Three weeks ago, I craved for McDonald's cheeseburgers so intensely I remembered the short story "The Second Bakery Attack" in Haruki Murakami's collection The Elephant Vanishes. To me, initially, it was the funny story of a couple who were so hungry for bread they held up a McDonald's store in the middle of the night. My wife later explained to me it was a metaphor for something missing in their marriage, a hunger pang so deep it could no longer be satiated. I do not know if was typically being insensitive, but since I was not aware of any such profound issue in our marriage, I went ahead and dragged my wife and my kids to the mall where I did not have to attack McDonald's to get my fill of cheeseburgers.
The other story I liked was "On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning" because it perfectly captured a perfect moment that never was. I used to think perfect moments are movie cliches, but I have had several perfect myself - seeing my son for the first time, sensing I was giving a moving speech, falling in love with my wife, and others too mushy to mention. Murakami, by keeping the moment from taking place, succeeds in illuminating how perfect and rare it is.
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