KAFKA ON THE SHORE.... A review

What if an old, similarly odd and sickly man walks up to you and confesses murder and to top the oddity he tells you to watch out, for it would rain fishes outside. What if you are a cop? Would you take him in? You would not. You will let him go. What if you realize that it is all true; there has been a gruesome murder in the neighborhood and it does rain fishes.

Kafka on the shore is one such novel packed with surreal happenings till the end. The novel begins with a 15-year-old, Kafka leaving his home to never come back and is followed by his father’s dark prophecy. The novel chases Kafka in the journey of his to escape his father’s prophecy and also the weakly old man Nakata who has this ability to talk to cats is a finder of strayed household felines. In Nakata’s one such search meets Johny Walker who kills cats and traps their souls to make a flute. It is in this very meeting that he forces Nakata to kill him.

The narrative of this 436 page novel is dream-like leaving the reader wonder as to what would happen next. Simply unputdownable. Kafka labors under the weight of an omen laid upon him by his father, a renown Tokyo sculptor who tells Kafka that he is destined to murder his father and sleep with his mother and sister. All this does happen but in such a way that leaves the reader gasping for air and still not being critical and judgmental about the unfolding of surreal oddity in every page.

If you want to start with something that charges your subconscious and leads you to a place so surreal along with a novel that is mobbed with adventure, mystery and love, you should give this Japanese writer, whose works have been described as 'easily accessible, yet profoundly complex', and his novels a shot.

If you are looking for something that would take a strong hold on you and get you out of reality. If you want to read something that would just make time stop and you beyond time then I would suggest look no further than this book.

ONE LINE VERDICT: This book would stay with me and so would the characters. Must Read!

The hallucinogenic flat in the opposite building

For once we thought it was a laptop screen but the heads watching over the screen did not move. For probably thirty minutes they just did not move. We got more curious. Curiosity did kill many people but maybe caution wasn't there friend. We were assured of such honest to god friendship from it’s end. However we are not gloating on that. My husband gave up on stressing at what exactly was happening in that flat opposite to mine. I did not give up cause I knew there was something about that flat that was more intriguing. And I loved how they have this green Marijuana wallpaper in their balcony.

Before I would start, I would like to apologize to the three young men who own that flat and assure them that nothing unwanted has been looked into while I looked into your flat every now and then and I have no intentions of stalking anyone. And now to the readers I would excuse myself from being called as a crooked neighbor who loves to have her gander, on the sly watching inside rooms.

But, yes, I must say I am intrigued to an extent that I want to literally enter that unknown flat facing my flat in the building next to mine. Everything about the flat is so wondrously psychedelic.

For evenings as for tube lights they have this purple haze sort of light all across the room. They take their positions in front of that very lap top and the same statue like concentration on the screen and for that very same amount of time. They look at the screen and sometimes over these shiny green beer cans maybe Heineken or over smoke. From a distance it looks hallucinatory. Wish I could just click them.  Have never been able to see any of the guys’ face.

Strangest thing is I have never seen them in the morning only that very time around eight. Sometimes there is no one around only smoke fog from the table or sometimes it is just that huge flat screen next to the door.

I wonder are these guys a different breed altogether or just the regular guys, maybe they are different. As I look at them I do wonder what they think of are they just like the 100 others around them or do they view life in that very purple light?

The look of the room does suggest that there take on life is way different from the common guys. They love to read even if it is over the internet.

Stranger still are the bed-sheets that the maid hangs out every morning. The sheets have this alien spaceships on them and one has these big leaves on it. Everything is so godamn different from the usual. Phew! That whole flat reeks of psychedelia.

The other day I saw their maid dry their clothes every thing hanging on that string was so out of the ordinary. The towel, their boxers, and a few other stuff everything was sap green in color just like the Marijuana color. I wondered it would be so great to meet such people. Meet them over those dense conversations, stare at the very screen motionless just like them.

I wonder about their maid for an instant and think that does she know how different her this set of masters are? Does it even cross her mind?

Maybe they just dig Floyd, Deep Purple,  Beatles, Mamas and Papas, Jimmi Hendrix, Jethro Tull and maybe they love to read absurd books.

Whatever they do, they are definitely a bunch of psychotropic people one can only meet in their dreams.

March 8, 2013 ( A day after I wrote the above post)

It was 5:30 pm yesterday. I came out of my Kitchen to our balcony and guess what! I see one of them having tea or whatever in a cup. He has a cup green in color exactly similar to my cup. He did look at me. Sigh! He looked so perfectly normal just like any other guy. Anyway one of the psychedel has revealed himself. :)