All Intensive Purposes

Continuing the Murakami thing, After The Quake is a collection of six stories that Murakami wrote after the Kobe earthquake, an event that shook (figuratively) Japanese somewhat in the same way that Americans far from New York City and Northern Virginia felt affected by 9/11. A few years ago, I read another collection of Murakami's stories, The Elephant Vanishes, and while I liked some of them, I found them too electic -- too varied in style and effect -- to really enjoy them. With the stories in After The Quake, though, this isn't true at all. All have a certain ominous or disconcerting undertone that ties them together. Once again, I find it very difficult to articulate what I found compelling about Murakami's work, but I would recommend these stories without reservation.