Why Murakami is Timeless
“What did it mean for a person to be free? She would often ask herself. Even if you managed to escape from one cage, weren’t you just in another larger one?” - 1Q84, Haruki Murakami
Murakami has often been referred to as a literary genius. But what is it that makes his books so fascinating, that you can’t help but turn the page? What is it that makes his books a must-read for countless generations?
What made Murakami so unique are his complex protagonists with almost infinite layers to unravel. In most of his books, the main character faces dilemmas that have blurred lines between right and wrong. The situations are never very grave like saving the world, it’s about rescuing one over another. In Kafka on the Shore, it is between sea and land – the consciousness and unconsciousness. Kafka sits in a chair by the shore as he chooses between the two realms, wishing for an in-between. This grey area is frequently used in Murakami’s books, instead of the extremes that are black and white.
As Kafka debates between the two realms, its effect is so overwhelming that time ceases to exist. He is free of society’s chains and any other external influence, on a deserted island. The breaking of society’s shackles is another major speciality of Murakami’s.
Born in 1949 in Kyoto, Murakami’s upbringing was strongly affected by the American occupation of Japan. As a result, his books often have biological attacks, shady conspiracies, and military ghosts. Murakami’s work has therefore struck people as too surreal and wild. At the start, the plot seems chaotic, and the more you read the more intertwined it appears to be. The subplots are seemingly stray roads that will eventually reach the same destination. At the end of Murakami’s books, the protagonist’s mind echoes, “the more you read, the more you find.”
What makes Murakami timeless, is how he blurs historical periods as he draws from multiple cultures. Using references and characters, he bends the line between fiction and reality. He is considered a master of magic realism – writing that doesn’t find a solution but adds another problem to the protagonist’s endless list. This leaves us in awe of the human spirit’s capability to deal with the unexpected. These books help the reader to escape, to grow, and to surrender themselves.