Birthday Stories

Birthday Stories is a collection of short stories written by several authors, where every story revolves around someone’s birthday. The collection is selected by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. He also adds his own short story, ‘Birthday Girl’, to the collection. At first glance, I wasn’t really interested in reading this book. This book contains only a small piece written by him. But even this time, Murakami doesn’t fail to deliver. Each story is unique in its own way. We may think of birthdays as celebrations and all, but it can also be as gloomy as it can get.
This anthology includes stories from authors such as Daniel Lyons, William Trevor, Andrea Lee and Paul Theroux, where each story will give you a taste of different writing styles as well as new views on birthdays. Before each story, Murakami adds an introduction to the author and mentions his reasons behind choosing the story.
Raymond Carver’s ‘The Bath’ depicts a painful and heart-wrenching story about a child’s birthday. ‘The Birthday Cake’ is a story about an old woman who stubbornly refuses to give a birthday cake to a young girl, who will otherwise have none. In Lynda Sexton’s ‘Turning’, the fable told by the three old ladies, ‘The Emperor Who Had No Skin’, left me quite intrigued. The most unique piece among the stories is David Foster Wallace’s ‘Forever Overhead’, which mainly focusses on the observations of a boy who is at the peak of his adolescence. The details or descriptions of his observations are delivered extraordinarily.   
Birthday Stories will give you a new perception on birthdays, as how they can also be quite dark rather than happy events. Murakami also writes an introduction to this anthology, explaining how he came up with making this great collection.
In my opinion, Birthday Stories is a great collection of short stories. After reading it, you will have read works from 13 different writers. Though for some of the stories, the reader must be able to grasp the gist; otherwise this is an excellent collection. Who knows if you will find your next favourite author among them! Just like Murakami says in his introduction _ the stories may be worth a re-read on your next birthday.

Birthday Stories

Birthday Stories is a collection of short stories written by several authors, where every story revolves around someones birthday. The collection is selected by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. He also adds his own short story, Birthday Girl, to the collection. At first glance, I wasnt really interested in reading this book. This book contains only a small piece written by him. But even this time, Murakami doesnt fail to deliver. Each story is unique in its own way. We may think of birthdays as celebrations and all, but it can also be as gloomy as it can get. This anthology includes stories from authors such as Daniel Lyons, William Trevor, Andrea Lee and Paul Theroux, where each story will give you a taste of different writing styles as well as new views on birthdays. Before each story, Murakami adds an introduction to the author and mentions his reasons behind choosing the story. Raymond Carvers The Bath depicts a painful and heart-wrenching story about a childs birthday. The Birthday Cake is a story about an old woman who stubbornly refuses to give a birthday cake to a young girl, who will otherwise have none. In Lynda Sextons Turning, the fable told by the three old ladies, The Emperor Who Had No Skin, left me quite intrigued. The most unique piece among the stories is David Foster Wallaces Forever Overhead, which mainly focusses on the observations of a boy who is at the peak of his adolescence. The details or descriptions of his observations are delivered extraordinarily. Birthday Stories will give you a new perception on birthdays, as how they can also be quite dark rather than happy events. Murakami also writes an introduction to this anthology, explaining how he came up with making this great collection. In my opinion, Birthday Stories is a great collection of short stories. After reading it, you will have read works from 13 different writers. Though for some of the stories, the reader must be able to grasp the gist; otherwise this is an excellent collection. Who knows if you will find your next favourite author among them! Just like Murakami says in his introduction _ the stories may be worth a re-read on your next birthday.