Book Review: Kafka on the Shore

Heyaa! Imagine this: You're mindlessly scrolling through Instagram and Twitter when it hits you—it's been months since you last picked up a book. Yep, that's exactly how it was for me. But then, a couple of weeks ago, everything changed. A friend of mine suggested bringing back those silent reading sessions we used to do during the pandemic, and voila!

I had just finished reading Kafka on the Shore and was almost 150 pages through in Guns, Germs & Steel. It’s a great feeling to just spend time with books. If you ever struggle to keep up with reading. I run an accountability reading group where we hold ourselves responsible for a certain amount of reading time or pages each day. It's free and open to everyone!

Kafka On The Shore

Kafka on the Shore is a novel by Haruki Murakami, one the renowned Japanese author and this is one of his best works.

Kafka on the Shore moves between two parallel plots to tell the story of our protagonist, Kafa Taumar - a 15-year-old boy who runs away from home to escape a curse. Alongside Kafka is Nakata, an elderly man who has lost the ability to even read and write but possesses an uncanny ability to speak with cats due to a childhood accident. Nakata now helps owners in finding their lost cats. The two characters seem to be on their own different journey, but their path intertwined towards the hyper-surrealistic ending.

Kafka Taumar is no ordinary boy, he is the strongest 15-year-old. Throughout his journey, he discovers love, loss, and uncertainty of himself. His relationship with Miss Saeki and Oshima is beautifully portrayed. Meanwhile, after having an accident in his childhood, Nakata was abandoned by his family due to his inability to read and write. His part of the journey progress as he goes on to find the missing cat leading to murder and falling mysterious things from the sky.

Without spoiling too much, I can surely say Murakami’s work is something out of this world. He has beautifully blended pop culture, and magic realism, including some mundane events and sexuality to build a fantastic world where characters can experience all love, loss, and joy. Here are some of the best lines from the novel:

1. “…once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”

2. “Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.”

3. “Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear.”

Book Discussion Series:

I was never a history geek but reading this book is turning me into it. Recently I and Nischal have started a book discussion series where we read the book together and discuss it. Every week one episode is released where we discuss each chapter.

ps: If you have read the book, you are welcome for the discussion.

Until next time ✍️

Happy Reading!

Dhairya.