This collection by Haruki Murakami is of 17 stories, different in genre and theme, with very few apparent similarities. Mostly, the similarities are in the narrative style and the setting. Most of the stories use extensive metaphor to describe things around them, or paranormal ideas.
A common design in all the stories is the anonymity of the narrator. In none of the stories, the narrator is named, neither are most of the characters. The characters are named only if the protagonist of the story is someone else than the narrator, as in ‘The Silence’, but it is usually not the case, as seen in ‘Lederhosen’. The name of Noboru Watanabe is given to different characters of multiple stories. Noboru Watanabe is the real name of a popular Japanese illustrator, Mizumaru Anzai, a very dear friend of Murakami. The lack of names works well as with every story the number of main characters doesn’t increase beyond 3. It also helps in creating a sense of omnipresence of the narrative, it helps in perpetrating that there is nothing special about the narrator.
Several stories contain an element of surrealism, with some hints thrown of supernatural. A prominent example of this is ‘Sleep’, where the narrator gets attacks of sleep paralysis, after which she realizes she has lost the ability or the requirement to sleep. In other stories like, ‘TV People’, ‘The Dancing Dwarf’ or ‘The Elephant Vanishes’, there is a surrealistic element where rationality is lost to put an element of unknown to an incoherent narrative. This creates a narrative that can’t be understood if one tries to use conscious thinking. Assumption of power or the unknown is required to understand and agree with it.
Another similarity is the use of the attitude of characters towards change. They are wary of changes in their lifestyle, almost all conflicts in the story happen in this manner. The characters are driven to a point where they are most uncomfortable, and their response rather than choice becomes the focal point of story. This could be a reason why a lot of stories are left in tense cliffhangers.
