I actually read “Samsa in Love” (a few years back) before I read Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” so it was a very interesting experience to read both of them again and draw some new opinions about both stories. I really liked “Samsa,” and I thought it was a well-done homage to Kafka’s work whilst also taking on a distinctive Murakami style. When I first read “Samsa” a few years ago, I thought it was supposed to be interpreted as science fiction – by that I mean literally not occurring on Earth. However, I agree with other people’s posts about how there seems to be a prominent WWI/WWII motif taking place in both stories. I’m not sure why it read to me so strongly as “otherworldy” at the time– perhaps the transformation from a bug and general sense of discordance and some sort of military dictatorship occuring.
Anyways, I thought “Samsa” was still a very powerful story, just in more of a Murakami way than a Kafka’s overtly political way. I think Murakami’s best work comes from his depictions of interpersonal relationships, especially romantic ones. In “Samsa” you have a literally inhuman man (who is…well a bug) who falls for an “inhuman” locksmith (or at least society perceives her as inhuman/less than, as she recounts to Samsa why she was able to come to his residence when her brothers weren’t). Perhaps I am a bit biased but I do enjoy more mundane stories. :)
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