Scan barcode
kirei_eyes's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I don't even know what to feel,I am as confused as ever.
noragrace89's review
4.0
My first Murakami read, I really liked his style and I was so intrigued to watch the movie in the same day to complete the experience and it was a great adaptation.
kcgrim's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
jessica_irving's review
5.0
Barn Burning was unsettling and with further reflection quite chilling: the woman’s disappearance at the end, the sense of loss permeating throughout, the lack of names. Most importantly, a barn burner who does not actually seem to burn barns. The short story and analysis are available in an hour-long New Yorker Fiction podcast episode, which were well worth a listen. I loved Barn Burning and was pretty much unsettled by it for the rest of the day
drmaernardi's review against another edition
5.0
"December's come again, and the winter birds fly overhead, and I keep on getting older."
What does it mean to lose touch with reality? Socrates argued that writing made people forgetful, since a backup depository of whatever you're learning makes it irrelevant to actually remember and analyze the conversation (be it spoken or in a book) on the spot. You can do it later, and if you forget you can remember it later. But what about life? Memories are recollections at best, patchworks in most cases, trusted lies at worst.
What I read in that last sentence is the frustration of living year after year without learning anything of real use, the tingling feeling that you've become used to glaze over stuff (even if your job as a writer is mostly to observe, as the "boyfriend" invitedly points out) and that maybe this time your habit really did harm to the world, that by missing a detail you've caused a great deal of suffering.
I will throw the obvious statement that this short story reminded me a lot of Lynch's movies, there's the concept of an "all-evil" persona (Lost Highway's Mistery Man, Twin Peaks' BOB), the concept of doubles (well, pretty much the whole filmography) and of the parallel reality (again, really present in most movies in various amounts).
I will probably read in soon to see if I get different feeling compared to the Audio version.
Listened on: "The New Yorker: Fiction" podcast, episode "Andrea Lee Reads Haruki Murakami".
What does it mean to lose touch with reality? Socrates argued that writing made people forgetful, since a backup depository of whatever you're learning makes it irrelevant to actually remember and analyze the conversation (be it spoken or in a book) on the spot. You can do it later, and if you forget you can remember it later. But what about life? Memories are recollections at best, patchworks in most cases, trusted lies at worst.
What I read in that last sentence is the frustration of living year after year without learning anything of real use, the tingling feeling that you've become used to glaze over stuff (even if your job as a writer is mostly to observe, as the "boyfriend" invitedly points out) and that maybe this time your habit really did harm to the world, that by missing a detail you've caused a great deal of suffering.
I will throw the obvious statement that this short story reminded me a lot of Lynch's movies, there's the concept of an "all-evil" persona (Lost Highway's Mistery Man, Twin Peaks' BOB), the concept of doubles (well, pretty much the whole filmography) and of the parallel reality (again, really present in most movies in various amounts).
I will probably read in soon to see if I get different feeling compared to the Audio version.
Listened on: "The New Yorker: Fiction" podcast, episode "Andrea Lee Reads Haruki Murakami".
abhii99's review against another edition
4.0
WAIT because there's something so haunting about this that Faulkner's doesn't have?? I've been trying to avoid Murakami, but I had to know more after watching Lee Chang Dong's adaptation and this did not disappoint. A lot more tragic for the girl here though :/