Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve been wanting to read this for a long time. It is very engrossing from the get go, so much so, I read 100 pages in a day. It is cleverly written, with two parallel stories told alternately, that inevitably converged, which is something that flummoxed me at first. Each chapter will usually end on a cliff hanger to keep you wanting more, pepper that with dramatic reveals too. The characters are very memorable and complex.

Retrospectively, after reading about Murakami, I wonder about the incident in the library where some SJWs were treated with disdain and outplayed. Although, I found the incident amusing at the time, I wonder if this is the author taking a swipe at feminism. What was the point of Oshima being a woman who lives as a man? Was the sole purpose so that the author could make a jibe? Certain parts did seem overly sexualised, but I’m not complaining, it’s a great read overall. Murakami strikes me as a Japanese Stephen King, I wonder if like King his novels merge into one or are unique enough to stand the test of time.

Police are just gangsters employed by the state.

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