Kafka on the shore

18 Aug 2020

I had read quotes from ‘Kafka on the shore’ in various posts and on social media. I am generally not into fantastic stories, but given the mentions this book receives, decided to give it a try! The book is slightly longer than the book I typically read - it’s about 500 pages.

The book pretty much runs two parallel stories that slowly converge together -
The beginning gives you a feeling of a motivational story as Kafka Tamura prepares to run away form his home on his 15th birthday. His story has less of fantasy - at least in the first half - a teenager who runs away from home, travels to different city, makes friends, gets a job and so on.
Parallel to this is the story of an extraordinary event that had occurred around 50 years back - during WW II, where a class full of schoolchildren become unconscious on an outdoor trip. Nakata - one of those children is now a man in his 60s, has lost ability to read and write after the incident erased all his memory, is able to talk to cats and in business of searching lost cats.

There are a lot of references to literature, philosophy - both Japanese and otherwise - in the discussions that happen between characters. Especially between Kafka and the library caretaker Oshima after Kafka takes on a job at Komura Library.

In the conversations of characters there are few instances that give a hint of alternate reality or parallel universes - where one character talks about breif American occupation of Japan after WW II but the other character denies of any such thing happening in history.

Spoiler alert

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As I progressed through the book, I became more and more curious about how the two parallel plots are going to converge. I was waiting for some revelation that would explain the connection between Kafka and Nakata, but I couldn't get that answer. There is sufficient coverage of a mysterious light source and flying objects that might be related to the incident involving unconscious schoolchildren, but that is left hanging without closure as well. Pasts of characters are discussed and characters like Miss Saeki and Kafka connect towards the end of the book, however there are a lot of questions - questions about events that seem to be the basis of the entire story - that remained unanswered for me. Like why did Kafka's father curse Kafka? Why did his mother (Miss Saeki) leave his father? Story of Kafka's sister Sakura feels incomplete too. I couldn't understand who was Nakata till the end. Was he someone that acted and made some of Kafka's wishes real - like killing his father? So many questions!

Maybe it is because I don’t read fantasy genre much, maybe it’s the style of Murakami’s writing or theme of his books, but I was as confused after completion of the book as I was around three quarters into it. Overall I was compelled to read the book towards the end and I must say that it was a different experience for sure!