8 Haruki Murakami Tropes And What They Really Mean

8. Cats, Cats, Cats!

What It Is: Murakami's love of cats is no secret. Cats show up in nearly every novel Murakami has written, whether they talk, inhabit towns or simply disappear. At this stage it's practically not a Murakami story unless it features a cute, whiskered ball of fur. What It Really Means: Murakami stories are often talked about alongside a genre known as Magical Realism. Stories in this genre tend to blend the mundane with the extraordinary, describing magical happenings in an everyday, matter-of-fact tone. The key to magical realism is the realism part. It's the acceptance of incredible things in a rational world. Cats are a fantastic vessel to ease the reader into a place where not everything is as it seems. They're common and typical €“ but when slightly twisted (say, by being given the ability to communicate or vanish) they create the sense of a world slightly off-kilter. If a cat does something strange in a Murakami book, it's likely to be the least strange thing that ends up happening.