Man, this book leaves you with a lot of questions. It gets into such strange depths though that it's no surprise that you're not much wiser at the ending. The book alternates every chapter between the two main characters, Kafka Tamura and Mr. Nakata. Kafka runs away from home and father, without much sense of direction, eventually he ends up at some fancy library. Weird shit happens on the way and weird shit happens there. Amongst others, he meets two females who might or might not be his long lost sister and mother. Knowing that his father predicted he would kill him and fuck his sister and mother, like a true Oedipus, fun is guaranteed. Mr. Nakata is an old man who lost much of his intellect when he fell into a coma on a little school trip where 14 little children fell unconscious, him being the only one not to wake up after an hour or two. He turns into some kind of loveable simple old man, who refers to himself in the third person and can speak to cats... and stones. Oh and he can make it rain fish ... and leeches! He sets out on a quest to do something he doesn't quite understand himself. He finds himself a nice companion, a Mr. Hoshino. These two are really a superb duo if I ever encountered one.
I really enjoyed reading both stories with great enthusiasm, up until Kafka gets obsessed with that ghost girl of his, who may or may not be mother, who also becomes his lover. It's still pretty good, but it gets so confusing that I secretly longed for the next chapter with Nakata and Hoshino. They possibly get into even weirder stuff, but it has more of a quirky quality to it. I'm a bit disappointed by the last bit of Kafka's story, as it couldn't enthrall me as much as it could the first 400 pages or so. But I can still say I really liked it as a whole.
Nakata and Kafka are obviously linked, the stories interrelate very much but it's hard to get a clear cut view on the exact answers. I suppose this one needs a couple more reads before I'll even begin to understand it, although I've read some interesting theories online already. It's a very enjoyable read though and I can warmly recommend it if you don't mind going into an odd world and coming out having to figure most of it out for yourself.
4.5