The Elephant vanishes

by Haruki Murakami

327 pages

English language

Published July 29, 1994 by Vintage Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-679-75053-6

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(41 reviews)

10 editions

iddcutie reviewed The elephant vanishes by Haruki Murakami

Great Anthology

4 stars

An excellent sampling of Murakami's specific style of surreal mood and meditative, deliberate imagery. The only thing it lacks, of course, is where he excels in long-form pacing, but that's to be expected of a short story anthology. Recommended.

The Gnome King reviewed The Elephant vanishes by Haruki Murakami

Review of 'The Elephant vanishes' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I think this book proves why Murakami's stories don't work as short stories, he needs those extra couple of 100 pages to take you a surreal journey. In this book that journey is just starting when the story ends, every single story leaves you unsatisfied. The first story seems to be the first chapter of the wind up bird chronicle and taken like this it makes no sense at all, as the full book it is great.

The rest of the stories here are brilliant, "the kangaroo communique" is probably my favourite, a creepy guy working in a product control department likes a customer's letter and decides to communicate like a proper stalker, at one point he is outside her house. It makes for some very gripping reading. The main story "The elephant vanishes" is about.....wait for it....an elephant that vanishes, this was the most interesting story, you get no …

patchworkbunny reviewed The Elephant vanishes by Haruki Murakami

Review of 'The Elephant vanishes' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

These short stories are pure bitesize Murakami. Forever eloquent, they cover all his hallmark themes from the mundane to the surreal, moving to amusing. There's even a few lost animals and lots of dancing thrown in for good measure.