Ghosts and Magical Realism Murakami - Mark

     One of Murakami's short stories that stood out to me is Ghosts of Lexington, because it explores yet another way Murakami explores one of his main genres of writing: Magical Realism. Magical Realism is a genre that makes supernatural characters or elements seem normal despite them being very much a surprise to the reader, and Murakami has done this extensively in all his works by having his detached Protagonist and mundane worlds. One interesting thing that surprised me with Ghosts of Lexington is Murakami's portrayal of ghosts, because they contradict what we normally see with ghosts.

    In Ghost's of Lexington, the narrator is house-sitting for his friend Casey and it seems normal at first with the narrator doing basic tasks, such as making coffee and listening to Jazz, but things take an initially dark turn when he wakes up to hear loud noises as if other people broke into Casey's home. As a reader I expected something bad to happen especially with Murakami's history of incorporating curses, monsters, or sad elements into his writing, but as the narrator discovers there were ghosts, instead of being shocked or attacked by them they just seem to be ghosts living as normal people. The ghosts weren't scary or monsters but were instead just like normal people, just disconnected from the narrator. It's interesting to see how the ghosts here are sort of part of the world that is Casey's House, and yet again the narrator is a loner in the sense that he is detached from this group of Ghosts and not interacting with them. The story highlights just how mundane the supernatural can be and as a reader it was intriguing how the plot surprised me with that, but its a classic Murakami thing to do.