It's a very beautiful story, so human and deep the way he creates the emotional and psychological world of these prisoners, it's really incredible how he does it. And I absolutely love your voice and your reading! Thank you!
Your voice is really good, i appreciate the small pauses you did, which added a really good vibes to scenes. Even the weird sound in the last part adds some unique feelings to complete the experience. Please continue making more of this.
Okay, I didn't like the story the first time I read it cause I felt like it was pointless. Later on I read one of his other shorts called "Barn Burning" and I liked it but I still didn't get it but then the movie called "burning" based on Barn Burning came out and I finally understood that the story was a about a serial killer! But told in a very subtle way. So when it came time to revisit this short story "With the beatles" I was looking for the signs and I think I have a theory. The brother has a sort of traumatic amnesia. I think he abused his sister, and he did it regularly. The boyfriend was supposed to meet the girlfriend on Sunday, but something happened to her the night before, and all the family members rushed her to the hospital. However, the family kept it under wraps and kept this secret within the family. I assume the sister was not allowed to talk about it too. That's why she never spoke about her brother. The sister then lied to the narrator about their scheduled date and the narrator just believed her. Fast forward to later in her life, and she is an adult but realizes that her abuser (her brother) still has not faced justice. Her whole family ignores this issue, leading to her own trauma, and she eventually committed suicide. The brothers supposed "genetic memory loss disorder" was a lie he made up or a lie his parents told him. He would commit these crimes on the sister and most likely block out these memories. This is my theory. Her suicide was not random, and the brothers' Memory loss was not random. I believe Murakami is giving us all the clues to piece the story together, but I think we are so used to believing characters in normal stories. We should be investigators regarding his stories. The only character you should believe is the narrator because he is just as ignorant as we are, but he also, much like us, was not privy to what was happening to his own girlfriend. The narrator looks back to this memory and realises he missed something. He missed something important. Evil is everywhere, and it's not easy to see.
Jesus I'm 40 minutes in and this is the most boring shit I've ever had to sit through. This woman might be the most thoroughly unlikable, uninteresting character ever put to pen. I've heard it picks up at the end, but Dear God..
Maybe. Although, I am never surprised when a man does not understand how much a woman gives up, including her very identity, to conform to superimposed standards: a mother, a wife, a life where her purpose is wrapped entirely around their needs.
