Kafka on the Shore : Book Review

We are a quarter of the way through the year and I have managed to read book one of the thirteen books I have chosen for my reading this year. I'm not sure how likely it is that I will be reading the other twelve in the remaining nine months, but that I enjoy reading them is the main thing. Here is my review for my first read of the year.

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

This book is mostly about the growing pains of a fifteen year old boy, Kafka Tamura, as he runs away from home, in a vague attempt to grow up and find himself. The book features quite a bit of death, sex and violence, but also a library, poetic visions, music and art, as we follow Kafka's journey towards manhood as well as the poignant journey of a strange old man called Nakata, who can talk to cats and knows a lot of weird stuff, even though he's quite backward and childlike. This is the first fiction book I have read for over a year, it didn't disappoint; it was mostly sheer escapism.