Kafka on the Shore

Book Title: Kafka on the Shore

Author: Haruki Murakami

Date Started: January 28th 2016

Date Completed: February 13th 2016

Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary, Mystery
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Two Star

Final Rating: Three stars

Review:

I'm not that sure what to say about Kafka on the Shore, because I'm not that sure what happened. I think the main reason it didn't work for me was that I didn't understand it, and eventually got bored of trying to understand it, so gradually my enjoyment levels were just falling. I wanted to finish it, because I thought everything would tie together and I'd have an epiphany and it would be amazing, but unfortunately my heart just wasn't in it at the end.

I've heard a lot about Murakami - and of course it's always the hype that obliterates actual enjoyment - but I was expecting a little more in the writing. Having said that this book is basically all about the subtext in the writing, but I guess I was ready for beautiful imagery of magical turns of phrase. Like I said, it's the expectation that ruins these sorts of things, and so when I got normal (that's a bit harsh: still good, but not an immediately fantastical style I guess) prose story I was a bit underwhelmed. When you add that to the fact that I was completely lost with the story, it didn't leave me any fronts to enjoy from.

While I've given up trying to understand what the overarching plot of Kafka was, or even the metaphorical one, I did honestly enjoy individual scenes. There are particular ones that really stand out - either because of how original, or heartfelt, or tense, or interesting, or graphic they were. And the fact that Murakami was able to have scenes with that much diversity of quality really impressed me. It's partly why I kept pushing to get to the end (and the ending is definitely the best part of the book), because there are some really great scenes. It just didn't all tie together for me, and I'm still not sure if that was just my reading or if they were a bit distant from each other.

The then negative side of this was that the rest of the book either didn't click with me, or was just unnecessary. I mean, there's so much sex and gore (neither of which I object to, but it seemed to be there just for the hell of it to pass the time) and descriptions of mundane life that just didn't need to be there. Sure, it felt like I was really moving with the characters through their everyday life, but it wasn't the most engaging literary technique I've ever read.

There are some really nice representations of diverse characters in natural, everyday situations here. I don't want to be specific in case of spoilers, but I do like it when minorities are shown honestly and unashamedly in everyday life, and their identity isn't used as a plot device or to directly tackle an issue; it's just part of who their character happens to be.

Kafka was a nice protagonist, though far beyond his 15 years. I kept getting confused because I forgot how young he actually was, and what that meant - having said that it doesn't really pose any big problems to him at any point, past perhaps moral ones.

I was really interested in the whole mystery surrounding Nakata, and I thought that maybe it was going to be the very last thing we discovered, and suddenly that would make sense of everything else. Of course, this being magical realism, it was a bit optimistic to think that, but I would've liked at least SOME exploration of possible causes for him being the way he is.

I was warned Murakami takes his sweet time, but I didn't expect it to take just under half the book for things to even be established. And even then it's very slow going. I appreciate it's not really about the literal events that happen, but when I felt so out of the water with all the metaphors and what the point of the book was supposed to be, I did struggle to keep up my own pace of reading, and so everything felt like it was dragging out even more.

For me, take it or leave it. I know a lot of people really love it, and I'm a bit disappointed that it's weird little quirks didn't do it for me, but essentially I just got so confused and caught between just enjoying the story and trying to understand what was happening. I definitely don't want to give up on Murakami, but maybe I need to try a different genre.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17186635-kafka-on-the-shore