Oriental Magic Realism

Notes after reading Haruki Murakami’s “The Elephant Vanishes,” “The Wind-up Bird Chronicle” and a few of his stories found online:

*Fiction that you have to read through the end. A persistent craving, comparable to my unquenchable thirst for beer.
*Superbly written. Beautiful language with no fancy, flowery, words. The beauty of language is contained in what the words actually say, not in how it is said, but in how easy they are to absorb and how deeply you come to absorb the story itself.
*The books weren’t too insightful, it lacked a philosophy. It didn’t submerge your mind in a reef of ideas. The stories didn’t have a strong advocacy.
*I also didn’t find the usual quotable quotes. It's all about what happens.
*Each book cost me more than 700 bucks each. But it’s worth a lot more than that.

My Murakami fever is spreading.