Beginning "Kafka on the Shore"

There's a certain joy in casually reading and stumbling on a line (maybe a few) that make you pause. Whether it provokes thought or is something you deeply relate to, the experience is like finding an unknown treasure.

With television, I actually appreciate and seek spoilers. For some reason, knowing what is going to happen makes me want to watch more than being in the dark. With books it's the opposite. I avoid spoilers like plague. Why? I'm not completely sure, but it really takes away from the experience.

Going back to the aforementioned love of quotable lines, I've found the type of spoiler I didn't know I needed to avoid. By now it's pretty obvious that I really like Haruki Murakami. Often I like to look at quotes. As an international award winner and overall famous novel, Kafka on the Shore is frequently quoted. The numerous lines were unavoidable. Of course they were good, but then when I found them in the pages of the actual book, the ah-ha feeling of discovery was absent. I would advise not reading a novel’s quotations before you read the story.

That aside, I’m only around 100 pages in, yet Kafka on the Shore  has already proven to be a little different from Murakami’s other works. With the chapters alternating between old Nakata’s story and fifteen-year-old Kafka Tamura’s, it took a little bit of adjustment. Out of Murakami’s other works, I’ve only seen this done in After Dark so far. Not only do the stories change, but the narration styles differ. Kafka’s chapters are told in first person, with Kafka as the narrator, while not only are Nakata’s told in third person, but he also speaks mostly in third person (with cats nonetheless).  In terms of character, Nakata and Kafka seem like each other's foil. Nakata is elderly, living loosely without cognitive intricacy. Due to a freak accident from his childhood, Nakata lives with mental retardation, causing him to think and behave rather childishly. On the other hand, Kafka, who is only fifteen years old, is accelerating through maturity at an alarming pace. He’s completely on his own and even lies about his age. Seeing how Murakami brings these opposites together will certainly be something I'm looking forward to.