kafka on the shore by haruki murasaki

I just finished reading Haruki Murasaki's Kafka on the Shore. It was a long book but not once did the story's pace feel slow. Murasaki's stylistic prose blew me away. The piece is incredibly dense. The creativity and imagination portrayed is really way beyond anything I've ever read, however the fantastical element was never discouraging. There are so many allusions to so many different things, I feel like I've learned so much more from reading this fiction book than from any non fiction text. I've read English literature from Chinese and Korean authors, but this was my first taste of a Japanese author's work and I loved the cultural insights that I gained from this book. Apart from being a window to the contemporary and traditional culture as well as the history of Japan, the book is a magical journey through philosphical questions, oedipal/incestuous overtones, social conflicts, contemplations on art, love, and life, and so much more. The intimacies of friendship, erotic wet dreams of a teenage boy, the human condition of loneliness.... But you wouldn't know the complexities of the book because of Murasaki's effortless writing. Reading this was like waking up, still captivated by a vivid dream.

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