Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - Kafka on the Shore

This is my second Murakami book, and to say that it was a departure from Norwegian Wood, my first book by him, is the understatement of the century.
Let me first say that this book was a bit daunting to me. I was apprehensive to read this book, because I remember taking so long to read NW that I did not want to lose the plot because I was reading so slowly. However, this was not an issue for me. I actually flew through this book and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Murakami's writing is so amazingly vivid- it is almost like I am reading a picture book throughout because he has such a command over the descriptive language which he writes. And boy oh boy does he describe things. I have seen a criticism of Murakami's writing be that he describes too much, which, if you are not fully invested, can be absolutely true. He at one point winks at the readers when he makes a joke about Dickens and his going on for 10 pages describing the most simple things. This is not going to be for everybody, and while I enjoyed his writing I did think that it was necessary to discuss how much he describes things.

Going on, I have to say how much I loved learning about each character in this book. The thing I am starting to realize about Murakami is that his characters are some of the most complex characters who I have read as of yet. I appreciate that while we do learn things about each of the characters, that the feeling of "I don't know everything about you" still appears- which I love- it makes each of the characters feel as though they are real people. I feel that Murakami does an exceptional job of describing characters that are not always good people, but you are still interested in learning about them.

Regarding the story, I have to say that I am impressed with this book. It is a story of a self fulfilling prophecy regarding a modern retelling of Oedipus Rex from Kafka's point of view. He is a 15 year old runaway who is trying to escape a Oedipal curse placed on him by his father. The other plotline is Nakata who is an old man who is able to speak to cats, while not being very educationally intelligent due to an accident which he experienced at the age of nine, where he spends his time in the book searching for something. I thought that the dichotomy of one character fleeing from something and the other searching for something really did well to solidify how man exists.
I had heard that the book was very surrealistic and edged in to metaphysics and even some magical realism, and I could not agree more. This book's plotlines are not hard to follow, thankfully, as when books delve in to this sort of subject or genre matter, it can some times be hard to follow. This one does exceptionally well of making sure that the reader knows what in the hell is happening- even if it doesn't make the most sense.
I think that this book focuses on the spirit/soul of people and how people are able to lose them, or have them sustain damage through various life events.
This is a book that though I understood the story on a surface level it absolutely demands a re-read, and, building on that, would benefit from reading and learning more about traditional Japanese folklore.

I think that this is a book that one can enjoy while reading it from a narrative standpoint, as well as if you were to delve in to each facet of the book.
Now, I have talked about a ton of positives here, but, I also have to talk about the negatives which I did experience while reading.
Firstly, I am not the first one to level this critique at Murakami, but, his portrayal of women was something that I did not appreciate. I found that he described in overly graphic detail naked women's bodies. Women have not, from what I have heard, been Murakami's strong suit, but, it is to the point wherein women become more objectives to progress the plot rather than characters. Kakfa needs Ms. Saeki to come to terms with himself and to move on from the damage he has experienced.

Furthermore, his portrayal of Oshima, a gay-trans man, is overall, good, in my opinion. However, the scene in which his gender is revealed comes off as shoehorned in, to be honest. This stems from the scene in the library wherein Oshimas reveals himself to be a gay-trans man by confronting a pair of straw feminists. I thought that this scene was so strange and it felt to me like Oshima's inclusion and the fact that he is a gay-trans man was only included so as to be able for Murakami to make an argument which he set up himself. I don't know whether he was doing this to make societal commentary through his story, but, it was still a strange way for him to go about it. I will say that having a character be LGBTQ+ in a novel from 2002 treated so well was extremely nice to read about and I overall found Oshima to be one of my favorite characters throughout!

Not so much a critique, but something that I absolutely have to discuss as a cautionary statement are the instances of incest and rape which both occur throughout this book. I have to say that I was absolutely disgusted and repulsed in both of these cases. The story is a retelling of the Oedipal prophecy, and, as such, there was going to be the unavoidable inclusion of incest, but, it is told in a very gratuitous way to the point where it did turn my stomach. Furthermore, the incestual scene is between a 15 year old and a 50+ year old person, which is even worse.
As well, there is a case of rape which occurs in a dream sequence, though I feel that the description of it very upsetting to read. Part of me feels like Murakami included the rape in a dream as a means to say "it didn't happen in real life", but, when the character having the act committed on them states that they were being raped, I could not see otherwise. Very tough to read these parts. I feel that these inclusions would prevent me from recommending this book to people, solely on the basis of their inclusion.

Overall, this book was a fucking ride. It is a trip in to metaphysics, surrealism, and magic. I thought that the book was a great time, though there are some points wherein I had a very hard time reading through them.
I am very interested to read more Murakami in the future.

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