Kafka on the Shore

In Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami employs a few of his favorite devices that were better used elsewhere — alternating chapters that converge into a single narrative, a character sitting at the bottom of the well, conversations with cats, etc. As a result, the book has a repetitive and second-rate feel. Nonetheless, the individual chapters of the book are excellent and the story features one his most unique narrators (15-year-old Kafka Tamura, younger than the usual Murakami protagonist).