Devouring Books: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

"'Memories warm you up on the inside. But they can also tear you apart.'"

Oh boy. This book. I have no idea what to say about it, so brace yourself, this could be interesting (conversely, it could also be really boring, so... We'll see). Firstly, I have to say that I finally finally get the 'Murakami is intimidating thing' because reading 3 of his other books did not at all prepare me for reading Kafka on the Shore. It's so... out there, and mental, and there's a guy who talks to cats, and ghosts that aren't ghosts so much as memories, and if you ever tried to describe it to someone (like this right here) it sounds like a hot mess, but when you're reading it, everything seems to make sense in the context of the story. Well, sort of. If you're willing to accept that Murakami is insane, which I readily do because I love him so!

I love him, but oh how he frustrates me sometimes! I've been thinking about it (this review has been percolating for about a week) and I've decided that, unlike every other Murakami experience I've had, I wasn't quite fully immersed in the crazy world of Kafka on the Shore. I was close, and for the last 150 or so pages I was completely there, but the thing is... Ok, I'm just going to say it, Murakami seemed completely preoccupied with the main character's cock. And I'm not talking his pet chicken. But seriously, the main character is 15 years old, so knowing about his cock made me feel pretty uncomfortable anyway, but it's just brought up all the time. Forget the ear thing, this was a whole penis thing. And I don't think I'm being prudish here, and to be honest, I don't even really care about the character's age, I just found it jarring to have to roll my eyes every time he brought it up (no pun intended. Maybe.)

So, there was that. And I think that all this means is that I've slightly opened my eyes up to criticisms that other people have of Murakami, and have accepted their validity. While I'm still all for the complete immersion in his writing, and in letting his books wash over you (totally the only way to read him, by the way) in order to embrace the crazy, I think everyone has their breaking point at which this isn't fully possible, and it turns out mine is constant penis descriptions.

BUT. But but but but but, in spite of my reservations, and Kafka on the Shore maybe not quite living up to my past Murakami experiences (which, to be fair, highest expectations ever? Pretty much. Or at least second only to my expectations for The Moonstone...) it's still kind of amazing and absorbing, and I feel like I could read it again and again and still not come anywhere close to understanding anything about what Murakami's trying to say at all, but I'd still thoroughly enjoy myself, you know? I mean, half the book is set in a library, and there's this whole thing about irritating feminism (like, not that all feminism is irritating, but you know how by focusing on one tiny thing, you can kind of miss the whole picture? Feminism like that is kind of bad...) and there's the oddest couple of an old, not really there man, and a young upstart who doesn't really know what he's doing and it's awesome, and I kind of just love it all! Apart from the constant penis references.

Now, I'm going to do something that I haven't really done before because I really want to ask, so if you haven't read the book this is going to be very spoilerish, so skip this paragraph and head to the final one. Go on, do it now... OK, so if you have... You know how there's the place where Kafka goes towards the end, and Miss Saeki's younger self is there and so on, do we think that's kind of a version of the afterlife, and it can be accessed cause the entrance stone was turned, or something else entirely? And also, if it is a version of the afterlife, do we also think that that's where Nakata, and all the children's souls or whatever went, and because of Nakata's abusive upbringing and so on, he just refused to come back? I mean, I realise that it's all pretty vague and it's kind of useless trying to figure out what Murakami is talking about basically ever, but... what did everyone else think about that?

Basically, what can I say? It's a book by Murakami so I of course think that you should read it, even though I spent half of this review moaning about the penis thing. It's an extremely strange book with almost indecipherable symbols, and yet, I can't get enough of these crazy things Murakami does. Apart from this one thing that made me feel actually sick, that I can't really give away because, spoilers! But also, yeah, that I did have enough of. Too much, you might say. But anyway! Kafka on the Shore- it's pretty great, albeit weird. Like all the best people.