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A review by wallflower_bookshelf
Record of a Night Too Brief by Hiromi Kawakami
3.5
3.5-3.75/5
The stories in this book are the weirdest I’ve ever read. It was like if Paprika (one of my favourite anime movies) was put to the max and then multiplied. Despite that, I found myself really enjoying the atmospheric absurdity of everything that happened. Usually translated fiction loses a lot of the atmosphere or fanciness in English, but I found myself utterly immersed in this book. I’ve been struggling to find meaning in each of the stories and I think that’s part of the fun. The confusion did sometimes become an obstacle to my concentration, though. I didn’t give it that high of a rating because even though I liked it, this isn’t something I’ll be thinking about for a long time but I think that’s what usually happens with short story collections (at least for me). Despite that, this was a very extraordinary reading experiences. The stories were incredibly unique and I’ve never read anything like it before.
The stories in this book are the weirdest I’ve ever read. It was like if Paprika (one of my favourite anime movies) was put to the max and then multiplied. Despite that, I found myself really enjoying the atmospheric absurdity of everything that happened. Usually translated fiction loses a lot of the atmosphere or fanciness in English, but I found myself utterly immersed in this book. I’ve been struggling to find meaning in each of the stories and I think that’s part of the fun. The confusion did sometimes become an obstacle to my concentration, though. I didn’t give it that high of a rating because even though I liked it, this isn’t something I’ll be thinking about for a long time but I think that’s what usually happens with short story collections (at least for me). Despite that, this was a very extraordinary reading experiences. The stories were incredibly unique and I’ve never read anything like it before.