KAFKA ON THE SHORE REVIEW

Kafka On The Shore was my first Murakami book. Murakami has a bizarre way of writing. He binds the reader with the tale perfectly. In this book, he encloses readers in a surreal world where cats communicate and fishes tumble from the sky. He appropriates his magical capacity to blow a situation into undiscovered territories with unrealistic sangfroid.

This book has two coexisting narrative twists: one about a fifteen-year-old runaway, named Kafka Tamura. He runs away from his home and escapes to Takamatsu. His reason to leave his home was either to escape a grim Oedipal myth or to search for his long-missing mother and sister. His father maledicts Kafka that he will kill his father and ultimately have copulation with his mother and sister. Kafka has no remembrance of his mother and sister as they left his father long ago.

During his journey to Takamatsu, Kafka meets a girl named Sakura, who is a few years older than him. He thought she could be his long-lost sister. In Takamatsu, Kafka started spending mornings at the gym and afternoons in the Komura Memorial Library where he finds shelter and begins reading a variety of novels. There he found a helpful transgender man named Oshima. Oshima was friendly, knowledgeable and neat. Kafka also meets Miss Saeki, a beautiful and bright woman in her 40s who runs the library. Kafka is struck by the thought that she could be his mother and the story goes on and on.

Another tale runs parallel to Kafka’s, concerning an old man, Saturo Nakata.

Nakata who’s not-very-bright is a strange old man. When he was in fourth grade, he lost his aptitude in an accident during World War II and became mentally hampered. He was no longer able to read and write but could interact with cats effortlessly. He used his rare ability to make money by helping people in finding pets. During his search for Goma(pet) he meets Johnnie Walker who kills cats in order to collect their souls, which he was using to build a mystical flute. The story proceeds further with a new character named Hoshino. Hoshino assists Nakata and remains with him till the end of the story.

Apparently, These two coexisting narrative twists become one and that’s how Murakami successfully braids a story of life and loss.

According to me, this book has a lot of unrealistic things. It can be a dull-witted book for many readers and I believe this to become boring after a point of time for those who take a long time to finish a book. It either will be one of the best books you have ever read or one of the worst books you have ever read. It undoubtedly takes the reader to an imaginary world.

Some beautiful quotes from the book-

• “When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”
• “If you remember me, then I don’t care if everyone else forgets.”
• “Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.”
• “Not just beautiful, though — the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they’re watching me.”
• “Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear.”
• “What do you think? I’m not a starfish or a pepper tree. I’m a living, breathing human being. Of course, I’ve been in love.”
• “Taking crazy things seriously is a serious waste of time.”
• “Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive.”