So I finished my first Murakami novel, having previously read the essay collection Novelist as a Vocation and started but not finished 1Q84. I went for Kafka after seeing a lot of people recommend it as an entryway to Murakami, but now that I've finished it I've seen a lot of people online specifically recommending not to start with it due to it apparently being one of his more confusing books... Well, too late for that
The book definitely is cryptic at times and open to interpretation, like those counter-recommendations said, but I actually didn't mind. The mood, plot and the (male) characters were engaging for the most part - I particularly liked Nakata, his cat search, his road trip-style story with Hoshino, and his past with the Rice Bowl Hill incident; the conversations with Oshima, the intelligent, well-spoken, handsome, gay, trans man, boyfriend-material librarian; and the spirit/out-of-body experience story.
The female characters leave more to be desired, as do the extremely awkwardly-written sexual scenes with Kafka that they're often involved in. Every single scene with Sakura made me want to put the book down, and Saeki felt really flat at best - more a "mysterious quiet beautiful woman" plot device than a person. If this were a JRPG, she'd be the character who's got her eyes closed in prayer underwater in the opening video.
There were other sequences I had problems with. I can't avoid mentioning the cat torture chapter and how much I disliked reading it - it felt very gratuitous, regardless of how important the outcome of the events were to the overall story. The chapter where we learn Oshima is trans (by him refuting "Annoying Feminist" characters through misgendering himself) was also painful. I guess this isn't unrealistic, but it also hurt how Kafka after this occasionally thinks of Oshima in feminine terms while acknowledging he wouldn't want that, and how Oshima's brother says something like "my brother, or sister, whichever". These are small portions of the book, and I know that it was written in 2002, but they really stood out in a negative way.
Despite all this, I want to make it clear that I did have a good time overall - both while reading it, and while thinking about its meaning and about what really happened. I would have a difficult time recommending it, but, unlike those anti-recommendations I saw online, not for being confusing, and it didn't put me off continuing with more Murakami books. The next book of his that I read will be The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but it might be a little while since my library doesn't have a copy and needs to have it delivered. After that, probably 1Q84.
Originally posted on Cohost.
Comments from the original publication:
@Maplestrip, 05 Dec, 2022
I did get Norwegian Wood recently; I'm not really familiar with his work at all but it's a title I've seen around a lot. Interesting to read some thoughts on his other works so I have a bit more of a feel for what I'm getting into.
Alexandra IDV ✨💙 @AlexandraIDV, 05 Dec, 2022
Oh, cool! I'll be interested in hearing what you think of it. From what I hear, Norwegian Wood is one of few Murakami novels without any supernatural or fantastical elements, so it'd be interesting to see how that compares to something like Kafka on the Shore.