I'm looking forward to reading this...my dog read it first and recommended it highly. (He is a bit rough on books though and this one is now missing its dust jacket, a bit of the back cover and there are several pages with the corners missing. I'm still able to read it but I doubt I'll ever release this one into the wild.) I've added Inigo's picture to this entry so you can see the stinker who read the book first. He's trying to look innocent in this shot.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Previous books such as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood have established Murakami as a true original, a fearless writer possessed of a wildly uninhibited imagination and a legion of fiercely devoted fans. In this latest addition to the author's incomparable oeuvre, 15-year-old Kafka Tamura runs away from home, both to escape his father's oedipal prophecy and to find his long-lost mother and sister. As Kafka flees, so too does Nakata, an elderly simpleton whose quiet life has been upset by a gruesome murder. (A wonderfully endearing character, Nakata has never recovered from the effects of a mysterious World War II incident that left him unable to read or comprehend much, but did give him the power to speak with cats.) What follows is a kind of double odyssey, as Kafka and Nakata are drawn inexorably along their separate but somehow linked paths, groping to understand the roles fate has in store for them. Murakami likes to blur the boundary between the real and the surreal—we are treated to such oddities as fish raining from the sky; a forest-dwelling pair of Imperial Army soldiers who haven't aged since WWII; and a hilarious cameo by fried chicken king Colonel Sanders—but he also writes touchingly about love, loneliness and friendship. Occasionally, the writing drifts too far into metaphysical musings—mind-bending talk of parallel worlds, events occurring outside of time—and things swirl a bit at the end as the author tries, perhaps too hard, to make sense of things. But by this point, his readers, like his characters, will go just about anywhere Murakami wants them to, whether they "get" it or not.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

**Update July 28, 2006**

I enjoyed reading this although I did find it a bit predictable despite the "other worldly" aspects of the story. I may be the only person in the world that thinks a story with a guy who can talk to cats, another that gets a call girl from Colonel Sanders and gender challenged hemophillic is predictable. Murakami provides an interesting set of characters and situations but the end resolution is far too clear for my taste. I also felt that Murakami rushed the wrap-up as well.

Yet, I still enjoyed reading it and will read more from Murakami in the future. (Although I will most likely stick to his short stories.)

This is on the way to a BookCrosser in Washington. I hope you enjoy it Dreamlinque!

This book has been chosen as a reading selection for one of my local book discussion groups, so Alrescate was kind and helpful in sending this copy to me.

I'll read, rate, review and release this book once I'm finished reading and discussing it in my book group.

Thank you so much, Alrescate! :-)