Are you ready to daydream?
The book’s cover is black with a human red face juxtaposing the figure of a black cat. It represents the interconnected lives of the two main characters, a 15-year-old boy who wants to be called Kafka and an old man called Nakata. As a child, Kafka was abandoned by his mother and older sister and left alone in Tokyo with his father, a crazy self-centered artist. One day, in view of a frightening oedipal prophecy made by his father and the terrible relationship with him, he decides to run away. He heads toward Takamatsu, in the south of Japan, accompanied by his alter ego Crow. Nakata is a simple-minded old man who spends his days in Tokyo talking with cats and rescuing lost ones at the request of their beloved owners. After witnessing murders and having committed one himself, he escapes toward the south of Japan. Strange and dreamlike occurrences happen throughout the story: eels falling from the sky, a formless being taking on the appearance of the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) Colonel Sanders, a heavy rock that opens the gate to a new world. The paths of Nakata and Kafka never cross but are connected by the tensions in the series of events.
When I finished reading the book, I had so many open questions in my mind: was miss Saeki, the head of the Komura Memorial Library, Kafka’s mother? Was really Nakata the one who committed the murder? Murakami narrates the series of events surprising the reader page after page, often breaching the line of fantasy and oneiric and without giving many explanations. I have the feeling that I have not always fully understood his many literary references and metaphors, but the book was too engaging to stop and figure them out. I usually do not like fantasy books, but Kafka on the Shore is definitely a must-have in my library.