In a world of literature that’s growing at an alarmingly rapid rate, it’s getting increasingly difficult to find books that leave much to interpretation without also leaving too many crucial questions unanswered. However, of the bunch, Haruki Murakami’s “Kafka By The Shore” remains a standout for its ability to tell a coherent story without giving away too many details. The book was originally written in 2002 and eventually translated to English by Philip Gabriel in 2005. The book leaves a lot of unanswered questions, but a good amount of information that leaves room for a lot of opinions and reader speculation. It’s a journey through the perspective of fifteen-year-old Kafka Tamura and an old man named Satoru Nakata, with the perspective being followed alternating each chapter. The story seems to place an emphasis on supernatural connection and inexplicable events, as well as a very prominent obsession with cats.
In a general sense, the story that Murakami attempts to tell is one that is left to the reader to interpret and understand, rather than giving the reader all the answers upright. Most of the story gives you a surface level idea of what is happening to the character, but a good majority of those circumstances are left as nothing but mere miracles by the end of the book. In most cases, a lack of an explanation would make a story hard to follow along with and understand, but Murakami is able to strike a delicate balance between leaving the reader without proper information and leaving them with just enough information to allow the reader to draw their own conclusions coming from the story’s events. One of the most prominent examples of this happens to be Kafka’s wonder of the identity of his mother and sister, something at the very beginning of the book. Throughout the story, the reader is given various clues towards the identity of Kafka’s mother, but it is never confirmed outright. With this in mind, readers are left to believe that a specific character is Kafka’s long-lost parent, but there’s just enough gaps in the argument to allow for different perspectives to potentially be the case. Leaving the story to the interpretation of the reader is accomplished in this story through the use of hinting and foreshadowing without actually revealing what those hints were alluding towards. In modern literature, this is a hard balance to find; most authors will either provide information outright or fail to give enough information to make any logically sound arguments or conclusions.
Every character is given their own personality throughout the story, all of which influence the narrative of every role, not just their own. This effect can either be a significant plot point or barely make a difference in the end. Every action has consequences that every character has to experience, some consequences different from others. This provides a very compelling novel where the perspectives of both main characters are intertwined in some way, even though on the surface, it looks like these two characters couldn’t be any more worlds further apart from each other.
Rather fittingly, the narrative focuses on the concept of events and experiences inexplainable by even that of the most advanced sciences ever analyzed by humanity, a phenomenon commonly referred to as miracles. A major emphasis of the story is placed on fate, something which also cannot be predicted through science, and is simply left down to what the world has in store for the character. There are numerous instances in the book where someone experiences something so sudden or random that it’s hard to deduct what truly happened, given the circumstances. One of the most prominent examples of this happening appears near the middle of the book, where Kafka randomly encounters a spiritual entity in the middle of the night. The encounter is very brief, and initially, we are given barely any information behind it, only being told what happened instead of why. As the narrative continues, Kafka begins to talk about his dream to Mrs. Saeki, a library manager, and Oshima, who worked at the library and acted as a mentor to Kafka during his time away from home. Through this, we are given a variety of clues hinting towards who that ghost might have been, and any other important information behind the supernatural instance. Yet at the same time, there’s enough room to counter it with a different explanation, especially because the actual identity of the ghost is never truly confirmed in the book. This is also where the cats come in. We mostly hear from them when we look at Nakata’s perspective, since he’s the only one who can actually talk to the cats. In the story, they often act as the bridge between the human world and the spiritual world, providing their own insight on occurrences left unexplained by humanity’s discovery and knowledge.
As masterfully written as Murakami’s story is, it doesn’t come without its flaws, as with all things in the world. The beginning of the book is all over the place and somewhat difficult to follow, primarily because the perspectives the reader follows switches between the two characters every chapter. Since these two stories are completely different, especially near the start of the book, it feels a bit messy and more difficult to retain information that could potentially answer some questions later. Once you finish the book, the direction of the book becomes a bit more clear, so rereads aren’t as bad, now that you know everything in the story will have to do with everything else going forward. However, if you’re reading the book for the first time and don’t know what to expect, it can become confusing, especially for the first half of the book. Another notable weakness happens to be the pacing of the book. There are chapters where it feels like it could’ve been shortened and merged into some other chapter involving that character, whilst others feel like the chapter wasn’t long enough, or enough proper information wasn’t given, even if it’ll be further explained going forward. On the other hand, this is probably done to avoid giving away answers and helps to encourage interpretation on the reader’s end, and this does work for the most part. However, some parts feel like they’re being dragged on for too long, whilst others feel like it was rushed. It should also be noted that the book is extremely explicit during some chapters, often depicting scenes involving mature material, though this is less of a flaw and more of a cautionary warning for those who may find that uncomfortable. Most of these moments are spread out throughout the whole story, rather than being clumped together, and thankfully, there are few instances of this happening.
Whether or not a person would like Murakami’s story really depends on who you are as a person. For the kind of person who loves deciphering meanings, deducting solutions to problems, and will often analyze even the smallest details of an article or narrative, then this book will likely be a great addition to someone’s to-read list. However, for a casual read without much thought, this book might be better left on the shelf, since the lack of information and reliance on reader interpretation and conclusions might not be a good fit for idle reading. Similarly, those who prefer to be given information by the book rather than build conclusions themselves probably wouldn’t take a liking to the story, either. Whatever the case, no book has ever fallen into a one-size-fits-all category, and this book especially is no exception. The approach Murakami uses to tell his story is one that some audiences will love, and others will be heavily disinterested in. However, of every notable part of the book that could possibly be talked about, there is one thing certain about it; no matter whether you like it or not, the story relies very heavily on speculation, both in significant and insignificant ways. You’re left to interpret the meaning & purpose of the two perspectives, you’re left to interpret the scale of Kafka’s journey, and you’re left to interpret the dialogue of the talking cats. It’s not impossible to read through the book without interpreting anything and still be satisfied with your understanding of things, to receive the full experience, you’ll need to not only follow the shore, but take the many detours it provides, perhaps a path no one else has trekked before, and that alone can open the door to way more possibilities. But whether or not you actually take these opportunities comes down to the very same fate that leads all of our characters towards understanding their mostly inexplainable and spontaneous world a little bit more than they did before.
