Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, a book review
Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore is one of those novels that seems to shift shape each time a reader revisits it. It is at once a philosophical puzzle, a coming-of-age story, a mythopoetic dreamscape and a meditation on memory, desire and fate. What makes it remarkable is not simply its surreal atmosphere, but its ability to place the reader inside a world where logic and emotion coexist in parallel. Murakami constructs a story that feels both intimate and enigmatic. Through its twin narratives, he examines how individuals carry trauma, interpret destiny, and wrestle with their deepest fears.
At the centre of the novel is fifteen-year-old Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home in an attempt to escape a curse placed on him by his father. Kafka often speaks with an alter ego named Crow, a figure who acts as a voice of reason and instinct. In several moments, Crow reminds Kafka of his emotional wounds, saying, “You were hurt badly, and those scars will be with you forever”.
These brief exchanges underline one of the novel’s most recurrent themes, the inheritance of trauma and the difficulty of outgrowing it.
Running parallel to Kafka’s journey is the story of Nakata, an elderly man who lost his cognitive abilities in a wartime incident and gained the ability to speak with cats. Nakata’s sections often balance the heaviness of Kafka’s emotional introspection with scenes of gentle curiosity, humour and philosophical simplicity. Although he repeatedly calls himself “dumb” and confesses that he “can’t read” and cannot “keep up with” the fast talk of television. Nakata possesses a moral clarity that many fully functioning adults lack. His conversations with cats reveal a world where meaning is not derived from intellectual power, but from empathy, attention and an unusual form of wisdom.
The novel progresses by weaving the surreal with the mundane. Murakami makes the ordinary shimmer, and the supernatural appear routine. This blending is most clearly felt through the unexplainable moments that no one questions, such as fish raining from the sky or a sinister figure named Johnnie Walker harvesting the souls of cats. When Walker tells Nakata that “this world is full of rules” and requests that Nakata kill him, claiming he cannot die by his own hand, the reader is confronted with an ethical moment that is both dramatic and strangely matter-of-fact. The scene is violent, symbolic and deeply unsettling, but Murakami presents it in a tone that mirrors Nakata’s confusion and gentle sincerity.
Themes of Memory, Loss and the Unhealed Past
At its heart, Kafka on the Shore is a novel about memory. Murakami explores how the past shapes individuals and how certain memories endure, gather weight and influence present decisions. Miss Saeki embodies this theme entirely. As a young woman, she composed the song “Kafka on the Shore”, a tune that becomes a kind of emotional anchor in the novel. Oshima describes it as “a melancholy melody… innocent and lovely” that conveys an urgency “not just something on the surface”. The song functions as a poetic refrain throughout the book, binding Kafka to Miss Saeki and binding Miss Saeki to her own past.
Miss Saeki’s life is governed by a profound and irreversible grief. After her lover is murdered during the student uprisings, she disappears from her hometown and never emotionally recovers. Oshima recounts her story with sympathy, explaining how she “locked herself in her room” and eventually vanished, returning many years later as a mysterious, immaculate and distant woman. Her grief becomes a silent presence around her, influencing her interactions and limiting her ability to fully rejoin the living world. Kafka’s feelings toward her reflect both desire and longing, but also the sense that he is drawn toward someone who has already retreated too far into memories to return.
The theme of memory is also explored in Kafka’s interior dialogues. He constantly battles the emotional wound of being abandoned by his mother. Crow observes, “Your mother felt a gut-wrenching kind of fear and anger inside her,” and insists that Kafka must “forgive her” to heal. These lines mirror the novel’s broader idea that understanding the past is essential for personal transformation, although the past itself cannot be reconstructed. The text reminds the reader that “you can never put it back together like it was”, a phrase that resonates throughout Kafka’s emotional journey.
The Nature of Desire and Emotional Intensity
Murakami frequently explores the complicated nature of desire, and in Kafka on the Shore, this exploration becomes particularly layered. Kafka’s longing for Miss Saeki merges emotional yearning with existential confusion. His desire is often overwhelming and confusing, particularly because he senses the symbolic and mythical weight attached to her. At one point, the narrative observes that Kafka feels he is in the middle of something “so tremendous you may never experience it again”. His youth and inexperience intensify this feeling of being caught in a moment larger than he can understand.
Murakami portrays desire not only as physical or romantic, but also as an emotional state tied to the search for belonging. Kafka’s desire for human connection is juxtaposed with the fear of fulfilling the Oedipal prophecy his father has placed upon him. This tension forms the psychological core of the novel, adding complexity to Kafka’s relationships, especially with Miss Saeki and Sakura. Through these interactions, Murakami explores how desire and guilt often become entangled, creating moral paradoxes that young Kafka struggles to comprehend.
Also Read: 20 Must-read Japanese Novels of All Time
Surrealism and the Labyrinth of Consciousness
Readers often describe Murakami’s novels as dreamlike, and this one is among the most dreamlike of all. The narrative shifts between logic and symbolism without warning, creating a space where neither fully dominates. Kafka’s journey through the forest is one of the novel’s most metaphysical moments. As he walks deeper into the woods, “definitions start to get a bit fuzzy” and the world around him becomes a “more challenging labyrinth”. The forest becomes a symbolic space representing inner struggle, transformation and the threshold between the conscious and unconscious worlds.
The soldiers Kafka meets in the forest enhance this symbolism. They seem suspended in time, belonging neither to the past nor the present. Their appearance is not treated as supernatural, but as strangely logical within the dreamlike continuity of the forest. When they tell Kafka that the entrance to the forest might close and that he may be “stuck here” forever if he misses it, the warning operates both literally and metaphorically. Kafka’s presence in the forest represents his confrontation with the deepest fears and desires of his psyche.
The forest also echoes Nakata’s journey. Though Nakata does not enter the same metaphysical space, he too navigates worlds that seem slightly removed from common reality. His intuitive understanding of events hints at a realm beyond logic, suggesting that surreal elements in Murakami’s world occupy a dimension that both Kafka and Nakata access in different ways.
Violence, Innocence and Moral Ambiguity
Violence in the novel is never portrayed as a spectacle. Instead, it enters the story in unsettling ways that force the characters to respond ethically. The brutal account of Miss Saeki’s lover’s death is particularly vivid. He was beaten with pipes and kicked until his “skull was caved in” and “ribs broken”. Murakami does not linger on the violence itself; rather, he focuses on its emotional aftermath. The pointless brutality becomes a defining moment in Miss Saeki’s life, shaping her future and deepening her emotional shadows.
Nakata’s confrontation with Johnnie Walker is similarly disturbing, yet framed through Nakata’s innocent, almost childlike perception. When Walker calmly announces that Nakata must kill him and insists, “I have lived a long, long time” and “I don’t feel like living any long”, the moral burden shifts not to whether killing is right or wrong, but to Nakata’s fear, confusion and sense of responsibility. Murakami utilises these scenes to explore the intersection of innocence and moral ambiguity, prompting the reader to reflect on the nature of right action in a world governed by unseen forces.
Asian Fiction, Global Literature and Murakami’s Place Between Them
Kafka on the Shore occupies a unique space within Asian fiction. It draws from Japanese cultural traditions, particularly Shinto ideas of spirits, the permeability of worlds, and the presence of consciousness in nature. The talking cats, the forest spirits and the metaphysical soldiers echo traditional Japanese storytelling, where the supernatural and the everyday coexist naturally.
At the same time, Murakami’s prose is distinctly global. The novel references Western music, philosophy and literature throughout. Kafka reads The Arabian Nights and discusses Franz Kafka’s stories with Oshima. This blending of Western artistic references with Japanese sensibilities creates a hybrid narrative voice that resonates with readers worldwide. Murakami’s work is recognisably Japanese, yet it transcends national boundaries. He reimagines the universal search for identity, meaning and emotional truth through a distinctly Asian yet globalised literary lens.
What sets Murakami apart is his ability to seamlessly integrate global cultural elements without compromising the emotional integrity of his characters. His storytelling demonstrates that Asian fiction need not be bound by cultural realism. Instead, it can question time, memory and identity through surrealism, intertextuality and emotional depth. Kafka on the Shore exemplifies this artistic freedom and demonstrates why Murakami remains one of the most internationally celebrated contemporary writers.
Conclusion
Kafka on the Shore is a novel that invites re-reading, reflection and slow absorption. Murakami constructs a story that is simultaneously simple and complex, blending the mundane with the mystical and the emotional with the surreal. Its characters carry their wounds with dignity, its symbolic moments inspire curiosity, and its thematic richness encourages readers to question the nature of memory, identity and desire. Through short yet meaningful exchanges like “You can never put it back together like it was,” the novel’s philosophical heart becomes clear.
This remarkable combination of emotional intensity, philosophical inquiry and narrative imagination places Kafka on the Shore firmly on the line between Asian literary tradition and global fiction. It is both rooted in its cultural context and unbound by it, inviting readers from all backgrounds to step into its labyrinth. Murakami offers no easy explanations, but he provides a journey filled with wonder, strangeness and emotional resonance. It remains one of the most memorable works of contemporary world literature, a novel that continues to echo long after the final page is closed.
Get a copy from Amazon India – click here to get one now.
Review by Mukesh for The Last Critic
Thanks for reading!
