Kafka on the Shore

My parents bought me the hardcover copy of Kafka on the Shore for Xmas this year. Usually I prefer softcover, but I didn't want to wait until next Xmas to get it or God forbid--buy it myself--so hardcover it was. All that said, I hadn't managed to get to it by mid-March so I brought it to Boston.

So I guess I should preface this by saying that I really love Murakami. I find him really comforting to read, especially when I'm stressed out or upset, because his stuff is incredibly absorbing and though often sad, it's not devastating like I feel a lot of contemporary literature is. I also like Murakami because he's consistently good. I may have favorites but there aren't any that I've been disappointed in. I've read Hard-boiled Wonderland, South of the Border, Wind Up Bird Chronicle, and most of After the Quake.

Anyway, so Kafka itself. Wind-Up Bird is my favorite, but this is a close second. Murakami always has the nice mystery, and this one was well done. I loved the fake military reports in the beginning, partly because they really sounded like they were written by the WWII military social scientists I encounter doing research. I read a lot of this stuff and it's got a vibe, and Murakami captured it. This one also had a nice batch of characters. I wound up really fond of Nakata. Kafka himself was good. And I loved Oshima. I feel like I should have more to say about what was great about this book, but really I'd just be making shit up, so I'll leave it at that.

I was less convinced by the Oedipus parts. And I'm also not quite sure of what I think about Kafka and Miss Saeki doing their thing. Which is an appropriate thought to be left with, because I'm moving on to Lolita next. Lolita is tangentially related to my dissertation(ha! almost anyway), so I can pretend it's work.