Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami

This was my first Murakami book and I honestly didn’t know what I was getting into. It follows two protagonists who never meet: One is a teenager who runs away from home and finds a dream-like library. The second is an old man who can talk to cats. I like both libraries and talking cats!

Obviously I liked this book a lot. I need to re-read it because, while nothing in the story is meant to be logical and real, there is a lot of subtext and sub-subtext going on here that I missed. But, even if you don’t really understand the point of the story, the book still works because it’s beautifully written (and translated), and the complex story is told in the simplest terms, making it a joy to read. 

And if you’re at a party and talking about the book and a smarty-smart person asks you what the book is about, you can just say, “It’s about…” and then make a vague hand gesture towards any inanimate object. And you won’t be wrong. And everyone will think you’re a genius!

I love David Lynch, and Murakmi often feels like a gentler David Lynch. They’re both tapping into some other cognitive cosmos and trying to explain what they see to us dumb, normal people. 

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