A review by britanicadramatica
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

In this book, we have two converging perspectives. Kafka Tamura, a fifteen-year-old runaway; and Mr. Nakata, a man in his mid-sixties who is unable to read or write. Magical realism is a great way to describe this tale of two souls. I laughed and I gasped throughout this book. I strongly suggest looking at content warnings prior to picking this up, as some of the content took me extremely off guard. This book left me speechless and confused about my own feelings, but that's art, right? It's supposed to give you visceral reactions. It's sad, whimsical, gruesome, and harrowing at the same time. 

I gave this book four stars because of the graphic content, it was unsettling at times. 

This book reminds me of a much more sophisticated version of John Dies at the End. I say this because of the appearances of Johnnie Walker and Colonel Sanders, which seemed very silly. There were parts of this book that were so whimsical and spiritual, while other parts were so graphic and disturbing. Nakata's perspective is easily my favorite. I do wish it dove further into Nakata and Miss Saeki's timeline with the entrance stone and their experiences in the other world. I very strongly disliked the violent and predatory aspects of Kafka's perspective; as well as the animal cruelty in Nakata's timeline. Kafka's journey is essentially Oedipus Rex. Nakata and Hoshino go through huge character development.
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