Holiday Reading no. 5: "Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami.

(Original FB post: 7 August 2009)

I was introduced to Murakami's work a two or three years ago by a friend who included the book he recommended in a category (obviously pre-established in his mind) of "life-changing books". That book was "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle", and I would not dissent from the categorisation, if one accepts that lives change in slight and subtle, but nonetheless significant, ways. I've read another three Murakami books since that first one and though none quite touches it (because it was the first?) for life-changingness, on each occasion one re-enters the strange, surreal, metaphysical and bewildering world of the Japanese dreamweaver with surprising ease.

In "Kafka on the Shore", Murakami does it again, mixing an engaging real-world narrative - here about a 15 year-old runaway and an unworldly cat-tracker (he does it by talking to them), with a supporting cast of characters including a librarian of oddly indeterminate sex, an ex-tough guy lorry driver who learns to love Beethoven and talk to cats, a somewhat mysterious roving "concept" who variously takes on the form of "capitalist icons" such as Johnnie Walker or Colonel Sanders, and an ethereal middle-aged beauty with a melancholy, oedipal personal history - with increasingly metaphysical episodes which may or may not be (probably not) of this world.

Getting the idea?

I'm a sucker for this sort of stuff, which, I should emphasise is highly readable narrative, but feel that maybe "Kafka" gets a little too overtly metaphysical to be as satisfyingly and mysteriously peplexing as the "Wind-Up Bird".

One small point: curiously, the fact of this being Japanese is decidely NOT part of the wierdness and mystery of these books - Murakami's Japan is instantly recognisable as the modern environment we all inhabit. It's just that, well, strange, unaccountable things happen.

Recommendation: of course. However, as you may have gathered, if you're new to Murakami, I would suggest starting with the "Wind-Up Bird Chronicle". (I put my money where my mouth is; I just gave a copy to my brother-in-law for his birthday.)

Cats are a significant part of this...