Kafka on the Shore, Murakami Haruki

The book began slowly, and most of the plot unfolds in the latter half. Murakami recommended readers to reread the book multiple times as each time the meanings of the book would be clearer. According to him, he wrote the book as an extension of his dreams, and even he didn’t understand his work until multiple rereadings later. Here I try to unentangle my thoughts by theme. A lot of ideas and dialogues overlap though.

Time and Memories

Kafka on the Shore is about metaphors, coming-of-age, and battles with time. There’s definitely more I have yet to uncover. All the characters are connected with each other by some parallel universe. In one world, a man is Kafka’s father but in Nakata’s world, he’s Johnnie Walker. Kafka is Kafka but he also existed in Miss Saeki’s childhood as the boy subject in one of the paintings her former lover gave her. At the end of the book, Kafka recalls that fifteen year-old Miss Saeki was standing next to the painter on the beach. Miss Saeki also hints that Nakata was that same boy so maybe Nakata and Kafka are the same. Another piece of evidence that lends to this theory is that Nakata and Kafka are both tied to the murder of Kafka’s father/Johnnie Walker. Kafka was destined to kill him but leaves and Nakata takes his place.

Time and memories are relative.

“Are memories such an important thing?”

“It depends… In some cases they’re the most important there is.”

“Yet you burned yours up.”

“I had no use for them amymore.”

This exchange (pg. 440) highlights how contradictory memories are. Two pages earlier, Kafka asked the same question to a 15 year-old Miss Saeki. That girl replied, “That’s right. Memory isn’t so important here. The library handles memories.”

Youth

“You’ve got to be the toughest fifteen-year-old.” A boy named Crow, who seems to be Kafka’s consciusness, tells him in the beginning. The book traces Kafka along his adolescent whims until the end, when he realizes he should go back home, finish school, and then do whatever he wants. It’s a very drawn-out, post-modern coming-of-age story.

In that same vein, Miss Saeki recalls her 15 year-old self (pg. 249): “When I was fifteen, all I wanted was to go off to some other world, a place beyond anybody’s reach. A place beyond the flow of time.” We learn eventually that that place is deep in the forest, where Kafka ends up at the end of the book. There, in a pocket universe, people leave behind their inner selves, who never grow old and never make memories. Kafka meets 15 year-old Miss Saeki in the flesh in this place and is almost enticed to stay.

Miss Saeki gave her soul away when she was 15 and as a result, has nothing to look forwards to her – other than death.

“As long as there’s such a thing as time, everybody’s damaged in the end, changed into something else. It always happens, sooner or later.”

“But even if that happens, you’ve got to have a place you can retrace your steps.”

“A place you can retrace your steps to?”

“A place that’s worth coming back to.”

Miss Saeki stares straight at me.

The present

If Miss Saeki represents a person stuck in their past, then Nakata, the other main character in the book, is the complete opposite. Because of an incident in his elementary school, in which he fell into a coma and woke up 3 weeks later without the ability to read, Nakata is seen as a retarded old man and lives out his days simply but happily on government subsidies and money earned from finding lost cats.

Nakata is apparently the death that Miss Saeki awaits. After their only meeting, Miss Saeki dies at her desk in the library. Their short but meaningful exchange (pp. 389-390) highlights their differences:

“Actually, I don’t have any memories either. I’m dumb, you see, so would you tell me what memories are like?”

“Memories warm you up from the inside but they also tear you apart.”

“That’s a tough one. Nakata still doesn’t understand. The only thing I understand is the present.”

“I’m the exact opposite.”

Once again, memories are shown to be contradictory. They can cause suffering but also carry warmth. Nakata is perpetually content and never worried while Miss Saeki lives her days in an emotional void. So is it better to hold memories or to never have them in the first place? I think this was a question Murakami intended for his readers.

Buddhism and Shintoism

Religion and inidigenous beliefs played a major role in this book. Spirits, much like in classical Japanese works, come to life and act as humans (Johnnie Walker, Colonel Sanders, 15 year-old Miss Saeki). They inspire fear, love, and loyalty.

Another thing I noticed was that Nakata was a messenger and that was his only purpose in life. Indeed, he died naturally as well right after meeting Miss Saeki. “My role is to restore what’s here now to what it should be.” (pg. 390) Nakata is referring to the alternate world that Miss Saeki opened when she was 15. He’s almost like a spiritual janitor, not belonging to this world and instead cleaning up after mortals. He also has supernatural powers like making it rain whatever objects he wants, like sardines or leeches.

A final reason I consider him to be a spiritual being is because Hoshino, his companion, likens himself to a disciple. He imagines himself as Nakata’s Myoga. Myoga was one of Buddha’s disciples, who polished shoes for twenty years at the command of the Buddha, before being elevated to one of his main disciples. On page 407, Hoshino further describes his spiritual enlightenment in the presence of Nakata:

“You changed my life. These past ten days, I don’t know — things look different to me now. Stuff I never wouldl’ve given a second glance before seems different. Like music, for instance — music I used to think was boring really gets to me now… All I’m trying to say is you’ve done me a lot of good, Mr. Nakata.”

It definitely feels like Nakata is some bodhisattva or reincarnation of the Buddha.

Other thoughts

The entrance stone: entrance to the place where time doesn’t flow. Why is it heavy? What does it symbolize? Why a stone?
Music: Murakami likes music.
Sakura/Oshima: Kafka thinks Sakura is his sister but I’m tempted to think that Oshima is actually his sister.

Overall, I liked Kafka on the Shore a lot more than Norwegian Wood. The post-modernism and the interweaving of themes were thought-provoking and I’m looking forward to reading more of his works in the future.