Kafka en la orilla

I couldn't help but feel that this story was "Lynchian". The premise is mundane, Kafka Tamura is just another kid running away from his family. The deepening of the story involves chance encounters which later become inseparable from a dramatic notion of fate. Tamura is drawn into a vortex, his fate at odds with the rational, modern, mundane sense of reality brings out the surreal. This is something that the story stylistically clarifies: that surrealism is about subverting what we expect from reality. Dreams are based on our experiences but they are uncanny because they do not follow the rules of the waking world. on the Shore also interestingly seems to suggest kinship between surrealism and myth, Murakami places in our mind the idea that myth is dream and dream is myth. Oedipus and Orpheus live in the unconscious, ruling our fates whether or not we realize it. And this notion seems to nicely complement Shinto and Buddhism, blurring the boundaries of east and west, asserting a shared experience. I loved reading this book, my first of Murakami and I doubt it will be my last.

I couldn't help but feel that this story was "Lynchian". The premise is mundane, Kafka Tamura is just another kid running away from his family. The deepening of the story involves chance encounters which later become inseparable from a dramatic notion of fate. Tamura is drawn into a vortex, his fate at odds with the rational, modern, mundane sense of reality brings out the surreal. This is something that the story stylistically clarifies: that surrealism is about subverting what we expect from reality. Dreams are based on our experiences but they are uncanny because they do not follow the rules of the waking world. on the Shore also interestingly seems to suggest kinship between surrealism and myth, Murakami places in our mind the idea that myth is dream and dream is myth. Oedipus and Orpheus live in the unconscious, ruling our fates whether or not we realize it. And this notion seems to nicely complement Shinto and Buddhism, blurring the boundaries of east and west, asserting a shared experience. I loved reading this book, my first of Murakami and I doubt it will be my last.

A quite interesting mystery full of self-discovery at its core, with quite an unusual narrative that tells this story from multiple angles at once, this book seemed quite promising from the start. However, the overly casual dialogues that oscillate between intentionally inarticulate and pseudo-intellectual quickly got on my nerves, and the subsequent attempts to make light of pedophilia as well as incest were only the last straw. I'm fairly confident that this is the worst book that I've read in the past decade or so.

This is my first Murakami book. And I really liked his style of writing. Murakami has a knack for capturing beauty, mood, and scenery perfectly. And that is what stood out for me among all the magical realism and philosophical ideas in the book. Just like how reality can be modeled by mathematics in a much better way if imaginary numbers are used, with skillful writers like Murakami, magical worlds can convey the truth and real feelings better than hyper-realism. I do not claim to have solved all the riddles the plot posed, but I doubt that is the point of the book. Unlike his mastery of building and conveying the mood and beauty, Murakami's attempt at conveying philosophical ideas is not as successful. Some of the philosophical ideas unintentionally felt like funny philosophical arguments written by Douglas Adams. But that is just a minor gripe I have in an otherwise wonderful book. This book reminded me of the narrative style of the movie 'Mulholland Drive' by David Lynch. It has the same dreamy, interwoven narrative.

Recommended! I look forward to reading more Murakami books.

"The whole world is a metaphor". No sentence could describe this book better. At the same time it is also a labyrinth and a collection of riddles which you are trying to puzzle together.
It describes several stories of characters running in parallel. Their interconnection is not clear until the very end and even after that, there is still a lot of place of interpretation.
That is one of the few books where the next event couldn’t be foreseen at all, the whole time you can look out for clues to find out what it means.
Even after reading, the book leaves you wondering what it does mean. You can think about theories but you will never know for certain.
That characteristics is major for this book. It is for certain excellent.

Haruki Murakami adds his own brand of magical realism to ancient themes, seasons to taste, and shakes it all up. The result is--delightful. Just go with it!

And again, he's compelled me to listen to something I would never have discovered on my own--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eika4rkMOGY

(Yes, that specific version)