Searching for the heart of Kafka on the Shore,I see now, was lost the point. Instead I’ve fallen head over heels for his book on runningI was wrong about Murakami. I underestimated him, or misunderstood him and failed to attain him justice. I went into the maze of Kafka on the Shore expecting to find something hidden in the centre – and then grew annoyed when there was no real middle,just a winding path to a different exit. And because I was so intent on looking for something that wasn’t there, I couldn’t properly appreciate the beautiful topiary, and the cleverness of the paths and the various acts of misdirection. I know that now. A week or so after my initial reading,and after a series of fascinating threads here on the Reading group, I realise that even whether I couldn’t find that dense centre of the novel, or there are all kinds of other interesting layers to savor. As Reading group contributor TheOrbys place it: “I am getting something of a feeling that petal by petal Murakami’s book is opening up a bit. There is more method and interacting layers than I’d thought,or been able to decipher by myself.” Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com