All Intensive Purposes

I've been on quite the Murakami kick lately, spurred initially by his new book, Kafka On The Shore. I don't know why I picked Hard-Boiled Wonderland to read next, since it's one of his earlier books, but in retrospect the comparison with Kafka is an interesting one. The two books have parallel structures, with alternating chapters relating two strands of the plot, which come together by the end of each book. Both books find some allure in a retreat from the world to an abstract mental dimension, superficially like ours, promising an escape from many of the quotidian problems of life, but ultimately sterile. Although the reviews of Kafka all suggest that Murakami has topped himself with his most recent book, this begins to sound to me like obligatory puffery -- I prefer Hard-Boiled Wonderland. Kafka's protagonist -- Kafka -- is a 15-year-old boy, but his voice struck me as mature beyond those years, and suspending disbelief in his persona and situation was harder for me than it was with Wonderland.