Kafka on the Shore wears its influences on its sleeve. Throughout, the characters mention (or even read) such works as The Tale of Genji, Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis, Arabian Nights, Macbeth, the novels of Natsume Soseke, Oedipus Rex, and the short stories of Anton Chekhov, amongst others. These frequent allusions often draw out the differences between the narrative structure of Kafka on the Shore and that of the works being mentioned, but the allusions also offer a helpful kind for understanding the book's placement in the canon of world literature.
For more works that tell a bildungsroman, or "coming of age story," consider some of these from Victorian Literature, where the form...
