A review by doormango
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No

1.25

Several large criticisms:

  • The main character is the most insufferably precocious 15 year-old imaginable. 
  • Nearly every woman is highly sexualized from first introduction to final appearance.
  • The characterization is extremely poor: most characters read like carbon-copy projections of the author, all interested in classical music and literature, all spouting vague metaphorical reflections on life (including in internal monologues), all having weirdly-specific knowledge about, say, history or car models. 
  • No one questions the insanity of the premonitions or supernatural powers they encounter. 
  • The plot often feels like the author's fantasy (of, say,
    sleeping with an older sister
    , being a brooding athletic witty genius that everyone constantly finds extremely interesting, winning an argument against confrontational feminists, etc.).
  • The frequent philosophical musings are only ever superficial.

I really do not understand how this author came to be so acclaimed. 
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