors other books. As a result I had no pre-conceived ideas about what the style and subject matter of this book would be like. Only that it was six short stories based around the subject of an earthquake.

As a whole I found the stories very readable, and I was surprised how quickly and easily I came to know the various characters in such a short number of pages. Unfortunately, despite the characters being of interest, the plots they found themselves in didn't click with me. Too often the endings left me wondering if I'd missed something, or if the author was just trying to be too 'fancy pants' and/or vague for the sake of it. Reading some of the other views it does makes me wonder if I'm just not used to this less conventional style of story telling.

Overall two of the six stories, Landscape with Flatiron & Honey Pie, I can say I did enjoy and deserved a hearty three stars. My mind continued to think of the two main characters in Landscape with Flatiron long after I'd finished reading it. As for Honey Pie, I thought that had the strongest and most immersive story line out of the six, and provided a nice ending to the book. But the other four didn't reach that mark with one or two, especially Super-Frog Saves Tokyo, (which just seemed plain ridiculous) I didn't enjoy at all. Which all adds up an overall feeling that it was an okay quick read, but nothing special, hence the two stars. ( )

Three and a half stars for the entire volume, six in total, most of them I didn't really get. The last one, however, titled "Honey Pie" I absolutely adore. This has got to be a strange book because it was written in Japanese and probably contains some odd themes. I don't know anything about Japanese literature and I don't know if I'd grasp the full significance of its symbols and imagery even if I speak Japanese like a native but looking at it from a foreigner's point of view. The giant frog and the worm, for instance, reminds me of Godzilla and Mothra, and I have never in my life understood the Japanese's fascination in those. On the other hand, this book is supposed to have an undertone of the natural catastrophe of Kobe's 1995 earthquake and the human-caused poison-gas attack in Tokyo two months later in the same year, the latter being an almost impossible event to comprehend. It seems the author tries to put into light what strange messages some of these Japanese are getting through experiencing first-hand or from the news the earthquake, and how those messages are translated into odd undertakings. To the extent that they think they need to do something crazy to "save the world" as they see it.

"Honey Pie", the last story is about a writer entangled in an awkward relationship, but I find it sweet and touching. If I am rating my experience reading that one, it would be four and half stars. ( )

Recommended by a good friend, Murakami’s Japanese magical realism collection of short stories is a really good read. As with all good magical realism, things skim below the surface that would make everything make concrete sense, if only we could get our minds to accept it. What’s above the surface is beautiful and quirky and interesting, and somehow always makes sense even when you know it shouldn’t. Who ever heard of a large frog enlisting a small man to help save the world by going underground and having the fight of their lives against an angry worm? But Murakami’s language and storytelling ability make it seem utterly sensible. As with Kerouac, I fell in love at the first sentence and was sad when this small volume was completed. I fell in love so hard I was moved to visit a bricks and mortar store to buy something else by Murakami so the spell wouldn’t be broken too long. ( )

After having this book on my wishlist for years, where do I finally find a copy? A library is moving to a smaller facility and is forced to purge its shelves of many extraneous books. A near perfect copy except for gigantic Magic Marker slashes through library information and a big W/D on the inside cover. Murakami takes his usual route through the world of the unusual, but the route always seems purposeful though precarious and strange. ( )

 Normally, I prefer Murakami's novels to his short stories, but this collection was evenly good. All the stories were connected to the 1995 Kobe earthquake. ( )