Murakami T: The T-Shirts I Love

I read this in an hour. The ‘essays’ are lifted from a series of magazine articles Murakami wrote. They discuss for the most part where he was when he bought the t shirt. No real insights into his writing. The book itself is quite nicely designed.What would be much more interesting would be to have the two books on jazz that Murakami has written translated and published.

Yes, this is a vanity project. Fortunately for Mr. Murakami, he is one of the best writers working today so it is easy to indulge him. And there are pleasures to be had here.Put simply, and pretty much explained by the title, this is a book where Mr. Murakami shares some of his extensive t-shirt collection with us. This small, slick volume is filled with pictures of the shirts and brief essays that explain their origins and meaning to the author. There’s quite a selection and some interesting choices.I have a huge t-shirt collection myself and I’m a huge fan of Mr. Murakami’s work, so this was an easy sell for me. Still, it’s not a book that is going to sit easily on a shelf with his much more sophisticated, interesting novels. As a quick insight into the personality of the author, however, it’s worth the brief period of time it takes to read.

If you’ve read any Murakami, you are probably aware of his stream of consciousness, sometimes wacky style of writing. But this book is literally pictures of T- shirt labels. I gave it to my hairdresser for Christmas. She loves Murakami, so she loved it.

The book is small. Gave as a gift and I thought it looked cheap…but wasn’t!

An enjoyable book that's not typical of Murakami but offers insights into his personality.