Birthday Stories ~ Murakami (51 of 2024)

 In this enviable gathering, Haruki Murakami has chosen for his party some of the very best short story writers of recent years, each with their own birthday experiences, each story a snapshot of life on a single day. One man's rebellion against the traditional family birthday dinner of his childhood; the ghosts of a mis-spent youth; unusual guests entertained by an old woman whose son has forgotten her special day - this anthology captures a range of emotions evoked by advancing age and the passing of time, from events fondly recalled to the impact of appalling tragedy.

Birthday Stories: Selected and Introduced by Haruki Murakami, Haruki Murakami,

He provides an Introduction, explaining why he decided to collect some recent stories published prior to short stories on the topic of birthdays. He gives brief descriptions of the stories in the Introduction, and before each of the 13 short stories is a couple of paragraphs about the author. Those paragraphs are not merely a recitation of what the author has published but rather typically includes mention of the writer’s style according to Murakami. You can get knowledge of what the authors have written by googling the authors’ names – Murakami’s two -paragraph intros you can only get from him, and I found them to enhance the reading of the impending short story.

and ...

Birthday Stories is a 2002 short story anthology edited by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. Despite the theme's happy connotations most of the short stories have a dark, melancholic atmosphere.

Introduction: My birthday, your birthday, by Haruki Murakami — added to English ed. only

Forever Overhead, by David Foster Wallace - Coming of age, Dreamlike and real

Turning, by Lynda Sexson - A story and another story

The Birthday Cake, by Daniel Lyons -Racism, Is your ego worth everything?

Timothy's Birthday, by William Trevor -An unlikely birthday celebration of a son by two elderly parents and the unexpected guest

Dundun, by Denis Johnson - A accident which went quite wrong for the birthday boy

The Moor, by Russell Banks - *Secrets and kindness

Angel of Mercy, Angel of Death, by Ethan Canin - What could go wrong on your 81st birthday? (Best?)

The Birthday Present, by Andrea Lee - Messed up marriages, infidelity, and the gift idea sucks- Least favourite in the collection

The Bath, by Raymond Carver -Seriously, that open ending isn't the best for such stories. A proper closure would have been better.

Sickness and uncertainties of life

A Game of Dice, by Paul Theroux - Men and gambling

Close to the Water's Edge, by Claire Keegan — added to 2004 edition.- What family means

The Ride, by Lewis Robinson — added to 2006 edition - A father and a son and a secret for life

Birthday Girl, by Haruki Murakami - A girl's weird birthday story

As for this compilation of short stories; they're...different, to say the least. I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't expect a collection of soppy, fairytale type stories.  I thought the idea behind it was interesting enough, all stories that somehow are about birthdays. It is not all "Happy birthday" though. Most of the stories have a more serious undertone than that.