ive been in a shorts mood so its been a collection of shorts by himes, singer, and murakami. i finished the singer one a while back and i frequently go back to it for sheer enjoyment and the beauty and simplicity of single lines like "the cold winter, long as jewish exile." i dont have the first part of that memorized, so it could be a hot winter thats as long as jewish exile.

but murakami's single standout lines are just weird. they make sense but they stick out and in a way can be distracting.

like this one from 'the second bakery attack': "six pull tabs lay in the ashtray like scales from a mermaid."

which was an old highlighted line i happened to find while flipping thru to get the exact text of the next few examples, and not an example of a distracting one. just one i liked and found while passing thru. you ever mark up a book, leave notes in the margin, cover it in highlighter, then go back some time later and wonder what the fuck you meant by it? luckily this isnt one of those times. just a nice little line.

from 'a window': "and so it happened that i spent a part of my early twenties like a crippled walrus in a warmish harem of letters."

wtf? that is weirdly distracting. which isnt to say that in this usage of the term distracting i imply something negative, but its kind of like if you were standing in line for coffee, and the person in front of you whipped their dick out. and there were bjork stickers all over it. then he puts it back and everyone goes on in a normal fashion. its the kind of thing that sticks with ya long after.


and from 'the last lawn of the afternoon': "I listened to rock music on FEN while I gave one last touch-up trim, then raked the lawn repeatedly and checked from several angles for any overlooked places, just like barbers do. By one-thirty, I was two-thirds done. Time and again, sweat would get into my eyes, and I would go douse my face at the outdoor faucet. A couple of times I got a hard-on, then it would go away. Pretty ridiculous, getting a hard-on just mowing a lawn."

isnt that just about right for a murakami character though? so lost, so unsure of his own place in the world and why things happen. mother fucker turned a dick joke into a riff on theme.

but my favorite recently read paragraph has been, in the story Caleb, from Walking the Choctaw Road, by Tim Tingle: "But even before that, Tillie awakened and instantly knew everything. For she was a good mother, and a good mother knows. If her child lies, a good mother knows. If her child takes as his own the possessions of another, a good mother knows. And if her first-born son is off in the woods, shape-shifting and devouring the neighborhood children, a good mother just knows."