norweigan would

When I pick up any book by Haruki Murakami, I have a reasonably good idea of what I'll find inside: an antisocial male hero who expresses himself in monosyllabic words, a hooker-with-a-heart-of-goldish young woman (who may or may not be an actual hooker), another woman whose calm surface usually hides great inner torment, allusions to Japan's troubled past, and sex scenes. Lots of sex scenes. It would be ridiculous to call Murakami's novels predictable, filled as they are with wild metaphysical happenings, but it's hard not to wish that he would find a new schtick.*

Kafka on the Shore is, arugably, Murakami's most ambitious novel, surpassing even The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. The usual suspects are all there, but they seem to be more fleshed out than they usually appear and are joined by a host of other characters. Murakami has the sense to pull some focus away from the fifteen year old protagonist, Kafka, and onto secondary and teritary characters. His metaphysical wandrings fit the tone of the book much better than they do in most of his other works, such as Dance, Dance, Dance or, in my opinion, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I think that Kafka on the Shore is probably Murakami's greatest novel yet.

"Greatest", however, is not the same as "best." For me, Murakami's best work will always be his simplest: Norweigan Wood. Most of Murakami's novels are filled to the brim with supernatural happenings, history, and other tangents that can crowd out good old-fashioned character development. Norweigan Wood leaves all that behind and focuses on a very ordinary, very beautiful love story. I'll always read Murakami's more epic works, but I'll always wish he would scale it back down and just tell me a story.

*: One has to wonder if these preoccupations stem from Murakami's own life. If anyone knows of a biography on him, please do tell.