Book Review: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Intriguing.

If I could describe this book with one word, there would be no other word more apt for it than this.

image courtesy: Goodreads

 Kafka on the shore is the third Haruki Murakami book I have read this year and needless to say, it has become my favorite. I know I have said that when I read “Sputnik Sweetheart”, and again when I read “Norwegian wood”, but boy was this book really something? Being the last book I have read this year as part of my personal reading challenge, there could not have been a better way to bring a closure to the year than with this book. Although I was once skeptical about the mystic novels with its mixture of fantasy and realism, I quickly fell in love with the genre. As I read the books of this genre, it stitches to me a world where reality is sewed with lining of dreams.

The book comprises of two interrelated yet unique plots where the odd chapters tells the story of a 15 year old Kafka who runs away from his home, while the even numbered chapters narrates the life of Nakata, a simple old man whose daily activities are disrupted by a stranger in a hat. As the book goes on, the connections weaved among the protagonists becomes clearer.

 For some reason unknown to me, I felt this strong connection and association with Kafka. It might be the age factor, the love for reading, or just the quench for questioning everything around me and going around trying to make sense of it all. And for Nakata, my mind was filled with sympathy and hope. Maybe it was the unexplainable so called accident he had in his childhood but he has always been a child at heart. And like every child, his mind was filled with nothing but innocence and sincerity. And maybe that was the reason Hoshino took care of the old man and did whatever was asked by him. The book opens up about the alternate world where things ran a straight course and time never exist. And that was where Kafka met the real fifteen year old Miss Saeki.

The best thing about the book was the fact that as you get immersed in the world of Kafka Tamura and Nakata, you soon fail to distinguish between what is real life and what is fantasy. I personally could not keep the book down as I was pegged with so many questions and queries. And fortunately or unfortunately, many of them were left unanswered as I came to an end with the book. I suppose the real beauty of Murakami’s works lay in the fact that the open ended-ness really gives the readers something to ponder about.

Since the book is open for interpretation, I have come across a conclusion of my own making theories about who the real whereabouts of Kafka and that was the part I loved the most about the book.

I am glad to say that I was able to read one of the very well-crafted mystic novels out there. I only started reading Murakami’s works this year and this was one book that bought a perfect conclusion to this year’s reads. Even with confusion, chaos and open endedness, the book actually gave me clarity and a sense of peace as it made me realize that every action has its consequences, whether in this universe or another.

-Rithin