Kafka on the Shore

After reading and enjoying Haruki Murakami’s A Wild Sheep Chase and Norwegian Wood, I was disappointed in his 2002 novel, Kafka on the Shore (海辺のカフカ). Parts stand out visually or amuse or offer some insight. All in all, though, it felt unnecessarily long and disorienting, and some of the dominant themes seemed adolescent, while the magic realism went too far for my taste. I like Murakami and look forward to reading his other work, but I wish I’d given this one a pass or read it some other time I might’ve gotten more out of it.