Blind willow, sleeping woman

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Blind willow, sleeping woman is a collection of 24 short stories by Haruki Murakami - including the eponymous short story - published in Japanese between 1983 and 2005. The anthology was first published in German in 2006 by DuMont Buchverlag, translated by Ursula Gräfe .

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Blind willow, sleeping woman

During a trip with his eight-year-old cousin, the narrator recalls an incident that took place eight years ago. At that time a friend knew a girl who was in the hospital and who drew for him a tree of the kind of blind willow , which is very small but has deep roots. Flies that came into contact with the pollen would fly into the ears of sleeping women and eat them up from within.

Birthday girl

A waitress in Tokyo is on duty on her twentieth birthday. By chance a guest finds out about her birthday and fulfills a wish. A few years later she has a better job, is happily married and drives an Audi.

The New York mine disaster

A friend of the narrator regularly visits the zoo and drinks alcohol. He dies at the age of twenty-eight. Shortly afterwards, other friends of the narrator are also killed. The story ends by fading in a dialogue during a mine disaster.

The plane or How he spoke to himself as if he were reciting a poem

A twenty-year-old man who works for a travel agency is talking to himself in the shower using the words The plane flies . To his wife the stammering sounds like a poem.

The mirror

During the student riots in the late 1960s, the narrator refuses to go to university. Instead, he works as a night watchman in a school and is frightened by his reflection in the mirror.

A modern folk tale for my generation. From the prehistory of late capitalism

A friend who made a career after the student unrest meets with the narrator in Italy. There he reveals to him that he got a call from his former girlfriend one night, even though he had been married for a long time. A meeting occurs between the two, but no sex.

The hunting knife

On the last day of the beach holiday, the narrator meets a former stewardess and a man who takes a liking to the narrator's knife. While the narrator demonstrates the functions of the knife, he remembers the stewardess again.

Kangaroo weather

A friend wants to go to the zoo with the narrator to see the kangaroo babies. However, she is disappointed as the baby seems to be grown.

Little Grebe

The narrator is looking for a password that could be Little Grebe. He becomes skeptical, however, because the description says that the item is inedible. When the narrator can prove that little grebes are indeed inedible, the gate opens.

Man-eating cats

While on vacation in Greece, the narrator reads a headline that says that the corpse of an old woman was eaten by her cats. The narrator asks whether the cats will be killed because they have eaten human flesh or not. Shortly afterwards he is left by his wife.

The story with the poor aunt

The narrator philosophizes about the fact that there is probably an old aunt everywhere who is one of the less popular guests at family celebrations and whose gifts are not appreciated. In the end it occurred to him that in 10,000 years society could only consist of old aunts.

Vomiting 1979

A friend of the narrator who shamelessly had extramarital sex with his friends' girlfriends and wives was plagued by nausea for 40 days in 1979. At the end he wonders whether this is the punishment for his unsteady behavior and whether this could also affect his friend, the writer Haruki Murakami.

The seventh man

The narrator became friends with K. during his childhood in a Japanese coastal town. This is hit by a wave during a typhoon and is killed in the process. When the memory of the incident haunts him as an adult, the narrator takes a vacation and returns to the coastal city.

In the year of the spaghetti

For the first-person narrator, 1971 was the year of spaghetti, as he cooked spaghetti particularly often that year. The spaghetti also remind the narrator of his loneliness back then.

Tony Takani

Tony Takani's father was a Japanese jazz musician who emigrated to Shanghai and became successful there. After his son returned to Japan, he married a woman who bought excessively luxurious clothing. After her sudden accidental death, he sells these items of clothing so that he is no longer reminded of his wife. When his father dies, he also sells his jazz records.

The rise and fall of Knasper

The narrator comes across the candy Knasper in an advertisement , which he has never heard of. He later learns that Knasper is said to have existed as early as the 8th century. Special pride of the company are the Knasperkrähen, differing only by Knasper feed. At this point it becomes too colorful for the narrator.

The ice cream man

A woman meets the ice cream man in a winter sports hotel. After they get married, they want to travel together. The woman initially suggests the South Pole, but later decides on a serious travel destination. The ice cream man now absolutely wants to go to the South Pole and both start the journey. This becomes an ordeal for the woman

Crayfish

A Japanese man who is in Singapore with his wife eats crayfish there, which is available in many variations there at low prices. Since he likes the crabs so much, they decide to eat crabs every day. Soon after, it makes the man sick and decides never to eat crabs again.

Firefly

In 1967 and 1968 the narrator lived with a fellow student in a dormitory. One day he takes his own life in his Honda. A little later the narrator is given a firefly in a glass. Since then, fireflies have reminded him of these events.

The random traveler

The author, Haruki Murakami, identifies himself as the first-person narrator. He tells of experiences in a jazz bar and of the coming-out of a well-known piano tuner.

Hanalei Bay

The son of the Japanese woman Sachi died in a shark attack in Hawaii. Thereafter, the pianist visits Hawaii every year on the anniversary of her death. She is racially insulted in a Hawaiian bar, whereupon she returns to Japan. There she meets a Japanese surfer from a vacation in Hawaii.

The kidney-shaped stone that wanders every day

Junpei wants to be a writer and his father advised him that there are exactly three women in a man's life who will mean something to him. Meanwhile he is writing a story about a kidney-shaped stone that a doctor implanted in a patient.

Where I might find it

An old woman's husband was run over by a tram, so that from now on she lives in a state of anxiety. Another woman loses her husband on the stairs between the 24th and 25th floors of a skyscraper. Finally, the narrator gets to know a stockbroker. He takes all the notes and finally sees a connection.

The Shinagawa monkey

A young woman cannot remember her own name. In addition, she recently got married to a new man and changed her last name again. One day she has a bracelet made with her name. At work at a Honda dealership, she uses her maiden name for convenience. When she speaks to a therapist about the reason for her forgetfulness, she says that a monkey stole her name tags.

criticism

“Usually it is male, somewhat lost first-person narrators, among whom the ground suddenly opens up. Strange acquaintances, mysterious encounters, the self remains amazed, passive, only looks for a moment into another world. After one or two scenes it fades out again, ambiguously and laconically, exactly at that point where continuing to write would mean stating: "Blind willow, sleeping woman" performs the same trick twenty times, states of suspension, a bit parabolic, a bit winking. Puzzle pictures, a little mannered. "

- Stefan Mesch in: Literaturkritik.de

literature

  • Haruki Murakami: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman . Translated from the Japanese by Ursula Gräfe. DuMont, Cologne 2006, ISBN 978-3-8321-7952-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://literaturkritik.de/id/11872