Kafka on the Shore

 Kafka on the Shore

By Haruki Murakami

This is a story told in two voices. The first belongs to a 15-year-old who dubs himself Kafka when he

decides to run away from home. Kafka, he later explains, loosely translates to "crow"; he has an alter ego, more determined and tougher than he is, who he calls "Crow Boy". We don't know exactly why Kafka runs away. He alludes to an oppressive, possibly evil, sculptor of a father. However, it quickly becomes a search for his mother, from whom he was separated at 4 years old and who he has not seen since. On his journey, he winds up working and staying at a private library, where he meets Oshima, a transgendered bibliophile who becomes something of his protector, and Miss Saeki, with whom he falls in love and who may or may not be his mother. 

The other is Mr. Nakata. He is in his sixties. He suffered a mental disability after a strange event during World War II. His teacher took his class on a walk to gather mushrooms. A few minutes into the picking, all of the students suddenly collapsed into a coma-like state, unresponsive, their eyes scanning back and forth at something no one could see. While most of his classmates recovered quickly, the same was not true for Nakata, who stayed in this state for quite some time. When he came to, Nakata could not read or write nor remember any basic facts of his life. He was, however, imbued with a strange ability to talk to cats. This led to a job as a cat finder in his neighborhood. 

It was while searching for a cat that Nakata came into contact with Johnny Walker -- or at least a concept who has taken on the form of Johnny Walker. Walker is also involved with cats; he decapitates them, slices open their bellies, and then eats their hearts to capture their souls, which is using to build a magical flute. Right. Anyway, Walker performs this ritual in front of Nakata, all the while admonishing Natakata to kill him, which he does. Or does he? Kafka wakes up on the night of the death inexplicably covered with blood. The implication, I think, is that somehow Walker conjured Kafka into Nakata's body to do the killing. Walker, it turns out, is, in "real" life, Kafka's father.

The murder sets Nakata on a journey of his own. Guided only by intuition, he winds up in the same town as Kafka, where he helps to close an entrance -- to what we don't really know -- that bring some of the characters some peace. Long summary, eh? It's an involved book, and despite the zaniness, it all feels natural the way Murakami tells it. Colonel Sanders as a pimp on a back alley? Sure, I'll accept that. Two imperial soldiers alive and well a century after disappearing? Seems perfectly normal to me! I still can't put my finger on how Murakami draws you in like that. Some common themes emerge:

Pastiche/Allusion: Murakami likes to weave literary traditions from different cultures and times together. Here, for instance, there is Greek Theater, especially Oedipus Rex, as well as Japanese literature, especially the Tale of the Genji. And there are all sorts of references to music; here Beethoven's Archduke Trio plays a particularly important role. 

Cats: These animals seem to hold a special power for Murakami. They operate as emissaries between worlds. No one in a Murakami novel is allergic to cats.

Fate: Murakami keeps exploring the extent to which people really have control over their lives. In this book, Kafka's father puts a curse on him, telling him that he will murder his father and sleep with his mother and sister. Does it come true? Kinda...?

Dreams: In Murakami's novels, dreams are not separate from the "real" world. In this novel, Kafka has sex with his sister in his "dreams", but it might have actually happened. This is similar to Killing Commendatore, where the protagonist has sex with his wife in his dreams that might -- we never know -- result in her pregnancy. Dreams impact the real world; and the dreamer is "responsible" for them in some way.

Holes/Wells: Not in this one! Thank goodness. Lots of holes out there.

The Deep State: There is a sense in Murakami novels that there is another realm/dimension -- something -- operating in the shadows of the world we see. It is this world that really controls our actions. In this novel, it seems a bit different, more like an afterlife than a deep state, but still.

Sex: This book had lots of sex in it. Too many references to "cock" for my liking. Is that the best euphemism we can come up with. It made me think that there is actually a lot of sex in Murakami books. I need to pay more attention to what he might be saying with it.