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mahaofhyrule's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming
Minor: Suicide
agateg's review against another edition
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
“No matter how vivid memories may be, they can’t win out against the power of time.”
The eight masterful stories in this new collection are all told in the first person by a classic Murakami narrator: a lonely man. Some of them are nostalgic looks back at youth. Others are set in adulthood and the stunning title story. Occasionally, a narrator who may or may not be Haruki himself is present. Is it a memoir or fiction? The reader decides. The stories touch beautifully on love and loss, childhood and death with a signature Murakami twist.
I honestly don't know my thoughts on this short story collection. Some of the stories were interesting, some bored me. The writing style was exciting and moderately fun to read but the way he sometimes writes about women was a bit too much for me, I couldn't enjoy some of it because of how objectified it felt. I did thoroughly enjoy the second to last short story, which was told from a woman's perspective. I don't know if I'll be checking out more of his work. Only time will tell. The cover is beautifully designed though!
The eight masterful stories in this new collection are all told in the first person by a classic Murakami narrator: a lonely man. Some of them are nostalgic looks back at youth. Others are set in adulthood and the stunning title story. Occasionally, a narrator who may or may not be Haruki himself is present. Is it a memoir or fiction? The reader decides. The stories touch beautifully on love and loss, childhood and death with a signature Murakami twist.
I honestly don't know my thoughts on this short story collection. Some of the stories were interesting, some bored me. The writing style was exciting and moderately fun to read but the way he sometimes writes about women was a bit too much for me, I couldn't enjoy some of it because of how objectified it felt. I did thoroughly enjoy the second to last short story, which was told from a woman's perspective. I don't know if I'll be checking out more of his work. Only time will tell. The cover is beautifully designed though!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming and Suicide
Moderate: Misogyny and Dementia
williamg's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming
sarahna's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Cancer, Grief, Sexual content, and Suicide
jayisreading's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
1.5
This was an underwhelming collection of short stories from Murakami. Even the usual whimsy that we so often encounter his works was hardly apparent in First Person Singular, maybe with the exception of one short story, which happened to be the only story that really stuck out to me as interesting (”Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey”).
What connects all of these short stories is that they’re all told from the perspective of an adult man, often contemplating time—especially the past. There is a nostalgic quality to this collection as the man in each story muses about elements of his life that would trigger a particular memory, which, in the grand scheme of things, is pretty classic of Murakami.
The lack of depth in these stories made this a quick read. I didn’t feel that I wanted to dwell on any of these stories very much, either because it was just uninteresting to me or it irked me to no end. ”Carnaval” is probably the best example of this irksome state; it was really unnecessary to fixate on “ugly” women... though, I guess I shouldn’t expect very much from Murakami, considering his history of how he writes women.
Overall, I’d say this collection is a pretty poor example of Murakami’s craft in short story writing. I admittedly wasn’t expecting much, since I wasn’t a huge fan of his previous collection, but this was just downright disappointing.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Body shaming, and Suicide
Minor: Drug use
zarathustraslostchild's review against another edition
slow-paced
2.0
Der Schreibstil ist großartig, das muss man* Murakami lassen, und einige Geschichten fand ich auch wirklich schön, insgesamt wirkte die Sammlung eher wie eine zweitklassige Geldmacherei.
Eine Geschichte, in welcher sich der Ich- Erzähler erst einmal seitenlang über die Hässlichkeit der betreffenden Frau auslässt gefolgt von einer Gedichtsammlung über Baseball?
Das hätte nicht sein müssen.
Generell wusste ich oft nicht, worauf Murakami hinaus wollte und es wurde viel "um den heißen Brei" herumgeredet, was ich stellenweise schön, zumeist aber nervig fand. Alles in allem war es nett für einen verkaterten Sonntagmorgen aber nicht wirklich Zeit, in der ich viel dazu gelernt hätte. Eines dieser Bücher, die man* liest, weglegt und sofort vergisst, da gibt es Werke, die zu lesen eine deutlich bessere Zeitnutzung darstellt.
Eine Geschichte, in welcher sich der Ich- Erzähler erst einmal seitenlang über die Hässlichkeit der betreffenden Frau auslässt gefolgt von einer Gedichtsammlung über Baseball?
Das hätte nicht sein müssen.
Generell wusste ich oft nicht, worauf Murakami hinaus wollte und es wurde viel "um den heißen Brei" herumgeredet, was ich stellenweise schön, zumeist aber nervig fand. Alles in allem war es nett für einen verkaterten Sonntagmorgen aber nicht wirklich Zeit, in der ich viel dazu gelernt hätte. Eines dieser Bücher, die man* liest, weglegt und sofort vergisst, da gibt es Werke, die zu lesen eine deutlich bessere Zeitnutzung darstellt.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, and Suicide
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