Read: Kafka on the Shore
This was strange, and brilliant, and utterly captivating from start to finish. Murakami has this way of writing very matter-of-factly about things that are utterly fantastical, and the resultant effect is one where even the most surreal events feel immediate.
This is so many things: a morality play, a bildungsroman, a road book, and an in-depth character study. It glides between all of them effortlessly, telling the story in slivers that feel like gasps for air, always somehow keeping you afloat even when the idea of a tidy resolution seems impossible.
That isn’t to say that there is a tidy resolution - in the last quarter or so, the book shifts from a realist novel with a surreal edge to a surrealist masterwork with ties to the real world, but it doesn’t suffer for it. In a sense, it made me think of the frustration I’ve had with some anime in the past, particularly Miyazaki, where the relative speed at which spiritual or strange conclusions are added in often throws me out of the work; so many new concepts are introduced that it can make keeping up awkward. Here, because it all unfolds at a pace that isn’t dictated by a 90- or 25-minute running time, it all feels more earned, and left me with a sense of wonder rather than narrative frustration.
Definitely a recommendation. I’m moving on to The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle next, and going in excited.