Self description on the book cover:

"Kafka on the Shore follows the fortunes of two remarkable caracters. Kafka Tamura runs away from home at fifteen, under the shadow of his father's dark prophecy. The aging Nakata, tracker of lost cats, who never recovered from a bizarre childhood affliction, finds his simple life suddenly turned upside down. Their parallel odysseys are enriched throughout ba vivid accomplices and mesmerising dramas. Cats converse with people, fish tumble from the sky; a forest harbours soldiers apparently unaged since World War II. There is a savage killing, but the identity of both victim and killer is a riddle."


My comment:

Since a few pages, I was already fascinated both by the book and by the psychological dephths of the autor's writing. It is surely not the major work of Murakami, but it makes "appetite" for more reading of his.
All in this book is metaphorical, and what impression me the most in this book is that there is not a definite conclusion of the matters, but it remains to the reader to interprete for himself all what is taking place. It also invites him to begin to let travelling his own thougts.
I cannot exactly describe it - you just have to read it and you will see and agree!


Extracts of the book which could stand for themselves:

"Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing direction. You change direction, but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn't something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn't get in, and walk through it, step by step. There's no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverised bones. That's the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine."

""Do you remember what I told you in the library? About how people are always wandering about, searching for their other half?"
"That part about male/male, female/female, male/female?"
"Right. What Aristotheles said. How we stumble through our lives desperately fumbling for our other half. Miss Saeki and the young man never had to do that. They were born with their other half right there in front of them."
"They were lucky."
Oshima nods. "Absolulely. Up to a point.""

"I don't know if ghost is the right word, but it definitely not is something of this world - that much I can tell at a glance.
I sense something and suddenly wake up and there she is. It's the middle of the night, but the room is strangely light, moonlight streaming through the window. I know I closed the curtains before going to bed, but now they're wide open. The girl's silhouette is clearly outlined, bathed by the bone-white light of the moon. (...)
She's sitting at the desk, chin resting in her hands, staring at the wall and thinking about something. Nothing too complex, I'd say. it looks more as if she's lost in some pleasant, warm memory of not so long ago. Every once in a while a hint of a smile gathers at the corners of her mouth. But the shadows cast by the moonlight keep me from making out any details of her expression. I don't want to interrupt whatever it is she is doing, so I pretend to be asleep, holding my breath and trying not to be noticed.
She has to be a ghost. First of all, she's just too beautiful. Her features are gorgeous, but it's not the only that. She's so perfect I know she can't be real. She's like a person who stepped right out of a dream. The purity of her beauty gives me a feeling close to sadness - a very natural feeling, though one that only something extraordinary could induce."

"It's all a question of imagination. Our responsibility begins with the power to imagine. It's just as Yeats said: In dreams begin responsibility. Turn this on its head and you could say that where there's no power to imagine, no responsibility can arise. Just as we see with Eichmann."

Arrived a few days ago. Thanks KarinS!

I liked this book so much I had to buy a copy to keep with me and read again.
The two parallel stories are really hooking and everything becomes more interesting when the connections begin to show.
I found the book very dark and bloody, much more than usual in Murakami; I'll always feel a little sick when I'll listen to "Heigh-Ho", the Seven Dwarfs' song...
Thanks KarinS, for having share this great book!

Since the book has been returned to me, the book lays at my home. (I only have noticed now that the status was still set on "reserved". Well, of course it is available.)
Actually, I plan to release it at the Cologne Central Station on this friday 06th March. See Release Notes.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I will release it on this friday the 6th March at approximately 9:45 am somewhere in the Cafetiero at the Cologne Central Station.