Oedipus and Rainman

1/4: 6.75

I give the first part the average of scores for the two storylines introduced so far: the primary storyline following the titular Kafka being the less enjoyable of the two (so far), and the redacted interviews regarding the Rice Bowl incident which rendered the boy, Nataka, mentally retarded but able to communicate with animals.

Do enjoy – disparate story lines that seem so unrelated, keeps the “primary” storyline about Kafka fresh by giving us a break from the brain of a 15 year old boy. Don’t enjoy – the overly freudian & oedipal mind of the 15 year old protagonist. So far, both of the women he’s bumped into on his search for his mother and sister – he’s been sexually attracted to and then immediately projected sisterly/motherly feelings towards. More “oh no baby-brother-lookalike-who-I-just-met-on-the-train, your penis is so hard but I’m a loyal girlfriend to my conveniently-absent boyfriend – let me take care of that for you,” that I could do without. The only criticism of Murakami I was aware of before going into this book was his portrayal of women being less-than-multidimensional, and I concur.

A notable dialogue regarding the intellectual stimulation of intentional artistic imperfection is really insightful. But the continued philosophizing of Oshima about the Yeats about “in dreams begins responsibility” being used to imply the converse: “in the absence of imagination, there is no responsibility”, therefore: “Adolf Eichmann couldn’t be held responsible for architecting the holocaust since his environment allowed no creativity” is craaaaazy Nazi apologeticism (I’m being a bit reductive, but not by much). This line of reasoning is compounded by cropping up in Kafka’s waking moments as he pre-grieves inevitable wet dreams about his mother and sister, for “in dreams [where he cannot fend off his own imagination] begins responsibility”.

2/4: avg(6, 6.75)

Kafka begins to work at the library that he was camping out in ad befriends Oshima. He falls in love with the owner of the library, Miss Saeki, who is maybe his mother (all the women of note are ambiguously, possibly his mother or sister). Oshima spouts off about Greek classics until hitting home with the actual tragedy of Oedipus, making the parallels overt now. Oshima performs a Leninist takedown of a couple of TERFs who show up at the library and starts criticizing their lack of women’s restrooms. They throw “the patriarchy” at him in a very strawman’d argument, and Oshima reveals that he is in fact a biological woman who identifies as a man, has gay sex with men, but is –in fact– a woman. Checkmate women? I guess? It’s also revealed that Miss Saeki has a tragic past as a one-hit wonder “Kafka on the Shore” that compounds Kafka’s sexual confusion.

Nataka goes off looking for a specific cat, meets a man called Johnnie Walker who has been killing and eating cats to suck out their souls or something abjectly horrible. He seeks suicide-by-Nataka by slaughtering several and eating them in front of Nataka. Nataka obliges him, wakes up later with no recollection of the murder. He reports himself to the police (who don’t believe him), and before departing the station, he forecasts a plague like hail of leeches (further reinforcing his insanity) until lo and behold it rains a thousand leeches and the cop gets terrified for not taking Nataka seriously. It is revealed that ‘Johnnie Walker’ was Kafka’s father, a famous sculptor (who, incidentally, informed Kafka of his oedipal fate when he was in middle school, hence the prior weird fixation on all the women he encounters – thus it is explained, but not excused). He learns of his father’s death on the news and wonders if he might be the murderer (from his episode of waking up outside the shrine covered in blood with no memory of what happened). Nataka makes his way to another Japanese city, hitchhiking his way along – he can no longer speak with animals, but has acquired a prescient ability for chiropracty.

3/4: avg(5, 6)

Nataka sleeps with Miss Saeki – he’s in love with her 15 year old inner self. “‘I’m Kafka on the shore, your lover, and your son.’ That night, you make love again.” Idek what is going on with the revelation that Crow is Kafka, he starts addressing himself in the 2nd person. They have lots of sex.

Hoshino, the trucker who was helping Nataka hitchhike and has back problems that Nataka helps him with, runs into Colonel Sanders who takes him to the shrine to meet a hooker??? He leaves with the entrance stone that Nataka said he needed. They open a portal to an alternate dimension or something. Hoshino continues to be contacted by Colonel Sanders while Nataka hibernates somemore.

Scores dropping because I’m actively disliking the Kafka arc, and the Nataka arc is going off the deep end into alternate realities for no reason, the two stories have yet to become meaningfully intertwined which is dragging the whole story.

4/4: Avg(4, 5)

Kafka rapes Sakura in a shared dream.

Nataka opens ~the entrance~ using the stone that Hoshino stole from the Shrine at the command of Colonel Sanders. Then Hoshino and Nataka venture to Miss Saeki’s bookshop. Nataka comes and tells her in his simple manner what he’s done, she gives him her biography to burn (she opened the entrance once upon a time and her life has been very trying ever since). She dies promptly after dispatching Nataka to destroy the story of her life. Oshima finds her and is glad that she found peace. Nataka and Hoshino burn the files, and then Nataka dies (peacefully) as well. Hoshino is left to close the entrance.

Before Nataka arrives at Miss Saeki’s bookshop, Oshima had taken him up to the cabin in the woods. Kafka is the thirstiest boy of all time – he’s always gulping and drinking so much water or milk. He walks in the woods and finds two WWII Japanese deserters who beckon him to the entrance where he eagerly crosses over to ditch his cursed life. He finds young Miss Saeki who takes care of him. This ~other world is some sort of purgatory – Kafka takes the form of a crow and finds Johnnie Walker who explains his plans to construct a flute out of human souls whose morality is not up to them. He explains that he’s there because he welcomed death, and that –in this place– there’s nothing Crow can do to hurt him. The Crow tries anyways and gouges out his tongue and eyeballs.

Young Miss Saeki tells Kafka that he must go back (well dang, he just got here) and he does. Hoshino is instructed by a cat to kill “the thing (you’ll know it when you see it)” that’s trying to get into the entrance. He manages to close the entrance and the thing (a white worm) loses its power.

I think there’s a possibility of a “Dark” kinda thing going on here where Kafka goes back in time via the entrance, fathers himself, and then becomes Nataka while also forking time to become Johnnie Walker. It’s less straightforward than that and probably has to do with the “halves” of everyone: Nataka being half-shadow, half-spiritual cat talker; Johnnie Walker being half dad, half evil, etc. but I don’t care enough to piece together this theory.

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