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Kafka On The Shore (Book Review)



“Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction, but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn.
              why? 
  Because this storm isn't something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you.

Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn't get in, and walk through it, step by step. 

There's no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That's the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine".

His name is not Kafka, but when he set out on a quest for aimless , inexact destination , he gave himself this nickname that fits better to his character. He flees his home; the absolute reason is not known, however on digging deeper it was found out that he ran away to escape  gruesome oedipal prophecy his father made about him or to find his long missing sister and mother , with Whom he had no distinct memory, but the mere picture is the needed proof of their existence for a brief period in his life.

The story is a complete bizarre. Kafka’s story doesn’t portray a coherent picture to dwindling life he is living. The upshot here is live life as it comes. And live in the present moment. But there is gloom attached to his life that he finds it difficult to come out of the murk he has created around him, he is trapped and nothing seem to soothe  the pain he is bearing since childhood. 

he misses his mother, her motherly love that he never experienced, he misses his sister that never played with him.

Escaping is the way out. Who he was escaping from?, when the dark omnipresent pool of pain and loath is inside him.

Which is always there, hidden somewhere, but when the time comes it silently rushes out, in every cell in his body.

will he be able to calm the mammoth of  unchecked emotions he is carrying ?

you will discover it yourself in story .

There are some bizarre instances with no connection to the main plot of the story .

Like fish and leeches raining from the sky 

16 children felt unconscious amid war between The USA and Japan, ( nothing recalled in the subsequent chapters)

Talking cats, superfluous characters; two ladies visiting library, character of Sakura, Hoshima, Johnny Walker. 

But this fat 615 pages long book has a calibre that drew me towards it to drag it til the end .Else I would have tossed it after reading 100 pages. But I didn’t. There are that occurances you experience in life which you can’t tell anybody or can't put in words, and when you discover it in books or movies , that book and the characters become part of your psychological world . To sum it up, I would say it’s a book on metaphysical reality. 

The book is not for beginners 

If you are someone who is philosophical, who takes a brief pause to process things, enjoy a whiff of coffee before sipping into it, revere woods, believe there is something more supreme than our understanding. Then you must pick this book.

My rating for this book is 3.5/5

Happy Reading…

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