"Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami

One of the last Murakami's books, it is also one of the more experimental ones.  Though "The Wind-up Bird Chronicles" has plenty of riddles and points left for the reader to figure them out, in "Kafka on the Shore" one feels that this kind of structure is taken to the next level where it forms the basis of the entire book.  It is a story of Kafka Tamura and Satoru Nogata, two lines of narrative that intertwine and depend on each other without the two characters ever actually physically meeting.  Murakami has mixed some US army reports from the occupation period of Japan about mysterious occurrences which have to do with the story, but also to remind the Japanese reader about that psychologically painful period in Japanese history which some contemporaries refuse to believe it ever happened, as does one of the characters in the book.

The first 300 pages seem to talk about unconnected events and some parts are so meticulous in details (like Kafka washing himself, pointing to every body part as he goes over it) that to the the Western reader, used to instant-everything and "jumprightintotheaction" narratives it might be unnerving, but, in classical Murakami style, everything comes together in the last 100 pages in a brilliant and fascinating way.  One of the main story lines is the Oedipal myth, where the 15 year old Kafka Tamura has sex with a woman who could (and yet, also does not have to) be his mother.  He also has sexual encounters with a much younger woman, Sakura, who could be his sister, but yet, does not have to.  There are strong sexual descriptions, typical for Murakami, who wants to shake up the Japanese conservative establishment.

The second main theme is the connection of the human with the spiritual or otherworldly, drawn mostly from Shinto worldview of spirits, both in woods and in cities, and gateways through to the other world hidden in special stones, forest clearings and deep woods guarded by entities which are more concepts than anything else.  This view is contrasted by the everyday reality of boring jobs, city lives that go nowhere, and work/life routine that kills the spirit of the human being, one atom at a time.  However, "Kafka on the Shore" is also an uplifting book, hinting at ways of finding oneself in the modern world as well, as long as one stays true and close  to certain symbols and meanings that make the difference between and empty, routine life, and life filled with meaning and excitement.