BOOK: Kafka on The Shore by Haruki Murakami

i was not impressed by my first read of Murakami's (A Wild Sheep Chase). he leaned heavily on the fantasy side, which irritated me. and a sheep is just a lamb chop for me. so, i leave the Chase. maybe someday i'll read it again.

and if you ever heard/read of Haruki Murakami, maybe you'd be telling me. 'why don't you read his Norwegian Wood?'. Because: i dont want his best to be my first. i'll read that too, someday. for the time being, i'll let my mind to be occupied by the charming Alexander Rybak, each time i heard of 'Norwegian wood'. (and not some forlorn Asian lovers).

i read Kafka on The Shore, mainly because of the name "Kafka". i have yet to read any of Kafka's works, but he's a big name and the title made me curious. so, i bought the book and read on. i was blown away! it was absolutely beautiful. multi layers of stories, neatly piled up. did i mentioned crazy too? yeah.. it's crazy.

synopsis:
A 15-years old boy (Kafka) runaway from home, trying to get away from his father. he ended up in a remote town with a lovely private library, where he found sanctuary and friends, the head librarian and her assistant. A simpleton, old man, named Nakata, have the ability to talk to cats, make things fall from the sky and super sixth sense. Nakata's quest of locating one missing cat ended up in him killing Kafka's father (or whatever it was, when he spoke to Nakata). led by his sixth sense, Nakata leave town to find 'the stone'. meanwhile, police tried to locate Kafka. Kafka, by the help of his new friend hid away far in the forest. the stone apparently was the key to open another realm, in where, Kafka was tempted to stay. he chose to stay in our world and face his problem. Nakata died peacefully after fulfilling his last task.

i leave so many delightful details, to avoid confusion in the synopsis. and i'm not a spoiler, so, go on, read this book. i'm still mulling over two very prominent questions in mind after reading the book. #1: if memories and talents were taken away from us, what will left of us? #2: is it possible for a ghost (spirit) of a person to be seen by others, while that person lives and what does it mean?

did i mentioned the book is heavily peppered with notes on music, musician, history, philosophy, great books and magic? yeah.. loaded.


p/s: i am a firm believer in the existence of the spirits. be it evil or holy. and we can sense their presence if we open up our soul.

This post has nothing to do with our football team loss to Japan in Fukuoka last Wednesday. why we watch Malaysian football? yeah, pasal ada si Apek..