The Elephant Vanishes
Book design
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The Elephant Vanishes is a collection of 17 short stories by Japanese author Haruki Murakami.
The stories were written between 1980 and 1991.
I chose three positions:
"The Fall of the Roman Empire, the 1881 Indian Uprising, Hitler's Invasion of Poland, and the Realm of Raging Winds."
A man writes his diary, prompted by unique phrases to remind him of the day's events.
A man writes his diary, prompted by unique phrases to remind him of the day's events.
"Sleep."
A woman has not slept for 17 days but does not feel the need for sleep. She conceals her condition from her husband and children but spends the nights eating chocolate, drinking Rémy Martin brandy, reading Anna Karenina and going for drives through the city in her Civic. Ultimately, her insomnia takes her to a nearly deserted parking lot, where danger awaits.
"On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning."
A Tokyo man tells of passing the "100% perfect girl" for him in a Harajuku neighborhood. He imagines a scenario where an eighteen-year-old boy and a sixteen-year-old girl meet and agree that they are 100% perfect for each other. To prove their hypothesis, they agree to go their separate ways and let fate bring them back together. Years go by and one winter, they both get terrible influenza which causes them to forget much of their respective young adult years. They run into each other in Harajuku when he is thirty-two and she is thirty, but they do not stop for each other. The man says that this is what he should have said to the "100% perfect girl."
