Like
all of Murakami’s books (at least all of those I have read to
date), Kafka
on the Shore does
not disappoint. It takes a mixture of ideas and unbelievable
situations, blending them together into a novel that may not always
seem completely rational but which always pushes the limits of our
thinking powers. There
are so many possibilities, and nothing is set in stone. It is like a
modern-day fairy story.
Photo of Murakami from www.allquotes.info
The
‘I’ of the book is fifteen-year-old Kafka Tamura (Kafka is not
his real name), and when we first meet him, he is preparing to run
away from home to
escape from his cruel father. He also has a vague hope of finding his
mother and sister.
In parallel chapters we are introduced to Nakata, who
is, as he likes to tell everyone, not very smart, but who has the
gift of being able to talk to and understand cats. As the story
unfolds, Kafka meets Oshima and Miss Saeki, who both work at a small
private library. Bit by bit we learn of Miss Saeki’s past, and
connections, both
real and unreal, begin to appear. In the parallel story, Nakata is on
a mission to find something (though he does not know what it is), and
he teams up with a truck driver, Hoshino.
The
stories parallel each other at the same time as they are completely
intertwined.
As
in all fairy stories, all the characters experience personal change
as a result of the situations with
which they
are confronted. At
the end, we are left a little wiser, possibly a little confused but,
without a doubt, richer for having made the journey.