Like all excuses, I've been spending my time spent wisely elsewhere: either watching Naruto (while knitting washcloths) on the computer or reading through books as quickly as I go through water. I feel like I'm 12 again, when summer = staying inside where it's cool and reading, not moving for hours except for the occasional subconscious reach for the Nalgene full of cold H2O or iced coffee.
The book-before-last I finished has me wanting to continue with the author’s full portfolio. I regret to say that I came into Murakami late – I had read Sputnik Sweetheart a few years ago, and don’t remember getting into the book that much. Obviously, the book itself didn’t stick in my memory to this day, but that’s probably because my young mind couldn’t wrap itself around the genius that is Murakami. I bought Kafka on the Shore after a woman in my bookclub recommended it back in February, and looked forward to reading it, since I had really enjoyed The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I read it over 6 days – during breaks at home (from freelance work), before bed, and whenever the time made itself available.
The book is amazing, and I truly feel that it’s the best book I’ve read in probably the past 4 years. I guess I’ve always been into strange stories – my favorite book to this day is The Plague by Albert Camus, and the similarly existential but enlightening storylines fill my heart with wonder and love. Murakami’s story of a boy on a mission and things that happen to those around him entrances the senses and makes the reader hungry for more. Murakami says that to him, “…writing a novel is like having a dream.†This novel is dream-like, but with enough centered reality to keep focus. The shifting lines of concentration within the first 2/3rds of the book kept me reading hungrily, wanting to know how all of the different data given ended up at the end – how everything melded together. And meld together everything did – the end was sublime, paced perfectly with all of the characters' fates coming to perfect closures.
At this point, Murakami is certainly in my top-5 list of authors, dead or alive, on this planet.
Thank you to all that donated to Matt’s fundraising efforts. I’ll let everyone know about the results of the drawing by the end of the month. As for me, I’m heading off to spend Memorial Day weekend in Montana with my husband and his never-before-met-by-me father. There will definitely be tons of photos to share when I get back. Wish me luck on our 12-hour (one-way by car) journey!
