Kafka on the Shore is one of the most renowned works by the Japanese author Haruki Murakami, it’s 2005 English translation was among the “10 Best Books of 2005” from The New York Times and received the World Fantasy Award in 2006. Murakami is undeniably one of the best Japanese authors of our time, with his books and stories being translated into 50 languages and selling millions of copies internationally. His writing style mixes elements of surrealism and parallel universes to evoke a world that seems too far removed from our imagination yet tantalizingly within reach. What makes Kafka on the Shore a standout? Let’s look at this book in closer detail.
Kafka on the Shore interweaves between two parallel plots to tell the story of Kafka Tamura — a 15-year-old boy who runs away from home to escape an Oedipal curse and Nakata — an elderly Japanese man who has an uncanny ability to speak to cats due to a childhood accident and who spends his days locating and returning lost cats to their owners. Although the two characters seem to be on their own journeys, their paths inevitably intertwine towards the end of the novel for an intriguing and hyper-surrealist ending.
Although this book is lengthy (my copy is 614 pages), Murakami is able to expertly use the blend of popular culture, magic realism, involved yet seemingly mundane events and potent sexuality to build a fantastical world where his characters experience love, loss, melancholy and joy all in the same chapter. Kafka’s journey represents both the freedom of escapism and the overwhelming sense of sadness from his solitude, he is no ordinary 15-year-old boy and his experiences are punctured by the discovery of love, loss, longing, and uncertainty of himself. His relationship with both the librarian Oshima and the elusive Miss Saeki dominates his journey and both characters are written beautifully. Oshima acts almost as Kafka’s foil, providing him with wisdom and advice to any of his seemingly fantastical and illogical problems whilst Miss Saeki reflects Murakami’s use of fatalistic and hyper-surrealistic devices to construct a character that is wrought in an existential crisis as a commentary to the human condition.
Conversely, Nakata is an elderly man in the twilight years of his life who seemingly lived a life without purpose or self-determination. Due to his inability to read or write, he is shunned by his family and society but his special ability to talk to cats leads him on an adventure involving murder, unusual things falling from the sky, and obtaining a stone to open the pathway to an alternate reality. Without spoiling the plot (too much) — Murakami uses Nakata as a vehicle for dislocation yet I took much comfort in Nakata’s acceptance of his fate. His contentment with his life of taking subsidies (sub city as Nakata calls it) and returning lost cats to their owners is strangely empowering; although it seems he has wasted a life being mundane and seemingly irrelevant — his determination in fulfilling his destiny later on in the novel is inspirational and refreshing.
Some novels pull you in with their plot yet Murakami is able to draw the reader’s attention via the creation of hallucinatory landscapes where you are never sure when dreams end and reality begins. Kafka on the Shore explores our intrinsic link to fate and the consequences of loss from dislocation. He is able to infuse some deeply thought-provoking and paradoxical commentary in subplots that appear to be trivial and nonsensical, for example, “memories warm you up from the inside, but they also tear you apart”.
The recurring themes of melancholy and loss were quite interesting as Murakami seems intent on exposing the truth of our reality/society — although joy is something to strive for, loss and alienation are inescapable. Ruminations such as “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.” and “Each person feels pain in his own way, each has his own scars.” are frequent throughout the novel — a timely reminder that our lives are imperfect, but perhaps, as Murakami states: “Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.”
Whether you have a Murakami collection at home or are a newbie to his works, Kafka on the Shore is a fantastic starting point to dive into his mastermind. This is undoubtedly a page-turner and metaphysical mind-f*ck to sink your teeth into — beautiful, haunting, and with no real solutions to the many riddles scattered in the novel. As Murakami states in an interview, the secret to understanding Kafka on the Shore is to read it several times and I have no doubt I will be re-reading this sometime in the future.
