Book Reviews – First Person Singular

First Person Singular
by Haruki Murakami

This is a new collection of short stories by the thought-provoking Murakami.  There are eight stories and they are all told in the first person (hence the obvious title).  Some could be read as real-life events as experienced by the author, others are more fantastical, as only Murakami can do. The stories range from an encounter with a talking monkey, to fleeting memories of ex-girlfriends. Murakami himself is a major baseball fan and there is even some baseball poetry at the end. Once again, Murakami’s writing is clever and thought-provoking and this is another example of his stylish prose