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ardinareads03's review against another edition
3.0
“No matter what they wish for, no matter how far they go, people can never be anything but themselves. That’s all”__206
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laura_gee's review against another edition
Like most short story anthologies, some were hit, some were miss, just didn’t have motivation to finish.
suvata's review against another edition
4.0
A collection of 13 stories selected and introduced by Haruki Murakami (my favorite author). And, guess what? I’m reading this during my birthday week! Perfect!!!!
neishaheath's review against another edition
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
infinite_reader's review against another edition
2.0
Book review - Birthday stories by Haruki Murakami
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Its an anthology of birthday stories by David Foster Wallace, Paul Theroux, Claire Keegan, Lewis Robinson,
Lynda Sexson, Daniel Lyons, William Trevor , Denis Johnson, Russell Banks, Ethan Canin, Andrea Lee, Raymond Carver and Murakami himself. The book was originally published in Japanese having some of the stories translated from English. The English version has the original stories and the Japanese ones translated into English and an introduction by Haruki Murakami.
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Birthdays are special for most us, I said most because I know some who are particularly crappy about birthdays and some who doesn't feel anything special about it than rest of the year. Having said that when I picked up this book which was last year during my birthday month, I thought what's better than birthday stories on birthday? Oh well, I can say it was such a wrong judgement. Except for one story which was written by Murakami himself ,the rest were so boring and gloomy 😒 I couldn't help but wonder what was I thinking while getting it.
It could be my taste in books, but I wouldn't personally recommend this one unless you are in mood of something meh. ⭐⭐/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ For me
.
Its an anthology of birthday stories by David Foster Wallace, Paul Theroux, Claire Keegan, Lewis Robinson,
Lynda Sexson, Daniel Lyons, William Trevor , Denis Johnson, Russell Banks, Ethan Canin, Andrea Lee, Raymond Carver and Murakami himself. The book was originally published in Japanese having some of the stories translated from English. The English version has the original stories and the Japanese ones translated into English and an introduction by Haruki Murakami.
.
Birthdays are special for most us, I said most because I know some who are particularly crappy about birthdays and some who doesn't feel anything special about it than rest of the year. Having said that when I picked up this book which was last year during my birthday month, I thought what's better than birthday stories on birthday? Oh well, I can say it was such a wrong judgement. Except for one story which was written by Murakami himself ,the rest were so boring and gloomy 😒 I couldn't help but wonder what was I thinking while getting it.
It could be my taste in books, but I wouldn't personally recommend this one unless you are in mood of something meh. ⭐⭐/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ For me
krush77's review against another edition
4.0
A love small anthology of birthday stories that have a suprising breath of subjects. Not all are equal with my person highlights being murakami's own addition and Ride.
whipcreamsucks's review against another edition
4.0
An ex got me this for my birthday. This was the one good thing they gave me, haha.
These stories are well-selected and gorgeous together, pieced like a haphazardly-thrown-together birthday gift. This only serves to enlighten further.
These stories are well-selected and gorgeous together, pieced like a haphazardly-thrown-together birthday gift. This only serves to enlighten further.
kate_in_a_book's review against another edition
3.0
The book started life as a collection of works in English translated into Japanese by Murakami, with an added short story of his own that he wrote specially. For this English edition he has written an introduction about the curation process and perhaps reading this first gave me a slightly negative start. First, Murakami freely admits that he is not a big birthday person himself and that the stories he found tend to be dark and unhappy. Second, he struggled to find enough stories and ended up asking friends, editors and agents for ideas, which does not suggest a rich treasure trove from which to curate a “best of”.
You can probably tell from my tone that I wasn’t blown away. None of the stories are bad, by any means. There is some beautiful writing and some storylines have lingered in my brain, which I consider a positive sign. But none of them stunned or surprised me either.
Arguably, Murakami’s own feelings about birthdays are reflected in his choices, because in most of these stories, the fact it is someone’s birthday is almost arbitrary, at most a reason for events to be imbued with extra significance that the main character does not feel to be necessary. There is also a hint of Murakami’s writing style, in that I tended to find the stories slightly cold and detached – observations of life rather than emotional explorations. And that works perfectly fine in every case, but a little more variety of tone and style might have helped make the book more enjoyable, at least for me.
- See my full review: http://www.noseinabook.co.uk/2016/01/12/one-of-them-would-die-first/
You can probably tell from my tone that I wasn’t blown away. None of the stories are bad, by any means. There is some beautiful writing and some storylines have lingered in my brain, which I consider a positive sign. But none of them stunned or surprised me either.
Arguably, Murakami’s own feelings about birthdays are reflected in his choices, because in most of these stories, the fact it is someone’s birthday is almost arbitrary, at most a reason for events to be imbued with extra significance that the main character does not feel to be necessary. There is also a hint of Murakami’s writing style, in that I tended to find the stories slightly cold and detached – observations of life rather than emotional explorations. And that works perfectly fine in every case, but a little more variety of tone and style might have helped make the book more enjoyable, at least for me.
- See my full review: http://www.noseinabook.co.uk/2016/01/12/one-of-them-would-die-first/
sarahjjs's review against another edition
5.0
I'm not sure why people hate on this, it's really good and so diverse. The majority of stories are realistic so it's a good change of pace and gave me the push I needed to pick up D.F.Wallace, even though I'm afraid of him haha. The collection is really short and only takes a couple of hours. I think people don't like it because they are not cheerful celebrations but then most birthdays are a big old disappointment that can lead to too much self reflection and sadness and that was so well captured here. It is worth saying that in general, I hate anthologies and this is the only one I've ever really enjoyed. The Murakami s.s at the end made me want to just re-read some of his novels. I love him so much.