There are lots of open ends in the novel.. Like in our lives..But normally that does not appeal a general reader. So how does it work in this case?

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10 years ago
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Jeanne I didn't see the book as open ended at all. The plot is this: Miss Seiki opened the portal to the other dimension because she wanted to be 15 with her lover forever. This created a time paradox. Her lover was killed, but her 15 year old self continued to live as a ghost as her other self grew older. As a consequence of her paradox (and maybe having violated a shrine), everything she touched became tainted. Her husband who she met when studying lightning strikes, was made evil and powerful by her touch or aura or whatever. He cursed their son to an Oedipal quest to sleep with his mother and his adopted sister. The mother took the sister (perhaps to protect her from the curse). At the same time as the mother opened the portal, a supernatural event occurred to bring about the closing of the portal and solve the time continuum paradoxes. Nagata was put in a coma to erase his self and make him the instrument of that fate. So Kafka grows up, runs away (like Oedipus) and fulfills his curse (even if only in a dream with the sister). Nagata with Hoshino find the stone. Meanwhile the evil father is building a flute with the souls of cats. One assumes that since there are a number of references to Eichmann's ritualistic extermination of the Jews, that the ritualistic murder of the cats is on the same order -- that the soul flute will be used to control mankind presumably for similar ends. Pure evil, in effect. So after Kafka says goodbye to both his moms -- 15 year old and adult -- the portal is closed by Hoshino squishing the evil black gloopy soul flute bearing spirit of the father. AND THEN IT ENDS. Hoshino, like Nagata, can talk to cats and will presumably roam the earth. Kafka is going back to school to become the real person he would have been if he hadn't had a curse laid on him. Why do you say it doesn't end? It ends right there. There is nothing more to say in the story. All the plot elements are tied up neatly. End of story.

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Aimee Ault I think Kafka's interaction with Miss Saeki regarding his "functioning hypothesis" about her answers this pretty well. Basically, Murakami is a master of giving us a lot of evidence without the answers, often to the point where we end up feeling completely content with where we end up even if we don't know for sure how things might have turned out. Until we have counter-evidence, how we feel is often enough.

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Gary Barnett I do not believe that there is a "general" reader, so his book should not be expected to "work" in every reader's case. Sensibility is key as opposed to having questions answered. Murakami might say it is your need for closing open ends (you answered your own question: "Like in our lives" that is an accurate response to your post...

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