C hen I agree to an author for the first time with something I'll always prevention. One enters into a narrative universe stranger, in a style which does not have references, especially if the work is read is not the first who writes or publishes the author. Before that, the reason for choosing the book tends to be a critique or an opinion viewed primarily in the cultural press. This, I do often, is perhaps the most risky in my life borne floor done, without the dangerous journeys by car, despite control violations, are a major cause of death in Spain. Haruki Murakami is the last of these new acquisitions, and Kafka on the shore the first book I read. And yet, after numerous pages eagerly devoured, I'm not sure what to make of the novel. You may have been more stunned than anything else, because in fact the novel contains some power absorbing and intriguing. Its development through two parallel arguments come together in a way to end it is not original or special. Are the characters, situations, inner dialogues of the main characters so that baffle the inexperienced reader. One can not help wondering what these two have in common as different characters, a boy of fifteen who leaves the home she shares with her father, and a kind of ancioano delayed, mentally disabled with strange powers of communication with the cats. The chapters of adolescent develop in first person, and the elderly in third.
As we move into the novel, are inserted documents, reports, U.S. Army occupation, about a strange incident that took place during the second world war. From the beginning, because we assume that this event, and the information provided by the documents, will be the meeting point of two wires. And if the magic, or unexplained phenomena, we can assume in the minds of the disabled, we will see are slowly invading the reality is, other characters are splashed all suspected of having psychiatric problems. As the young man flees his hometown, seeking refuge, work and friendship, there are other characters that will close the argument, but so broadly that virtually the end is open, suggested, and each reader will draw his own conclusion on the interpretation of the final events and their relation to the two stories. The narrative voices are lost, the first and third person are mixed and confused, and even characters appear "concept" that come to make it clear that they are a metaphor, a construct that the author did not wish to reveal. And to pretend that we understand, but providing little clues.
The book, originally published in Japanese in 2002, opened so many unknowns and expectations that the publisher and the author opened a website where readers could comment freely on the novel and its meaning. Received more than 8000 questions about the book, which said about 1800. Murakami has recommended you read the book several times to fully understand its meaning, hidden in a metaphor, or rather, a collection of riddles. Murakami's literature has been classified as great, although I personally do not believe so. It is the Japanese version of English-American magical realism, but with a significance behind this fantasy, where things do not just happen, but do it with a hidden reason we have to disclose, envision or imagine.
So this book is about many things at once, in a symphony of issues that sometimes reaches dizzy. A discordant symphony, which is the power of music to change people, Shinto, the consequences of World War II in Japan today, the pursuit of self teen, fate, the concept of the Oedipus tragedy, the impact of pop culture and commercial icons and media .. . Murakami it does not want to hear about symbolism, not about that, but with metaphors and similes. The character who gives the title to the book, Kafka Kamura, linking us to the European culture and one of Murakami's favorite authors. The music of Beethoven, particularly the quartet of the Archduke, seems to have an important role in solving the puzzles, of which they themselves form part of its resolution.
Despite all this mess and the suspense theme that produces know how they will relate the most dramatic events of the book, the feeling after having read a work is very well spun and constructed, where nothing is left to random. And the effect is strong and powerful novel, which leaves a nice feeling after having finished. But one would suspect that Murakami, Japanese consumers considered by some writers as "pop author" may be doing these buildings by snobbery, by pointing to the culture of new-age transcendent, sensual and oriental.
it not because there are elements that remind me too the holistic and spiritualist jargon late twentieth century would be an original and imaginative work. For example, I recently read that one of the characteristics of its literature is that readers find in his books always someone to identify. Personally not my case, but I understand that spreading the novel of individuals lost that go in search of something, or are waiting for something, and feel all special, different or cursed by a prophecy, there are readers who are identified with them. In this novel there is even a character of sex and sexuality unclear. Nice story this identification, we will have more time to expose another entry in this blog, but maybe it's a tone a bit tricky in parts.
Murakami surprised readers of an earlier novel of great success, N orwegian wood, in this magical and esoteric books. Norwegian wood is their only realistic novel, and perhaps due to the disordered timing of publication of his books in the West, it is difficult to reconstruct his literary world. Gradually his works are published in English, and we can see if your travel narrative has a less metaphorical than his novels. For now, it has aroused my curiosity and I have purchased Sputnik, my love. Do not tell me that the title is intriguing ...
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