Haruki Murakami wrote a series of short essays about his t-shirt collection for the Japanese men’s fashion magazine, Popeye, over the course of a year and a half and these are all collected here in
The t-shirts are grouped thematically so there’s a bunch on food, booze, cars, books, superheroes, animals, and marathons he’s competed in (see his other non-fiction book, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, for more information on that hobby).
The shirts fans and publishers have made of his books are actually kinda cool (though he never wears them - they remain untouched in a box somewhere in his house) but generally the shirts themselves are quite ordinary. If you’re picking this book up, you’re doing so entirely for the essays rather than the accompanying photos of mostly thrift store shirts.
Although maybe it’s fitting that the t-shirts themselves are unimpressive given that the essays too are quite forgettable. They’re easy to read and well-written, but for the most part they’re a series of underwhelming pieces. The only one that stood out is the t-shirt with “Tony Takitani” printed on it which inspired the short story, and subsequent film adaptation, of the same name (published in the collection Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman).
In his preface, Murakami also mentions collecting LPs and pencil stubs(!) so we can probably await books on those to be forthcoming too if Murakami T is any indication. It’s a quirky idea for a book that’s also very Murakami-esque, but Murakami T is definitely only something fans will bother with - though even to those I would say not to expect anything amazing from this short book.
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