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Poorva Parashar asked this question about Kafka on the Shore:
WHY is this book so loved? I mean, I didn't gain anything out of it. I'm not asking this as an insult. I genuinely want to know what the special thing about this book is.
Boy Blue Murakami mesmerises his readers. People who love his books find themselves entranced, unable to look away or think of anything else until they finish …moreMurakami mesmerises his readers. People who love his books find themselves entranced, unable to look away or think of anything else until they finish the book. Each of his novels has a strange atmosphere, something unique to Murakami, it's like a word on the tip of your tongue, a song you can't quite place, or a name that keeps evading you, you can feel it, you can describe it, but you can't name it. In Murakami's novels the ordinary and the extraordinary exist in the same instance and you lose track of which is which.

Kafka on the Shore is also a bildungsroman of a sort you won't have read before. It's not intellectual masturbation, it's a story and nothing gets in the way of telling the story, not reality, nor some reader's desires for explanation or a certain amount of action. The other thing Murakami does is allow you to be more open to the odd and weird things in life and find joy in those. He allows you to find happiness in the ways you are different from others.(less)
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Kafka on the Shore
by Haruki Murakami
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