Book Review: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

By Remedios V. Lucio

“On my fifteenth birthday, I'll run away from home, journey to a far-off town, and live in a corner of a small library. It sounds a little like a fairy tale. But it's no fairy tale, believe me,” says Kafka Tamura.

Haruki Murakami’s novel, Kafka on the Shore, is about the intertwined lives of 15-year old boy named Kafka Tamura and an aging simpleton, Satoru Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and who has the ability to talk to cats.

The journey begins with Tamura leaving his father, a renowned sculptor, in Tokyo.  An omen was laid upon him by his own father—his destiny to murder him and sleep with his own mother and sister.  His own mother and sister abandoned him when he was only five years old, leaving him with no imprints of how they look like.

With only a backpack full of clothes, walkman and his memories full of child resentment, he left Tokyo and headed to Takamatsu.  He was taken under the wing of Oshima, who works in the library and Miss Saeki, the owner of the library.

There he lingers between the library and frequently visits a cabin in this mystical woods far from the hustles and bustles of the city he was once used to.

Nakata, on the other hand, is unfortunately an old man who was left with a learning inability because of bizarre childhood accident.  He cannot read nor write and thus relies on a sub city to survive living in the city.  He begins his adventure with a young truck driver named, Hoshino.

Murakami mesmerizes his readers with a wonderful story of a boy finding himself in his own way.  Memory serving as the way to truly understanding the circumstances he is in and most importantly strengthening his character.

He uses western characters such as Colonel Sanders and Johnnie Walker in this novel. Murakami also embraces his readers in a world where the absurd happens—cats talk, fish falls from the sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder.