Murakami’s relishes the novel challenge (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Murakami’s relishes the novel challenge

3:09pm Monday 17th July 2006 in

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BLIND WILLOW, SLEEPING WOMAN. Publisher: Harvill Secker; Author: Haruki Murakami; Price: £16.99.

In his introduction to Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, Murakami reveals that for him writing novels is a challenge and short stories a joy. "If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden," he explains.

And it is a garden bearing very strange fruit indeed. The literary equivalent of a trip-hop CD, this career-spanning collection of 25 stories is mesmeric, dreamlike, full of weird loops and discordant notes.

The title story sets the tone as a young man escorts his cousin to hospital to check a baffling hearing complaint. Observing the ear, the man is struck by its oddness: "With all these absurd twists and turns to it, bumps and depressions...the hole of the ear gapes open like the entrance to a dark secret cave."

And into the cave we go as - in a story within a story - the man recalls the tale of a woman put to sleep by tiny flies crawling inside her ear. The cousin describes his condition as feeling "like you're at the bottom of the sea wearing ear plugs". Submerged in the strange hinterland of Murakami's imagination, you know what he means.

The collection has no unifying theme, but many of the stories focus on the vagaries of identity. In A Shinagawa Monkey a women forgets her name and finds that a light-fingered ape has stolen it, while a caretaker in The Mirror is shocked by his reflection.

In The Rise And Fall Of Sharpie Cakes, Murakami - whose novels include Norwegian Wood and Kafka On The Shore - takes his revenge on the Japanese literary establishment which has slated his inventive, Westernised style.

Here a bunch of blind, inbred crows act as guardians of a famous Japanese delicacy, flying into a murderous rage when fed a new, improved version.

Edgy, dark and taking bizarre to a whole new level, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman will not suit everyone's taste, but that in itself is no bad thing.