I
have long wanted to read Murakami as he is one of the most recommended Asian
authors there are. And to my judgement: he never failed his readers. It feels
good to be an addition to his followers.
As
promised by the synopsis, Kafka on the Shore took me to a journey involving
talking cats, raining fish and leeches, Johnny Walker as a Villain and Colonel
Sanders (KFC icon) as a concept. We have Kafka;
claiming he to be the world’s toughest 15-year old boy. He ran away from home
having an utter disgust for his father. And we also have Nakata, in his sixties, a victim of wartime affliction; something
involving the air which made him two weeks unconscious, and upon waking up,
lose all his memory and intelligence.
Aside
from hating his father, Kafka also tried hard to escape his father’s curse of
killing him, falling in love with his mother, and sleeping with her sister
(Oediphal prophecy), but to no avail- so to speak.
The
two protagonists were lucky to have loyal buddies named Oshima and Hoshino,
respectively. Kafka was lost in direction and purpose in life while Nakata is
literally lost- for words, meanings, memory, and personal history. Oshima was
generous enough to share his wisdom to Kafka and be his guardian. Hoshino, on
the other hand, turned his back on everything he possessed in order to assist
old Nakata.
Upon
reading the novel, I felt a pleasantly crazy feeling stirring inside me. It was
plotted very wisely and words of wisdom were overflowing. Fate kept the lives
of these characters intertwined. Ironically though, their roads have never met.
Kafka
is indeed a very interesting central character. I felt his journey through
adolescence, solitude, sex, love, and getaways. His relationship with his turned-out-to-be
mother, Miss Saeki is extremely wild yet solemn. To cap it all, I just wished
him all the best in life. He is young and full of potentials. I hope he could
redeem himself and his youth.
Meanwhile,
reading Nakata in between is a little heartbreaking. He is like a grandfather
who has high morale; one you know who have lived a very good and contented
life, yet it pains a lot to know that after the accident, his family
disregarded him and he suffered a series of unfortunate events. What makes thing
worse is that he does not know the gravity of his misfortunes. He is
awe-inspiring because despite his illiteracy and ignorance, he lived a very
simple, and honest life. His seemingly pointless existence has unconsciously
changed Hoshino. His death made me cry not mainly because he is gone, but due
to Hoshino’s attachment to him. Ah... wish you could read that chapter, too :’(
Kafka
on the Shore is overall a good book to read. Just to warn you, it is long and
visually heavy yet highly entertaining. It taught me to (1) accept the dictate
of fate to men while living happily and meaningfully, nevertheless, (2) and accept
loss and learn from it.
This
is just a short entry but thank you for reading, by the way. I sincerely wish
you get to know Kafka; especially Nakata.
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