Book Review: Kafka on the Shore
Magical Realism by Haruki Marukami
Outside My Usual Genre
There is value in reading outside your favorite genre. Any time you can compare and contrast something with another exercises your thinking skills, which for me is just as important as physical exercise and nutrition. Murakami’s style is considered “magical realism,” which mixes fiction about real-life characters and fantasy, mythical elements. My favorite genre is historical fiction, because I learn history through fictional characters effected by actual events.
This novel, Kafka on the Shore, was recommended to me by a stylish, beautiful, accented English-speaking Asian woman in a bookstore in Hanoi, Vietnam. There weren’t a lot of books to choose from, but the price was better than at a Barnes and Noble in the U.S., so I got it, even though it’s not my preferred genre. She said it was “magical,” and she couldn’t put it down.
Learning to Read Magical Realism
Magical it was. It starts off with a the teenage boy, Kafka, the main character, planning to run away from home. There is a character, A Boy Named Crow, who he converses with. We later learn that is his alter-ego. It then takes a completely takes a different tact — when young children on a class trip to the woods lose…
