I think my fascination with Japanese writers came after I read the novels written by Keigo Higashino. His book the devotion of a suspect X and another by the name the salvation of a saint left me speechless. His way of writing a crime fiction is truly phenomenal. So obviously huge expectations were there from Haruki Marukami, and Kafka on the shore didn’t disappoint. The book is very engaging and although this is my first Murakami, but it won’t be my last.
Kafka on the shore by Haruki Murakami Review
Genre : Surreal Fiction
A character in the book says
There’s a little room where we store those memories. A room like the stacks in this library. And to understand the workings of our own heart we have to keep on making new reference cards. We have to dust things off every once in awhile, let in fresh air,
And that is what I think this book is. A way to dust off our own libraries of the mind. A way to let our private libraries of hearts breath once again and a way to understand ourselves.
The book doesn’t make sense and I frankly don’t want to make sense of it. I don’t think that’s the point of the book. The point of the book is to bask in the barrage of feelings that come along with it and look inwards. Kafka on the shore book is the closest I got to dreaming while awake. And like dreams, the book is not made to make sense but to evoke something in you.
This is my first Murakami and these are also my fastest 615 pages. I clearly have a difficult time articulating why I am so drawn to a book that has no conventional structure or narration, a book that is surreal and often downright contradictory.
Murakami with his strange narrative style makes the book fantastically hallucinatory yet deeply personal at the same time. This definitely is not going to be my last Murakami, that’s for sure.
Recommended for :
Fans of Japanese writers and to those who can accept out of the box writing without questioning its authenticity.
About the Author :
Murakami Haruki is a popular modern day Japanese writer and translator. His work has been described as ‘easily accessible, yet profoundly complex’. Murakami has written several works of nonfiction and fiction. His first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, won the Gunzou Literature Prize for budding writers in 1979. He followed this success with two sequels, Pinball, 1973 and A Wild Sheep Chase, which all together form “The Trilogy of the Rat.”
His books and stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well as internationally, with his work being translated into 50 languages and selling millions of copies outside his native country.
On the personal end he is passionate about jazz, and listens to rock.
Pros
- > Wonderfully surreal
- > Gripping characters
Cons
- > Too Many Open ends
- > No conventional structure to the plot
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