What the fuck

Let me preface this by saying that I consider myself a pretty well read individual. Since everyone on this board and on some other chans' lit boards seems to cream themselves over Murakami, I decided to pick up Wind-up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore. I read Wind-up Bird first, and I just finished Kafka tonight, and I have realized that I am fucking lost.

Sure, I get the general plot, but some of this shit was so surreal and entrenched in metaphor or some other crazy bullshit that it went completely over my head. For example, the passage in Wind-up bird when the kid observes the two men burying the heart seemed to have utterly no connection to the rest of the narrative. What the fuck am I missing?

Yeah, but surely his books aren't surreal just to freak you the fuck out. There has to be some shred of meaning and significance of these surreal scenes in the overall novel. There is obviously some strategy or way of thinking that is conducive to understanding Murakami and I'm just not getting it.