Book Review: Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami is one of those authors whose writing completely alters your viewpoint on certain topics. He typically employs magical realism into his style, writing grounded stories with great characters, but with a hint that there are other forces at play not always apparent to the reader or clear by the end of the story. He’s been writing seemingly forever, but produces novels somewhat rarely. Also, the length of his books varies widely, which I can appreciate. Murakami tells the story that’s there; he doesn’t keep expanding a novel for the sake of it. Likewise, sometimes he produces a massive tome, like 1Q84. Kafka on the Shore never felt like a burden to read from a length or prose perspective, but it’s the story and characters that made it so.