Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami

OK - lets start with the positive - this is quite an easy read - I managed to finish it in just over a week. It also seems to be a reasonable translation - fairly free rather than literal, and only the occasional strange use of words. Now I come to the negatives - and I wonder if I have a difficulty with Japanese culture - perhaps these kinds of story are common in that country. I had trouble working out whether this is a fantasy, soft porn, crime thriller, suspense, horror, some kind of spiritual, mystical musing, or a study in psychosis. What is the plot? Well here I had trouble getting to grips with the story line. The central character 'Kafka' (a 15 year old) seems to live in a world of his own - is hearing voices, or having conversations with an imaginary friend. He runs away from home and then has a series of 'incidents' involving a quest to find his mother and sister, a visit to a strange library, several sexual encounters, a flying saucer. an old man who talks to cats, a journey into a secret land in the woods, a mystical entrance stone, some obviously hallucinatory experiences. I found some of the scenes unpleasant, others irritating, and yet more totally silly. Another week of my life I'll never get back.... Rating 5/10