Chloe's post #2

To me, these two stories - Raymond Carver's "A Small, Good Thing" and Murakami's "The Second Bakery Attack" are only linked by a bakery being threatened. The tone of the two short stories are markedly different. Carver's writing style made me feel very disconnected and isolated, a theme that was common throughout with the characters. In this way, I was also able to see the events unfolding in my head like a Lifetime movie. The only sinister element was the phone calls, which I wasn't sure were from the baker at first until it was confirmed at the end. I thought it might've been a shared hallucination of sorts, but realistically, that's a stretch. I much preferred Murakami's "The Second Bakery Attack" due to its humor and quirkiness. I initially assumed that Boku was the victim of a bakery attack, but I think it is more interesting to have the usually passive narrator be on the other side for once. A common theme in his novels is that there's always some sort of out of the ordinary event that occurs. I found the wife, in particular, to be very interesting. She seems more Type A than Boku does and part of me wondered why he was with her until she suggested in no uncertain terms that they attack another bakery. She handled the attack with alarming efficiency and professionalism...a little too much if you ask me. The fact that she had a shotgun and ski masks was also a cause for suspicion - and Boku just accepted that! i like the idea of a metaphysical curse being translated into a physical hunger, and again, this is a common theme in his writing. I was less able to picture the events of this short story unfolding except for certain scenes, especially the McDonald's hold up (I was quietly chuckling to myself throughout).