Kafka on the Shore - Magical realism at its best (Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami)

Member Name: lady_natalie

Product:	Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
Date:	25/08/09 (18 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Adictive reading, likeable and interesting characters, wonderfull writing

Disadvantages: Some references to unknown books/music/places

My mum bough me this book for my birthday about 5 years ago, most probably because it has a cat on the cover. Since then i've read all of Murakami books available and this remains by far one of my favorites.

The book consists of two main intertwining stories. That of 15 year old runaway, Kafka Tamura and elderly Nakata, who after an 'incident' which took place during his childhood, lost the ability to read and write, but gained the ability to talk to cats. Both characters decide, for one reason or another to leave the comforts of home to embark on remarkably different yet importantly related journys.

Kafka wants to escape the opression he feels from living with his father, and the oedipal curse he's layed on him. After taking as much money as he can he head off into the unknown, ending up at Takamatsu, and finding a place to stay and a job in a small private library where he meets Miss Saeki and Oshima.
In the mean time Nakata, using his very individual talent, is searching for a neighbourhood cat that's been reported lost. Here he meets Johnny Walker, a serial cat theirf who he soon discovers steals cats only to cut out their hearts to eat them, with the intention of making a flute out of their souls. This chance encounter finds Nakata leaving the district he lives in, in search for something and someplace he wont know until he finds it.

Although the book could be considered a challenging read i found it absolutely gripping, i did not want to stop reading it from start to finish and if i had the time i could easily read it all in one sitting. The story slides seamlessly between the real world and fantasy, you find yourself not questioning the unthinkiable, an area of Japan raining fish seems completely normal. The Oedipus curse put upon Kafka runs throughout the book, although you can never be exactly sure whether it comes true or not. I would understand if some people would find this book slightly exasperating, as it is quite hard to be sure whether some things actually happen or not. But my advise would be to just go with it. You don't need to read to far into it, it is, in the end, a wonderfull story.

The only negatives i can possibly come up with for this book is constant references to music and books i have no knowledge of at all. Such as the books Kafka reads in the library, and there are a good few pages taken up on classical music and whether Schubert was really all that great. But i don't think this affects the book. It's more like, you feel yourself going along with the characters as they are discovering something new, and you find yourself wanting to know a little more about it too.

Summary: A complelling read, couldn't put it down