Beware the spoilers!
Recently I have decided to challenge myself by reading authors who I find overpraised.
I was shocked by the wonderful writing style and insightful look of human nature by Khaled Hosseini. I laughed and cried a little with "A man called Uwe".
Next stop was a book by Haruki Murakami because recently I have met many and many good reviews about his books.
I was sure I would keep the good score with Haruki Murakami. Unfortunately, I never knew how wrong I was.
I picked up this book from the library's shelf out of curiosity and the interesting title that grabbed my full attention (not that I have ever read anything by Kafka). I didn't know what to expect. But i never could expected this...
Somewhere after the first 50 pages I was asking myself: "Are the three plot stories going to be tied up together and what could possibly happen?" Although the narrative was a little boring and at many times unnecessarily detailed, I was hooked. But that was for a very short time because just suddenly everything started to become weirder and weirder.
The connected dream of Kafka with his alleged sister is one of the lamest "sex scenes" one has ever witnessed. It goes like this" No, don't. -"I cant stop, sorry". -"Ok, I understand, but you should know I don't like it"... And this continues for some time. Not that there could ever be a good rape scene, but instead of making you feel uncomfortable, angry, sad or whatever, it's just... slow and calm and makes you question your feelings.
Not to mention the few same scenes with his alleged mother... Yes, one can look and find a deeper meaning and symbolism but you'll need to put a lot of effort.
A book should not be like a schoolbook, where the teacher asks you: "What did the author mean?" and then you would need an hour to come up with something. Or if you do, it's wrong... If you can't understand the author and his ideas, why even bother to write so complicated?
I will honestly admit that I didn't get the whole forest action at the end. I supposed what it probably should mean but... I didn't care anymore. I found it was really hard to understand, to analyze, to find some deep hidden meaning both spiritual or mythological. (After I finished the book, I had to google for an explanation of what I just read).
Unfortunately, there wasn't a common theory that could have helped me. Every person's defiance was different and hypothetical what could this or that be. Which surprised me because even the big classics from Dickens, Dostojewski and others have some basic ideas and arguments on which readers agree or disagree. But not this book. Here every separate action/scene has like 5-6 different ideas. I find that a little disturbing because either the writer didn't present his ideas and meanings clearly or the readers didn't get the book.
I'll give you a quick review (of course not in details) of what happens and how I saw everything.
- A boy, whose mother and sister leave him at a very early age, decides to run away(nothing new or special)
- Still a teenager, he manages to travel alone and pay for hotels all by himself
- On the way, in a bus, he meets a girl and decides that she's his sister... Despite looking at her bare skin when she puts her head on his shoulder and tries to look further under her T-shirt."
- Decides to stay in a small town, far away from home. Loves to read and visits the library
- there he meets a man at the front desk/the librarian, who later turns out to be a girl, but with other bodyparts... - The head librarian could be his mother, he wonders the same thing about almost every other woman he sees
- She comes to his room/dream as a 15-year-old girl, then as a grown up and makes love to him
- During the WWII a strange thing happens, in the woods with the kids, one of them doesn't wake up
- Later he's able to talk to cats
- He gets to know about the "cat-hunter"
- A big dog leads him to this man's house, where he finds out hat his name is Johnny Walker, he's even dressed like him (why God , why??)
- Cat heads in the fridge, brutal description of cat murder... Again why, who needs that??
- Thankfully Kafka kills him but it turns out that he doesn't remember. Kafka did it, in his sleep but through the cat-talker
- Now the police is searching for him, as an only relative to the dead. Yep, Johnny is Kafak's father...
- The cat-talker receives information about where to travel and what to do... From somewhere, somehow. He'll know when he's there and when he sees it(no idea what is the point here)
- Finally Kafka and his companion (a truck driver who left everything for him) find the library and Miss Saeki, who's been waiting for this meeting to... hold on... kill herself( oh, almost forgot:there is this mystery where she's been done for 15 years, then reappeared in this town to die... But she decided to wait and meet this guy). At this point Kafka is in the cabin in the woods doing... I literally have no idea what
- The cat-talker dies, but I don't want to spoil it for you and I don't think I can describe what happened (it was really creepy)
- oh, and there is an opening stone, to another world/dimension which the driver finds,! BUT! only thanks to Col. Sanders. But it's not easy. Before showing him where to find it, he must have sex with Colonel's best girl. A whole chapter about the lucky 3 times (why was that necessary?)
- I won't give away what exactly happens to Kafka and the others at the end because everybody deserves his end of the story.
If you have any suggestions, recommendations or ideas, please share. Probably I have to give Mr. Murakami another chance or is Kafka a good example of his work and writing style?