“Kafka on the Shore” is classic Murakami. The story is rich in references to music and Western culture, dreamy sceneries that expose the spooky underbelly of ordinary life, utterly unadorned language, and elements of magical realism that challenge the reader’s grasp of reality.
Murakami’s intention was to write a story about a boy who escapes his dangerous father and goes in search of his long-lost mother. The Greek myth of Oedipus is thrown with a cast of supporting characters that include an old man, who tals to cats, a female hemophiliac who lives as a gay man, and the World War II soldiers trapped in time. The familiar themes of isolation, reality versus fantasy, and the connection between past and present are handled with Murakami’s trademark humor.”Kafka on the Shore” is a post modern fiction that’s actually fun to read.
Quotes from there:
“Memories are what warm you up from the inside. But they’re also what tear you apart.”
“It’s like Tolstoy said: Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story”.
“When I open them, most of the books have the smell of an earlier time leaking out between the pages- a special odour of the knowledge and emotions that the ages have been calmly resting between the covers. Breathing it in, I glance through a few pages before returning each book to its shelf.”
“When I wake up, my pillow’s cold and damp with tears. But tears for what? I have no idea.”
Listen to the music from “Kafka on the Shore” by Murakami: “Archduke Trio”-Beethoven
Author
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